The Iron Claw & WWE Slam City

The Iron Claw

Reegs: Welcome to Bad Dads Film Review. Grab your spandex and get ready to rumble because it's wrestling week! We're just like a bunch of veteran grapplers here at Bad Dads, except instead of 250 pounds of muscle and rage, we're packing several inches of beer and years of regret.

Ah, now, whether you think it's all a bunch of sweaty, tantrum throwing men pretending to hurt each other for the entertainment of mouth breathing simpletons, a unique that taps into our primal desires to see larger than life figures duke it out in battles of strength and skill, or the purest form of cultural self expression America has ever given to the world, you're probably right.

probably heard of wrestling, and this week we'll be locking up with the very best and worst of cinema's wrestlers in our top five. Our main event is the tragic story of the Von Ehrich family in The Iron Claw, and then we'll tap out in our kids TV segment as we dive straight off the top rope into W. E. W.

1. Slam City where the wrestlers are as animated as our discussions.

Cris: Wow.

Reegs: Mmm. All that's left to do is introduce the Dad, starting with Dan, he's so old he remembers when wrestling was real, and English, and involved men who were named after farming equipment. Next up is lovely Chris, he's the only one of us you'd actually pay to see in a leotard.

But sadly he's got the brains of a turnbuckle. And almost last, the man who's more familiar than most with big, meaty men slapping their big, meaty man meat around, it's Sidey.

Cris: And there's Riggs.

Reegs: three weeks of low, yeah.

Dan: hello. Mmm. Big wrestling fan growing up, Riggs?

Reegs: these days? Well don't worry because they, they showed that they're not capable of

Cris: is it

Sidey: What is that?

Cris: my

Reegs: when

Sidey: worry, because they they showed that they're not capable of streaming

live events when they did the Jake Paul Tyson fight. They fucked it in the air there.

Dan: absolutely just garbage. That and WFI used to be this had a few kind of changes, isn't it? Was the one that I was well into as a

Reegs: it? Um, With the one that I was wedded to as

Sidey: all hardcore.

Like Triple H?

Reegs: Yeah. And Stone Cold, Steve Austin and the Rock at the beginning, and a lot of hitting each other with a lot of jumping off things that are very high and hurting chairs and tables and that sort of thing.

So

Sidey: the rockers

Reegs: but then after that it was more, I got involved in the like, real life stories that were, you know, sort of interesting as well behind the scenes and that

Cris: Yeah, but you wouldn't watch it now if let's say tonight there would be

I don't

know wrestlemania or whatever. You you wouldn't you wouldn't know who the champion is of wwe

Reegs: of WWE now?

It's a Royal

Dan: there was a Royal Rumble, there's something going on.

Sidey: the football club that we're all part of, traditionally the Christmas party was always a fancy dress, and we'd had a WWE

Themed one and it was the best one

Dan: we've ever seen. Pete was matching

Sidey: Pete was Macho Man Randy Savage. Two of the guys went as Legion of Doom.

I was

yeah it was amazing. I was

Dan: Holland was

Sidey: Tom Norman was Ted DiBiase. Fucking one of the Hart brothers. Brett the Hitman

Dan: hair

Reegs: With the long hair as well?

Sidey: No.

Dan: did you just

Cris: did you just wear a speedo?

Sidey: Pink top.

Reegs: You have to have the glasses

Sidey: get those. If you get, try and get those actual wraparound ones, they're hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Someone went, Ad went as

Dan: Rowdy Roddy,

Sidey: Jimmy the Mouth.

I don't

Reegs: Oh right, with the little

Sidey: the Heart Foundation with the megaphone. Fucking brilliant. Anyway, I'll find some photos and I'll put them up on Discord because they're quite lol.

Dan: on Discord because they're quite long. We have made some good efforts with the fancy dress.

I remember Norm's Inspector Gadget would always live long in the memory. Have you seen anything this week that Your thought is incredibly brilliant. No,

Cris: I wouldn't say incredibly brilliant, but I did miss out one week because last week I just couldn't find time to watch anything. But I was on the plane when I went up to the Toon for the Liverpool game and I watched because I can, you know, with Netflix you can download stuff and you can watch it without the internet.

