Southern Discomfort the docu everybody needs to see
Apr 10, 2021 14:34:13 GMT -5
Chainsaw, KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!, and 1 more like this
Post by Ultimo Gallos on Apr 10, 2021 14:34:13 GMT -5
Iron Sheik "The Maim Event" DVD
From RetroMedia
Back in 2012 or 2013 I was trying to hunt down obscure wrestling documentaries. And at a wrestling torrent site I found one titled Southern Discomfort. The description mentioned "Tiny North Alabama town","Iron Sheik","Bullet Bob Armstrong" and "Peggy Lee Leather" which was a big neon sign screaming DOWNLOAD ME!
I grabbed this documentary. And 15 minutes later I was watching it. Having grown up and lived a good chunk of my life in tiny rural deep south towns I have been to plenty of indie or "outlaw" wrestling events at high school gyms. So this documentary captured something I had seen before.
At the time when I got the bootleg of this Southern Discomfort movie I was going to a indie show pretty much every month. Every show I would burn a dvd full of footage that wasn't easy to find and give every wrestler/manager/ref/etc/friend/fan a copy. So after looking up the documentary and seeing it was out of print,and the dvd that was printed was a tiny print run,I figured more people needed to see this documentary. Everyone that got a copy ended up loving it. And the next few shows I had people asking me if I still had copies. But by then I had misplaced my master copy.
So you are wondering "But what the f*** does Southern Discomfort have to do with the DVD in the pic up top you rambling idiot?" its simple. Southern Discomfort is the name of one of the edits of this film. Let me spend a bit explaining the history of this documentary and how over the past 20 years the owners and producers of this documentary have released it a few times,each time under a different name and a different edit. And how so far sadly this great documentary is pretty unknown.
It all starts back in the mid 90s. Two B-movie producers/directors/actors/ETC decided to not only have a indie wrestling show in Anniston Alabama,they also decided to film lots of it and make it into a documentary.
The first of these 2 men was the late David F Friedman. Now sure to people not into cult/exploitation cinema David F Friedman is pretty unknown. He got his first bit of fame by helping Hershall Gordon Lewis make the Blood films. After these two had a falling out Friedman went on to produce/direct/etc many many films. From nudie cuties,to roughies to horror. Then mostly thanks to Mike Varney and Something Weird Video these almost forgotten and lost films from the 60s thru 70s got exposed to a new generation of sleaze fiends.
The second man is Fred Olen Ray,who worked the show as sleazy manager Freddie Valentine. Fred Olen Ray got his start making low budget horror and sci fi films in Florida. Then in the 80s he moved out west. Started up RetroMedia and had a string of DTV horror/comedy hits. Stuff like Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers,Scream Queen Hot Tub Party and my favorite from Fred EVIL TOONS!
So you got two guys who by 95 or 96,I will get to that in a bit but no one is quite sure when this indie show happened,were well established producers of entertainment. Low budget ,rough around the edges,sometimes sleazy entertainment. And deep south indie wrestling has all three qualities in it.
Ok time to talk about the three,I hope there is only three,versions of this documentary. The first one was titled Southern Discomfort. It was released straight to DVD,can't find any evidence there was a VHS release,in 2002.
That is the cover of the dvd. This version runs 60 minutes flat and from what I can find there was no extras releated to the documentary on the DVD. I have never seen a copy of this DVD. Never seen one for sale. And from what little I can find it looks like it is kinda normal for releases from RetroMedia for their DVDs to have tiny print runs and also be a bit hard to find.
The next release I can find is under the title Alabama Outlaws Wrestling on the Indie Circuit. Besides the title change the other difference is this version runs 1 hour 25 minutes. So 25 more minutes of footage. Now being honest it had been 6 or so years since I have seen the Southern Discomfort cut,I got a buddy that I made a copy sending me a copy soon,so I am not sure what footage is new. Feels like there is more backstage/locker room footage in this cut. But like the first version the DVD of this version is hard to find. Looking around online no place has a new or used copy for sale. And I kinda wonder if this version even got a physical release.
