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101 Reasons Not To Be A Pro Wrestler (2005)

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Overall Rating 59%
Overall Rating
Ranked #12,949
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101 Reasons Not to be a Pro Wrestler is by far the most talked about pro wrestling movie since Beyond the Mat. Wrestling fans always want to know what pro wrestler really think about being fired, being held down, the creative process, ribs, mixed martial arts, setting up a match, backyard wrestling, forming a union, the monopoly of the pro wrestling industry, drugs and Vince McMahon. 101 Reasons Not to be a Pro Wrestler is a 3 hour long documentary filled with the biggest names in pro wrestling today such as New Jack, Vampiro, Diamond Dallas Page, Tylene Buck, Predator from Zero-One and MMA fame, Joanie Laurer (formerly known as Chyna), Psichosis, Nozawa, Babi Slymm, Sean O'Haire, Fatu (formerly known as Rikishi), Konnan and more... Much of what the wrestlers have to say is shocking and surprising, so get ready to hear the truth about the pro wrestling industry directly from some of the biggest names in the wrestling industry today. --TMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: July 7, 2005
"101 Reasons Not To Be A Pro Wrestler" is a wrestling documentary which covers such issues as drugs in the locker-room, setting up a union for the wrestlers, how the internet has affected the business, and backstage ribs performed both on and by the wrestlers. The three hours worth of material is discussed with a variety of wrestling superstars both past and present, and the majority of the discussions are highly entertaining.

Included on the disc are interviews with:
New Jack - The ECW hardcore legend himself.
Vampiro - Best known for his stint with WCW and his affiliation with Insane Clown Posse.
Diamond Dallas Page - A former WCW champion.
Tylene Buck - Formerly known as Major Gunns in WCW.
Predator - A guy from Zero-One and various mixed martial-arts organizations.
Joanie Laurer - Formerly known as Chyna in the WWE.
Psichosis - A crusierweight who is currently employed by WWE.
Nozawa - A Japanese wrestler... I don't know much about this guy.
Babi Slymm - An indie worker, who again, I don't know much about.
Sean O'Haire - Formerly with WCW and WWE.
Fatu - Formerly known as Rikishi.
Konnan - A big star of the Mexican wrestling scene, had a nice stay in WCW, and currently works for NWA-TNA.

That's twelve superstars who round out the majority of the time, but there's plenty of other people who show up for a comment or two. With the interviews aside, the highlight of the disc is a match between New Jack and the 72 year-old Gypsy Joe. Fans of ECW probably know how crazy New Jack is and how he goes for the insane spots and nasty weapon-shots, and here, he takes on "the innovator of hardcore" in Gypsy Joe. What makes this match so great is the fact that New Jack gets pissed off during the match and starts legitimately beating the hell out of Gypsy Joe, using a chain, a row of chairs, and a barbed-wire covered baseball bat on the old man. New Jack's actions nearly cause a riot to break out, and the promoter of the event has to come out and stop the match. The box claims that "this footage is insane", and folks, they're telling the truth.

One of the things that I enjoyed about this disc is the amount of material available. There's a huge amount of topics covered, more so than I could type out here, and it's all spread out over nearly five hours of footage. The feature presentation runs just a few minutes shy of three hours, while the bonus material (which is mainly more interview footage) runs for nearly two hours. That is a lot of footage to sit through, and fans of wrestling or shoot videos will definitely enjoy this set. While the material does drag a bit in spots (mainly whenever Chyna or her brother starts to talk), it pretty much stays interesting from beginning to end.

The interesting parts come mainly from the great stories that the wrestlers tell. While director Michael Moody does step in to ask a few questions here and there, the spotlight stays on the wrestlers themselves. This works out nicely, as anyone who picks this disc up is obviously interested in hearing the stories from the wrestlers themselves. In addition to being interesting, each of the wrestlers featured here (with a few exceptions) are easy to listen to and know how to both tell a story and keep things entertaining. By far, the highlight of the interview segments is New Jack. You wouldn't think that the man would be able to hold an interesting conversation by looking at his in-ring antics and after hearing about his supposed mental-instability, but the man is both hilarious and insightful in nearly each of his segments. His reaction to somebody asking him what he's doing when he's cutting the sleeves off of one his shirts (paraphrased: "Nigga, did I ask you what you're doing? What, you think I just grabbed a pair of scissors to start cutting shit up?") nearly had me shedding tears of laughter, and it only gets better when he gets more and more drunk as the interview progresses.

The only downers during the interview segments come from two people: Joanie Laurer and Sean O'Haire. Joanie is, well, Joanie. She seems to be completely in love with herself and goes over a lot of the same stuff that wrestling fans have heard time and time again... how Hunter and Stephanie screwed her over, how much of an asshole Vince McMahon is, etc. Seeing her drunk off her ass and singing a song about the color green (to the tune of Aerosmith's "Pink") was pretty entertaining, but the rest of the footage was horrible. Sean wasn't nearly as bad, and he did have some interesting parts... but the problem with him is that he seemed to want to play it safe on too many questions. There was a number of things that he either wouldn't discuss or gave a simple yes / no / I don't know answer to. Just a bit more insight from the guy would have helped out his segments a good deal, but it seemed as though he really didn't want to be in front of the camera. Maybe they caught him on an off-day, who knows.

Overall, this comes recommended from yours truly. It's now available for purchase through Hollymood Entertainment's site (where you can also check out some trailers for the film), and fans of wrestling shoot videos or behind the scenes material will find this to be almost on par with the infamous Beyond The Mat release from a few years ago. Pick it up. 8/10.
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