And I watched a series called The Madness. It's on Netflix and it's with a good friend of ours, Coleman Domingo.

Sidey: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cris: He, he's like a, his name is Muncy something. He's like a pundit on American TV and he gets framed for the assassination of a white supremacist. While he's in the Poconos, which I don't actually know what that is.

But it's, it's cool. Quite good. It could be done better, but you know me, it's eight episodes and it's, it finishes.

Sidey: Oh,

perfectly. So

Dan: perfectly.

Cris: Nope.

so

Reegs: Not yet.

Sidey: we have started watching The Wire again. We've done season one, episode one.

Yeah, it was the Mrs. Request, because we never finished it. I've finished it, but she hasn't. So she's like, can we start The Wire again? I'm like,

Dan: Well, slow horses on Apple TV is still the best thing that I've yet to finish.

that's still rumbling on for me. I started to watch Oliver Twist the one with Oliver Reed and Harry Seekerman which is an extravaganza. It's about sort of a, a real

Sidey: Do you remember it the first time it came

Dan: I don't remember the first time it came out. Of course, I remember the era that he was saying, but it, it was pretty good.

We were just watching it and it was a very Sunday kind of thing on and we had the fire lit and Oliver was playing. Foo, glorious foo.

Reegs: the

Sidey: this week. Nah, it's the wrong time, isn't it? Christmas or loads of stuff going on.

It's hard to find time.

Cris: I've also I wasn't necessarily watching it. Kira was watching something on Amazon Prime. I think she just put it on because I've seen the trailer before. It's something with Charlie Hunnam and Morena Bakarin on Prime. He's like a detective in Hollywood.

I And he cycles everywhere.

I can't actually tell you the name of it. And he's got Mel Gibson in it as

Sidey: as well.

Cris: Yeah. So, I've I didn't actually watch that. I watched about, I think it was half an hour in. And then I didn't watch till the end. So like,

Sidey: really count. Sounds

Dan: Sounds like

Cris: Not really. It just, it just looks like it wants to be a 1950s detective movie where it's like in LA where people are actors and famous and producers and all that. But actually it just kind of fails to.

go

to that level of actually being quirky and cool and it's not really hitting the spot. But anyway, that's all I have for the moment.

Sidey: Shall we leap

Reegs: know, is there anything

Sidey: yeah, but I don't think there's anything else.

Oh, let's check. We did have a top five last week, Riggs. Now that you mention it. It was Christmas stuff, wasn't it? Christmas songs.

Reegs: songs.

Sidey: And we did have a few recommendations.

Dan: From the great unwashed

Sidey: No, I think all these ones are washed, actually. Breachy wanted to mention that The Plot of Last Christmas uses the lyrics of Last Christmas.

Actually it does post a spoiler about it but it is hidden out.

Reegs: What, in that she literally gives someone their heart?

Dan: someone their heart?

Sidey: Her

love interest has been dead the whole time. He literally gave her his heart in a transplant. Yeah, that's what happened in that.

Reegs: Amazing.

Sidey: Darren Lethe, he said he loves Mudd's Lonely This Christmas, A Great Elvis Pastiche.

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: And he's also pointed out to us that Ireland, Ireland has its own Christmas radio station.

Dan: Wow.

Sidey: But

Cris: What, on top of

Yeah.

Reegs: all

year

Sidey: it's on in like December, but doesn't specify.

Reegs: But, not a fan of the Doors, Dan, how do you feel about that? It strongly dislikes them.

Dan: they're wrong. There is a hotel in a book that is a Christmas all year round.

It's like that is the theme of the, the guest house. And whenever you go in there, it's

Reegs: It's like,

Dan: day. Yeah. I mean, it'd be great. So, but people go there

anytime of the year in June or whatever, and they'll have their Christmas and it will be like a full on thing. And I always thought.

Although that would be a hell, a living hell for the people that work there. You can imagine that people would stay

Sidey: I always think the people that work in retail and have to listen to the Christmas songs

Dan: over and over

Cris: over again. Not only retail,

Sidey: hospitality.

Cris: part of the reason why I'm not into music anymore.

I used to like certain things. After working so many years of hospitality, when you work for other people and you can't control the playlist, the music half of the time would be in an office somewhere, locked up. And then you listen to the same 36 songs for,

Dan: torture

Cris: yeah, it's just like

Dan: All week on repeat.