The pic above was taken from the films Amazon Prime Video page. 2 weeks ago I went ahead and got Amazon Prime,figuring that I order enough from them to make the free shipping worth the cost. And access to the Prime Video library was just a bonus. First day I had it I searched wrestling. Knew from talking to friends with Prime Video that it had a bunch of Memphis footage and saw that above image and that title Alabama Outlaws.
Notice how on the Southern Discomfort cut all the wrestlers you see on the front are unknowns. With The Flame front and center. But on the Alabama Outlaws cover you got Iron Sheik right up front and then Bullet Bob Armstrong featured. Now of course between the 2002 release and the release of Alabama Outlaws Iron Sheik blew up. From what I can find it appears Alabama Outlaws came out close to 4 years ago. Not long after the well done and worth seeing "The Sheik" documentary about the Iron Sheik had come out. Between that documentary and clips from Sheiks antics and crazy stories in shoot interviews had turned Sheik from an almost forgotten former WWF world champion into a guy that has gotten fans that aren't even into wrestling. Therefore to me it makes sense from Fred Olen Ray to take this wrestling documentary he has,that from what is out there appears to have bombed,change the title add in a bit more footage of Iron Sheik. Get an artist to draw a new cover,with Sheik huge on it,and maybe get some sales cause of the Sheik-a-mania going on at the time.
Having as I have said lost my master copy of Southern Discomfort and cause the documentary was something lots of my friends had heard of and watned to see finding a new cut,with more footage,on Amazon Prime was great. And quickly I got out the news that for those that wanted to see it go get Amazon Prime. I know of 3 people that signed up for the Amazon Prime free trial just to see this LOL.
While I was happy to be able to see this documentary again I still wanted a physical copy. You never know when something on a streaming service will be removed. Plus there is plenty of people I know that want to see this and do not have a way to stream stuff. Yes people there is still plenty of areas in the US where there isn't access to high speed internet. So physical media isn't dying as quickly as some people make it out as.
And now the third,that I know of,version of this obscure documentary. Maybe 5 days after discovering Alabama Outlaws on Prime Video I was handed a credit card and told "I am ordering 5 Elvis movies on DVD. Find about 100 bucks worth of stuff you want on Amazon and add it to the order. I never know what to get you for Xmas."
So I did what I always do when I got money to spend on Amazon,I searched wrestling dvds and started looking for whatever odd non-WWE dvds I could find that were fairly cheap. I found a Best of Bruiser Brody Vol 1 DVD,and I am planning on doing a write up on that pile of dung one day,saw the above image and looked at it quit and was like "Oh hell yea Alabama Outlaws is on DVD!!" THen saw nope this is a third title and version of this documentary. So I ordered it.
Yesterday at like 7pm I hear a vehicle pulling up in my driveway.Maggie,the killer poodle,goes apeshit and runs to the window. I see it is UPS,head out with Maggie in my arms. And our usual UPS guy walks over with a package for me. Maggie is still going apeshit. The driver knows her and reaches over to pet her as he hands me the package. Maggie barks,growls then licks his hand and starts barking again. I come inside and open the package to see that it is the documentary DVD.
Hell YEA!!! After all these years I got a physical copy.So I look at the cover and notice that now they have added Bullet Bob Armstrong and Abdullah the Butcher's names to the bottom of the cover. But wait I have seen this documentary many times and never saw Abby in it??? I flipped the case over cause I want to know what year this came out,and there was no indication. On the back of the case I notice there is 2 extra features listed. One was Abdullah the Butcher having a match with Freddie Valentine. Freddie Valentine is Fred Olen Ray's wrestling name. And the other extra is a Fabolous Freddie Valentine highlight reel. The actual film appears to be the exact same cut as the Alabama Outlaws cut.
Well that is enough about the variants and stuff on this documentary. Now it is time for the meat and potatos.