Sidey: But we also we've got an aussie one if you want

Dan: Go on mate

Sidey: It's an aussie christmas song.

It's been made into a movie It's called how to make gravy by paul kelly the movie stars hugo weaving and mel is

Dan: so

Sidey: looking forward to seeing that We also have a playlist of the songs What we talked

Dan: We

Reegs: can you find it?

Sidey: It's on

Reegs: And how do you find it on Spotify's side?

Sidey: I don't know you search for bad dad's film review, I guess

Reegs: Alright.

Sidey: I

will I meant to post on here, but I just haven't even logged onto my computer So I will do that.

I'll put it out on socials because it's fucking great.

Dan: It's a

Reegs: and it's better than, yeah.

It's

Sidey: It's better than everything else ever in the world. i'm gonna put in mel's aussie one because i've never heard it And it sounds interesting

Reegs: And it's film related as well, so

Cris: We've got Agent Smith in it though.

Sidey: Yeah, so then

Cris: then you have to put

Sidey: put that in.

Reegs: Wrestlers.

Dan: Right,

well, I'm just going to

Sidey: Well, you didn't specify if they had to be

appearing in a film or a

TV

Dan: of why I wanted to get in there.

Reegs: mind. You

Yeah,

Sidey: Okay, cool.

Reegs: tell us about your top five

Sidey: Because I have got loads of what have been in film, because I didn't want to, like, drop the ball there.

Do you want to go first Reece? It's your topic.

Reegs: Okay, I'll go with who is probably my most modern, favorite, restless turned actor, which I think is Batista, Dave

Sidey: Batista. Thought you're gonna go. I

Cris: with you on that

Reegs: Because I do remember him in the WWE and he was this like enormous, muscle bound, tattooed, like snarling ball of rage. And he's come out as being this like,

terrific actor with like great comic timing and able to play really vulnerable as he does across a load of different stuff.

And he's been in a load of great genre stuff. So the first thing I remember seeing him in was the RZA's homage to old school Kung, you know, Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movies, the man with iron fists. He played brass body in that. And then that great sense of humor came out when he was Drax the Destroyer in the very successful Guardian of the Galaxy franchise.

And then he was Mr. Something Inspector, Mr. He's

Sidey: Oh, with the nails.

Reegs: Jinx, was it? Or something

Sidey: metal thumbnails.

Reegs: Yeah, and he fights him on the train.

Cris: yeah, yeah, he's got that

Reegs: And then he was in some great other stuff like Blade Runner 2049 and Army of the Dead of Dune, which I haven't seen, Glass Onion and then a really great turn is this sort of hulking vulnerable brute in Shyamalan's Knock at the Cabin and I think the pinnacle of his career was he was in Neighbors in 2009,

Dan: no end to this man's talent. I must admit, I think he was really good as Dax and you're right. He has played some characters

Reegs: is that like an abrasive, caustic powder, isn't it Dax?

Dan: think so. Yeah. And guardians of the galaxy. And he, yeah, he's got some range, which is, you know, quite surprising because you think if he's just come from the wrestling I know it's acting.

I know it's entertainment. But he's

Reegs: guys have a lot more talent.

Sometimes we give them

Dan: 100

Reegs: there's a few on this list that are probably transcend that a bit, don't they?

Dan: Well, i've got his His

predecessor, if you like, or the one that made it possible for everybody to know about wrestling in the 90s is Hulk Hogan. And the Hulkster was in No Hold Barred. Remember that one?

Sidey: haven't seen it but I think we

Reegs: I nearly nominated it for this week, I sort of wish I

Dan: of wish I had. I, I, we did.

We're really keen to see this when it came out. I don't remember it being that good, but I think looking back, it will be cheesy

Sidey: Yeah, of course it will. But the whole, he was like global. He was massive.

Reegs: Mm.

Dan: He was bigger than that.

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: I think, if I'm correct about it, his kind of film proper debut is really in Rocky III, where he plays like a sort

Sidey: The character name is amazing. Thunderlips!

Reegs: the ultimate male versus the ultimate meatball, I think he says.

Hulkamania to the big

Sidey: big

Dan: right, he'd stomp around, ripping up a t shirt. I remember him fighting Macho Man Randy Savage for the WWF

Championship belt and he was down. He was gone. Macho around beating him, but you would not believe when he came back from the dead, a real Lazarus

Sidey: seemed to be like a, it was a, Just too too clean. Yeah, but now oh But then now you look back and there's loads of tiktoks of him and matching man doing interviews and you're like, holy shit How are they not having a heart attack? They must be on so much columbian marching

Dan: Well, I

Sidey: And then he was on stage at the republican fucking conference and he embarrassed him.

He couldn't rip his t shirt

And he's

had that kind of balding fucking weird haircut for so long

Reegs: for so

Sidey: Yeah, but more aggressive and isn't he got some sort of awful sex tape story as well

Reegs: of awful sex tape story

Dan: Well, that's why he's my choice.

You carry on. Well,

Cris: can well, I've made a point of not putting any professional wrestlers in no, what is the professional is in inverted commas because professional wrestling, this is fake, obviously.

Sidey: You're fake.

Cris: so therefore, I've put only For those who don't know, there is an actual sport which is divided into two categories called Greco Roman and freestyle wrestling, which is what wrestling should be. So in my list, I've only got wrestlers of the original kind. Because these other ones, I don't really, I don't really believe that they're the real deal.

The first one and it's, he's called The Natural, Randy Couture. He's played in The Expendables, he's played in loads of other movies. The Expendables probably is the, probably the best. The biggest one that we've ever seen three time heavyweight champion, two time UFC light heavyweight champion, Greco Roman octagon warrior.

He's done it all. He's the man, the myth, the legend captain America himself before captain America was even a thing.

Dan: Roman wrestling I think is the oldest,

Sidey: roaming.

Dan: roaming. It's like

Sidey: for a walk? I

Dan: wander around wrestling, Greco Roman. That's the, I think that's the, the oldest Olympic sport that's still going.

Reegs: what was it like seeing it for the

Sidey: first time?

Dan: incredible

Cris: Well, Dan, you would be the one that would tell us because apparently according to myth and legend, the Roman or the Greco Roman or the freestyle wrestling was actually performed while people were oiled up and nude. So they would grab their dicks and all

Dan: but myth who missed

Cris: So, you know, but you would have seen that.

Dan: I would have seen that live back in the day if I hadn't been already in there, you know in the roman baths.

Yeah, exactly what you got for us?

Sidey: Dwayne.

Dan: Dwayne

Sidey: Air quotes, The Rock Johnson. He's been in loads of films and stuff. He was he had a really shit, so they all have their special moves, don't they?

And he had the people's elbow. Which is really shit.

Reegs: Yeah.

Cris: Is it, what? What does that mean?

he

Sidey: just would elbow someone. And he would do that thing with his eyebrow, wouldn't he?

Cris: Yeah.

He would do the eyebrow. Yeah.

Reegs: he came up with many iconic sort

Sidey: smell what The Rock is cooking.

Reegs: he done it, yeah.

Dan: the most commercially successful.

Sidey: he's gone back now to being co owner of the WWE, isn't

Reegs: And he's back wrestling as well, isn't it? I I never think it's great when these guys in their, like fif very late fifties and sixties are back

Sidey: Never go back. But he did successfully cross over into movies. But the one that sticks out for me, Do you remember the scorpion? I think it's the mummy returns when he, he come, he, he, that's when he first appears as the scorpion. And it's, Some of the worst CGI, even like sometimes you look back at CGI and go oh it hasn't aged well.

It was shite at the time, like I'm

Cris: he had long hair in that. No,

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: absolutely awful. I said better things on a PS1,

it was

Reegs: He had many polygons as well, or not enough maybe. I dunno,

Sidey: maybe, I don't know. Yeah it was dreadful. But we really enjoyed him in Moana. I haven't seen Moana 2, but I've heard it's okay.

Good fun, but not as good

as the original.

Reegs: the original.

Cris: one? Yeah, with Marky Mark.

Reegs: Mark. It's more

Cris: like a drama than the really shit ones that he normally plays, no? And he's a bit

Sidey: Jeez!

Cris: a bit more like I wouldn't say He doesn't look ripped in that one.