The docu starts off with David F Friedman riding around the back roads in what I assume is the Anniston Alabama area And he parks and gets out of the car to post a poster for the show on an old abandoned barn.
This is when David teaches us a few tricks about flyering for a show. Like how you do not put flyers up on telephone poles or the telephone company might come after you.So instead you put them up on abandoned buildings/barns/whatever. Plus of course go around to locally owned businesses and put up a flyer.
When they meet the Rick Montana. From what I can gather is Rick is the booker of the fed. He also owns or use to own the ring that is used. And is a retired wrestler.There is Rick in a hot high school gym,putting the ring up.
Most shows I have been to make sure to have at least 5 or so guys to put the ring together. It appears that Rick and one other guy are the entire ring crew. David comes over and asks Rick why he is sweating. Rick mentions it is 105 degrees outside. We see a bit of the various wrestlers back in the locker rooms getting ready. Then the crowd being let in. I do wish someone had mentioned how much tickets are. I am guessing it was at the most 10 bucks for front row and 5 bucks for everything else.
After this first bit the film starts to follow and show us a bit about most of the people working the show. I am gonna start with The Flame.
The Flame is your standard masked heel. But without the mask he is...
Frank Barnhill,manager of a fast food place. From what some of the people that work with Frank say it appears that The Flame has been wrestling for a fairly long time. And from the footage they show Flame is a hated heel. There is a few people in the crowd that look like they might try to fight Frank/Flame.
Like this one fan on crutches. He starts arguing with The Flame while Flame is outside the ring
Flame slaps him and the fan hits the floor. Now of course odds are good this fan was a plant. Seen that happen at many shows. The promoter puts a rookie or friend/family member of the wrestlers front row to give the heels someone they can target. Plus seeing the wrestler hit some usually will keep the other fans from trying to get physical with the wrestlers.
One thing about Frank that stood out to me is as Frank when he is at his "shoot" job he is uber nice to the older people that seem to make up a lot of the places customer base. Then at the wrestling shows as The Flame,Frank appears to target the old people in the crowd. Calling one guy " A diabetic dried up old COOT!" then asks the guy's wife if she wants to come home with The Flame. The footage in the various versions of this documentary shows me that the Flame is pretty good on the mic.Sure he uses the easiest ways to get the crowd to hate him and boo him. But heat is heat. Sadly his actual wrestling isn't that good. Not sure if maybe that is cause of his age, I am guessing Frank is at least 45 at the time of filming. Also Frank needs to wash the Flame mask and find better ring gear than sweatpants and a dirty stained sweat shirt. But hey he has a mask and wrestling boots.
The next guy is Big Boss Hoss.
Yep a total Big Boss Man ripoff. Boss Hoss isn't a big player in this documentary. Mostly he talks about how the crowds are scared of him so he doesn't have to worry about being attacked by fans. And how "I crack skulls during the week bouncing in Georgia/Florida then I beat up people on the weekends in the ring."
The little bit of in ring action we see of Big Boss Hoss shows us that he is crap in the ring. And I doubt he is that good on the mic.
Now every wrestling show needs a champion. And for this fed that champ is Shanghai Pierce. Pierce claims to be a firefighter. And enjoys how he can take his mask off and be unknown. The belt he has says World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion on it. And when he is out for his match he is announced as "The NWA World Champion!" Which is bullshit. From the tiny bit of Shanghai's match we see he appears to be the standard big guy that does power moves. Nothing besides the mask makes him stand out. But the crowd treats him like it is 1986 and Pierce is Hulk Hogan. Pierce talks about at some shows he will do two matches. One with out his mask and one with. And mentions that he doesn't think the fans ever notice he works sometimes without a mask as a different person.
One odd thing about Shanghai,on the Southern Discomfort IMDB page it lists Mark Canterbury as Shanghai Pierce. This I am guessing is because for a period of time Mark Canterbury,best known as Henry Godwin,wrestled as Shanghai Pierce.