He looks more like Like a bloated,

Sidey: Yeah, I really like, like the Jumanji ones are pretty good fun as well,

Reegs: in this one. He takes too much coke and goes berserk, so

Sidey: when you look at him, well, maybe not right now, but I haven't seen a picture of him super recently, but going back like a couple of years, he's so jacked. And then you see him on, You know, clips from the old wrestling when he was in the WWE, and he was more athletic, still big, but like, throwing himself around, he had to be a bit more athletic, and then he's fucking enormous.

Yeah, bigger than that.

Reegs: We used to look at that thing that was just, what he ate in a Just that, on his channel, he used to have like, you used

Sidey: the amount of calories he had to, he had to consume to stay

Reegs: eating like

Dan: got to get like 20, 30 percent

Sidey: I've got another stat about someone else who's massive, but it's not about food.

Dan: food.

Okay.

Cris: Oh.

Sidey: We'll get to it.

Cris: Can't wait

Dan: You got anyone else there,

Reegs: Yeah, I got loads, because there were loads of good ones. Nathan Jones, who was a 6'11 Australian I first noticed fighting the comically mismatched Tony Jaa in Tom Yong Goom. And then he was in a Jackie Chan movie, Troy, Hobbs Shaw, Mortal Kombat the reboot, but brilliantly in Mad Max Fury Road as Rictus Erectus

Cris: Oh yeah, I know who you mean.

Bold fellow. Be really big. Yeah.

Reegs: Absolutely enormous.

Cris: thought he was the manager of Southampton at one point but it's someone else. Yeah,

Reegs: manager of Southampton at one point, but it's someone you remember

Dan: Do you remember a wrestler called the. Ultimate warrior and there was the one before him. The penultimate warrior. So He was he was my favorite actually the ultimate warrior He used to run on and he'd have the bands tied around his arms to

Sidey: another one. It looked like he was enhanced in

Dan: was i'm sure he was.

Andre the giant in the princess bride must be one of the

the

Sidey: This is the stat Did you? Did you read what his drinking sessions were like? So you won't find it in the Guinness Book of Records, but he holds the world record for the largest number of beers consumed in a single sitting. These were standard twelve ounce bottles of beer.

Nothing fancy, but during a six hour period, he drank 119 of them. You

haven't

Reegs: you ever seen him holding a

Sidey: there's a picture of him at the bar.

Reegs: It's like a child's,

Sidey: holding a little, yeah, like from a Wendy

Cris: like a condensed milk jar, but it's actually a

Reegs: Or like, when you get like a tiny, like, what are they?

Sidey: Miniatures. Miniatures. Yeah, yeah.

Reegs: just ridiculous.

Sidey: that? For how

Cris: is that? 12 ounces? That half a liter. That's like

a,

Sidey: it's a lot of beer

Dan: on a wall. 109 bottles of

Sidey: Yeah. It's just, I mean,

the nickname The Giant, you know, it is well earned. He's fucking just ridiculous.

Cris: was a big man.

Dan: and while that's a record, he probably did 50 on like a Monday Night or something. Just a,

Sidey: We could do that.

Dan: yeah, we could do that. Did you hear about those two silkworms wrestling?

Oh, it ended in a tie.

Sidey: ended

Reegs: pretty good! That's pretty good! That's

Cris: That's amazing, that. Don Fry. He another he was also fought in the UFC, fought in Pride. What, the

Reegs: What, the London Gay March thing? He had a fight?

Cris: Fry. Is that a London Gay March?

Reegs: No, Pride.

fight

Cris: Fighting Championship.

Sidey: It

was

Cris: was a Pride Fighting Championship. It was about fighting, mixed martial arts and real fighters. He played in Stan and in Godzilla Final Wars. A 2004 movie directed by a Japanese director who was a fan of Don Frye as a fighter and he made him is in one of the, it's like a naval officer or something like that.

And he made, he said, when, when I made that role, I just thought specifically at him because he's a big man, but quite funny. So, and he's also an American wrestling legend.

Reegs: Don Fry. Yeah.

Cris: And a great moustache.

Dan: I've never heard of him. Don

Sidey: you have now mustache.

Dan: moustache. Yeah. No, never. There was a wrestling champ called Off In Church.