Oh man the Power Raider. Until the other day I have spent years thinking Power Raider and The Flame were the same guy. The sound the same. Got similar builds and both got staches that show thru their masks. Plus Power Raider mentions how he has many masks and names he wrestles under.
I did some research and Power Raider is the late Ted Lipscomb. Who is better known to wrestling fans as Nightmare Ted Allen. Power Raider talks about how in that AL/GA area is is easy to work sometimes up to 3 shows in one day. Plus how he wants to be a good role model to all the kids at the shows. And it appears he is pretty popular.
Shane Anderson is one I wish there was more footage of. He talks about how he wants to show all the fans that he might be a big fat guy but he is very agile. Sadly the little bit of in ring footage of Shane in the documentary fails to show his agility. From what I can gather Shane does a mafia gimmick with his manager being Tony the Godfather. Speaking of Tony he appears to pull double duty as the manager of the Iron Sheik.
Nasty Steve Lane is the big hated heel of this fed. I love how he is calling the crowd a bunch of "big dumb rednecks" all the while he is wearing a Hank JR Jim Beam shirt and Hank Jr bandana. But he gets the biggest reactions out of the crowd. With two old ladies acting like they want to stab him in the parking lot. The lady in the pic is his manager Miss Sara. We get to see some lady front row spend most of Nasty Steve Lane's match telling Miss Sara how horrible her outfit makes her look. Backstage Miss Sara tells a story about "How this big ole girl grabbed my skirt and drug me back about 3 rows!"
Bambi was at the time the NWA Women's champion. And for a few years she was going all over the US and the world. Defending that title against Peggy Lee Leather most of the time. Kinda a female version of the decades long indy feud between Superfly Jimmy Snuka and The Metal Maniac.
Bambi was one of the few people in this documentary that never made it to the big leagues but I knew who she was. I think I might have seen her on a show back in the early 90s. There is lots of footage of her interacting with the fans. During what I am guessing is intermission Bambi is in the ring selling pictures. And she has a huge crowd. After her match,against Peggy Lee Leather,Bambi is talking about how she thinks she cracked a rib and is in major pain.
She appears to be really hurting. Bullet Bob offers he a bit of advice then talks about all the ribs he has cracked.
After the show is over you see Bambi right outside the exit thanking all the fans. And it shows that her being so interactive with the fans has helped her. Through out the film many fans are shown talking about how much they love Bambi,and one family mentions how they only came to the show to see Bambi.
Currently Bambi AKA Selina Majors works for Women of Wrestling. Which is an all women wrestling fed based in Vegas. WOW has a weekly tv show on the AXS channels that airs on Saturdays. And the few times Bambi has appeared on WOW she looks just like she did in this film.
Ahh Peggy Lee Leather. I don't think I have ever seen one of her matches. But remember her name from the arena reports in PWI. She is the big bad biker chick heel. Most of her parts are her talking about growing up on a farm and being a tomboy. I have heard rumors for years that Bambi and Peggy were a couple. But who knows if that is true. I do know they traveled the world together for a few years. Having matches all over the place.
Most deep south indie shows try to have at least one big name wrestler on the card to draw in more fans. This show ended up with two. First one is southern wrestling legend Bullet Bob Armstrong.
Growing up in MS in the 70s and 80s Bullet and his sons were huge. And even now Bullet Bob is still a draw on indie shows in the deep south. 3 years ago Bullet announced he was retiring. Myself and a few friends went to the first two stops on the Bullet Bob retirement tour. Both feds drew bigger crowds than they normally did. Sadly Bullet was ill and didn't make either show.
Most of Bullet's part of this film is him telling the story of how he lost his nose. It was the 80s Bullet was working out on a weight bench. Ted Dibiase Sr supposedly walked by and kicked the bench,causing a barbell to shear Bullet's nose off his face. So the doctors created Bullet a new nose. That from what Bullet's says was grown on Bob's ass. The odd thing is this documentary is the only place where Bullet blames the accident on Ted Dibiase. So as Bullet explains how now in the ring he has to wear a mask to keep his nose safe.