You ever hear that one? Nobody ever beat Off In Church.

Cris: remember

Sidey: Do you remember they lived, we watched that for the pod. Yeah. That's rowdy Roddy paper, was, that a hundred? That was a long time ago.

We also did Predator, didn't we? That's got Jesse the Body Ventura, he's got some great quotable lines in that.

Dan: got time to

Sidey: yeah. Triple H, he's in Blade Trinity.

Reegs: Trinity.

Sidey: And I think we watched, we did, we watched the Turtles movie, didn't we? And that's got Seamus, Seamus,

Reegs: Seamus. yes. he

Sidey: Rocksteady. Yeah. And there's loads of other like little cameo ones. I think Macho Man's in the Spider Man movie, isn't he? He

Reegs: He is, yeah, playing Bonesaw. It's basically

just Oh,

Sidey: fights him before he turns.

He is got powers,

Reegs: He's got powers at that point, yeah, he beats him for the money.

But that's when he lets the guy run afterwards and doesn't

Sidey: comes great responsibility. Yeah. Right. I'm, I'm gonna save my nomination.

Dan: Have you got any more reads there to add? Well, the theory

Reegs: Yeah, Expendables

Sidey: Expendables as well, I think.

Yeah.

Reegs: I think.

John Cena You can't see him No, exactly, you

Cris: So I don't know. How is his acting when you never see him?

Reegs: Surprisingly good

Sidey: think Suicide

Reegs: Suicide Squad, they took possibly what was the least interesting character out of that And made an unbelievable TV series About this sort of quasi fascist Peacekeeper who, who keeps the peace through slaughtering as many people as he can, and the sort of wisdom of his pet eagle. And, and they made it funny and heartfelt and he revealed, again, layers of complexity in the same way that Batista probably did, but it's not going to be my nomination.

Dan: Okay, well I've got just as an honourable mention, Big Daddy.

I don't know if

any of you were thinking of Shirley Crabtree, but he was also known as the Blonde Adonis and yeah, yeah, I know, but there you go, maybe he did back in the day, and then he was a real Adonis, but I'll, I'll go in with my choice, which is the, the Loch Ness Monster Giant Haystacks.

He was also in Give My Regards to Broadway, which was a Paul McCartney written film, which was a short film about a day in the life. But those two were good mates for a long time.

Reegs: I remember watching that on the telly with my grandma. I must've been very, very young.

Dan: Well, yeah, Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy were the big UK wrestling champions of their day. And I remember both of those guys kind of well. We've mentioned most of the American ones. Jimmy Snuka used to be one of my favorites as well. Superflat.

Cris: I've got I'm going to rattle through a few of them. Jay Heron he's a stuntman, kind of, also a form of UFC fighter. Plays in the Equalizer in Roadhouse. Oleg Taktarov in Bad Boys 2 and in Predators. He's a Russian former master of sports in Sambo.

Tito Ortiz in Zombie Stripper is a classic. We've all loved it and

Sidey: Sure, I recommend yeah

Cris: And Kamaru Usman as a naval officer in Black Panther. And I will nominate Randy the Natural Couture as Yeah, as my, yeah,

Sidey: Nice. I'm gonna put in someone, I don't know if I've been in a movie or not, but Sgt. Slaughter follows us on Twitter.

Reegs: follows us on

Sidey: be a fun thing, but we've got so excited.

Reegs: we've

Sidey: So I have to give some kudos to Sgt. Slaughter.

Dan: Yeah, excellent.

Good shout.

Reegs: Ah, okay, yeah, there

Sidey: Ah, okay, yeah, there you go, that ties it

Reegs: I'm going to go for, he's not one of the better known wrestlers, but it's Broadus, the Funkasaurus Clay in the WWE movie, No One Lives, which was surprisingly good. It starred that guy, Luke Shaw.

Dan, you might remember him from that movie we once reviewed where he played that,

Sidey: no, it's

Reegs: a Welsh guy. Do you remember the movie we

Dan: him.

Yeah

Reegs: got, he got killed by a garage door. Remember that movie? I

Dan: don't remember that, but I'm fairly sure I know who you mean

Reegs: Yeah. And so I only mention it because in this sort of thriller, he plays this psycho and there's a real switcheroo and this broadest guy is killed very early on in the movie.

And then Luke Shaw kind of hollows him out like a ton

and hides inside his body for people to come and then like springs out and kills

Sidey: kills

Reegs: which is probably worth mentioning.

Cris: Wow. Yeah, that sounds amazing.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: Classic stuff.

Sidey: I'm

Dan: Let's,

Reegs: I'm hoping for Andy to nominate, because I think he, he likes a bit of wrestling.

So Andy Connolly, you'll have to get in touch,

Sidey: wrestling, so Andy Connolly, you'll have to get in touch. Anyway, he thinks,

Reegs: yeah. Adam, let us

Dan: back into it. Okay.

Sidey: Let's

Dan: it.

Reegs: This is the story of the Von Erich family, a sort of famous wrestling family. And what came to be known as the Curse of the Von Erichs. Largely told through the eyes of, of Kevin.

Sidey: Right, let's get into it because how fucking jacked was Zac Efron in this

Cris: Jesus

Dan: Jesus Christ. Ridiculous. He

Reegs: into, we're talking about how, The

Dan: the game

Sidey: thing that hits you in the film. Well, it starts off with the old man doing the claw and it's, you know, you can tell it's going to be not a great story because he's dead.

He's

Reegs: It's in black and white and there's this really ominous

Sidey: white and there's this really ominous music He's big,

he's

Cris: He's

Reegs: unbelievably big, yes. But it's also such a great performance from him as well. But yeah, physically as a commitment to a performance, he looks the part of a wrestler. And the real brothers were huge guys, a pair of them. The real guy, Kevin, was enormous. So he did obviously put in Tremendous amount of work to represent this guy physically.

And it is important because he's, he's a gentle giant as we'll come to see. He sort of is very protective of his family. He'll, he'll, we'll see him getting up and waking his brother up by trying to pinch his nose and get him to come for a run. And he won't, but he goes for the run and he talks about the Von Erich family curse and how his parents tried to protect him.

Them from it in various ways. His mother through religion and his father using wrestling, telling them that if they're the sort of strongest, the

Sidey: best of the

Reegs: the best, the most successful wrestlers they can be, then the curse can't, the curse can't hurt them.

Dan: can touches. Yeah.

Reegs: And you can see that sort of Kevin believes that and then we'll cut to him wrestling at the amazingly named sport, a Torian.

Sidey: Oh that kept making me long every time they said it

Dan: Well, they, they believe him Because they're told

this from

Reegs: As a

Sidey: brain mantra.

He's brainwashed

Reegs: Yeah. In fact, in that prologue that we kind of skipped at the end of it, he goes out to the, and he's bought a car when he shouldn't have done

Sidey: his

Reegs: father.

Sidey: we've gotta look the part,

Reegs: got to look the part. So he's already drilled it in about how success and being the apart and appearances are the the two kids are in the back listening. Yeah.

He has a fight it's a good one. Again, it's got this kind of like hazy seventies aesthetic, like you're watching dazed and confused, but the tone is like much more dour than that. And the wrestling is, is, is pretty good.

Sidey: I liked it.

Reegs: Yeah. He takes down some guy cross body and Fritz tells his son afterwards how proud he is of him.

We'll pretty quickly meet the rest of the brothers.

Sidey: and Is this at the breakfast table? Yeah. Like, this probably wasn't supposed to be funny, but I fucking howled. When the kids are coming down, and some of them are in their pants, and they're doing this. And then he just goes, and he fucking ranks the kids.

Reegs: It

is funny.

Sidey: It's awful, I mean it's absolutely awful to say that in front of the kids, but I was like,

Dan: course, it's like horrendous. Everybody knows, Kerry's my favourite, then we've got Kevin, then it's Mike, and we, and,

Reegs: But you've all got a chance to go up or

Sidey: yeah. 'cause they're not set in stone

Dan: David as well, but you know that rankings can change, and It is

Reegs: It's played off humorously, but that's what the movie does quite well because it slips insidious.

This guy's an abuser, but

Sidey: you, yeah, it's awful.

Reegs: see him like, you know, it's not alcohol. It's not

Sidey: physical, it's psychological, he'll only love them

Dan: and years.