Bullet has a match against the Flame. Which ends after Flame tosses fire into Bullet's face and gets the pin. Which causes the crowd to almost riot.
And the last of the featured wrestlers is the Iron Sheik.By the mid 90s Sheik was working all over in tiny indies.And Sheik isn't showing the wild crazy man stuff that got him renewed fame in the mid 2000s.
It is neat to see how the crowd wants to cheer Sheik,cause to most of them he is the biggest star on the show. Like how when he comes out to do the Persiun Club test the crowd is cheering Sheiky baby on. And Sheik talks about how he loves the USA and wants to become a citizen. But once Sheik comes out for his match the crowd hates him and we get the heel Sheik people remember from the 80s WWF.
Sure the wrestlers are why people watch this documentary. And what I hate is there is a few guys we see in clips that are at the show but never get interviewed. People like Southern Living Legend Action Mike Jackson. Mike has been wrestling since the late 60s. And even now in his 70s can do all the high flying high impact moves he was known for back in the 70s and 80s.
But as I was saying the wrestlers are the stars of this film. But as I always do at indie shows I watch the crowd. Cause the crowds at indie shows in tiny rural deep south towns can be very entertaining. Like how at a show in my current town I saw a former NWA Tag team champion get attacked by a 60 year old 90lb Waffle Waitress. Or one fan at a show that wanted to fight me cause I was cheering for the heels.
And the crowd at this show is no different. I picked 4 total fans to focus on.
"I just wanna see the good ones" is what this guy says many times. He talks about how he wants to see names like Iron Sheik,Bullet and Action Mike "Not those fat nobodies". What puzzles me is he mentions watching wrestling since "I was a young kid barely old enough to remember" then next sentence says "I have been a fan for 25 years." Which either means he is not nearly as old as he looks. Or he sucks at math.
Every deep south indie show I have been to has a few old ladies that love them some faces and hate them some heels. My paternal grandmother fell in the role at shows. These two older ladies you can see the entire show celebrating,by stomping their feet,when the faces have the upper hand. Then getting very loud and angry when the heel is cheating. The lady on the right in red appears to be having a stroke or heart attack when Nasty Steve Lane hits his balls on the ringpost. After this heart attack/stroke looking incident she starts this loud donkey like laugh.
Then there is the other old lady. She gets a short solo interview. Talking about how she has been coming to shows since she was a kid. And she is one of the old ladies that is targeted by The Flame's verbal attacks.
But I saved the best fan for last. First off this guy appears to hate The Flame. Flame ,who is managed by Freddie Valentine,is leaving to head to the back and this happens.
The Flame manages to stop from being clobbered with a steel chair. Him,Freddie Valentine and Freddie's valet are heading to the locker room and Best fan shows up again.
Security gets the man to put down the chair. Which causes Flame and Freddie to start verbally attacking him,all while Flame hides behind the security guy.
Freddie tells the fan to stop "Cause their are ladies present!"
Best Fan comes back with "Ladies like that you get on the corner with money!"
Now I am guessing the battle royale was the main event of this show. It is not only a battle royale but it is also a pole match. You get eliminated by being thrown over the top rope. And who ever climbs the pole and gets the item off the top wins.
So most of the roster comes back out for this battle royale. Plus we see a mystery man.
The final three in the match are Mystery Man,The Flame and Nasty Steve Lane.
Mystery man gets the item and wins. He rolls out of the ring takes off his mask and
Yep promoter,ring crew guy Rick Montana has come out of retirement!!
Now the film is over and I was wondering why Abdullah the Butcher was listed on the cover. Then I remembered this has some extra features. One of which is a ACW match between Freddie Valentine and Abdullah the Butcher. It is a bloody brawl. And ends with what I think is all of the ACW roster hitting the ring and fighting.
The other extra is a 3 minute video all about the wrestling career of Freddie Valentine.
So yea if you enjoy wrestling this is a great documenatary to see. As of right now it is streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Or you can order the dvd from Amazon.