Reegs: Kevin

Sidey: as they're successful, otherwise he's not interested.

Dan: interesting.

Reegs: Yeah, and Kevin feels that the most. He's in the shadow of his, of his father and of his brother, Kerry, who's about to become the family's first Olympian.

He's a discus thrower. And his mother is cold and distant. I think he goes to see her with a problem. He says, I've got a problem, mum. And she says, that's what your brothers are for.

Sidey: for. Well, First of

all, it's, it's because the old man, Fritz, is, is really having a go at David, I

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: And he goes to speak to his mother and she just

Dan: It was Mike because he's

Sidey: And he says, dad's

Cris: musician guy,

Sidey: been, he's been

Cris: He's

Sidey: He's the one who doesn't want to be a wrestler and he's like, so it's like pretty much dead to him and he's really hard on him.

So you're weak. You need to strengthen up. You've got to hit the weights.

Reegs: Well, and clearly he's like the physically the most frail of all of them,

Sidey: And he says to his mother, dad's been way too hard on him. Can you have a word? And she's like, no, she's just fucking not getting involved. I don't know whether that's years of just like. Been just fucking down trodden by him

Reegs: Well, we haven't quite found it out yet. We'll find it out later, but we might as well drop it in the story that they've already been a death in the family. The, the younger, the older brother, Jack Jr.

Has, has died in an

Sidey: accident.

Yeah. Yeah.

Reegs: face down in a puddle,

Dan: Yeah,

Reegs: So they've already suffered, you know, trauma big trauma, and she's emotionally disconnected from the family and the boys and is, you know, compliant to the abuse that's going on.

But the bond, the bond between the brothers is strong, right? We see them having burgers and

Sidey: So this, this happens at the same time the Olympics were going to be in Moscow and because of the Cold War and all the rest of it the Yanks say, you know, we're not fucking sending anyone. So he's obviously devastated. He was going to be

Dan: geared up for it.

Sidey: probably, probably bang on, you know, maybe one of the favorites for a medal.

They're not sending him out. So he comes back and then you see the, the bond the boys have when he's back in the house, they're like fucking like really tight.

Reegs: Yeah, and immediately though, the ranking order starts, you know, he starts with Kerry, you know, you were my favorite, you're the best and all that sort of thing.

Also what's going on early on, we see that kind of despite the devotion that he has to his career, especially physically, Kevin doesn't have the chops as far as the other side of the business goes, which is kind of the interviewing and cutting promo side. He doesn't really have that going on. And his brother David is a little bit more.

Gifted in that department cuts a sort of decent promo and that kind of thing. After a show where David's getting some attraction, he meets a local woman, Pam, who takes a sort of comically obsessed interest in him really, and sort of walks him through how to open, how to kind of ask her out on a date because he's so

Sidey: he's a bit of a doofus, isn't he? He's like, oh, he just stands again. I'm going

Reegs: She only has eyes for him. It's really clear and they go out on a date and he stiffly addresses the thing that you said earlier when she says it's all fake and he talks about it being real, not real, pre arranged, but it's a job with promotions and

Cris: I didn't really believe his, yeah, but it's a, and you, you, you reach the, and you become a world champion.

Dan: It is the full kind of package, isn't it? That you would need to not only have all the moves, but you'd need to bring the, the fans alongside you

Reegs: If you're good, you get the recognition. It's the title is just

Dan: it's a popularity

contest.

Sidey: world title thing is something that was his father was deprived of. It was taken away from him and he's, he's obviously not never got over it. So there's a lot of talk about who's going to get the title fight.

You know, we've got to build this ups up. There's been talk of maybe.

You know,

them being bought out by one of the bigger wrestling things and so it's like no we're gonna get a shot at the title, you know So that's probably like a bit of his dad speaking. It's just been so fucking conditioned into thinking that way

Reegs: probably like a bit of his dad speaking. He's just been so fucking conditioned into thinking that way. The champion and it's sort of in an improvised bit spills to the outside and Kevin is kind of hurt and he's, you know, he's disappointed in his performance. Clearly the father afterwards and you know, David then runs in to save him and impresses and, you know, Fritz looks on and that's when we meet Kerry after that

Sidey: yeah

Dan: Yeah, he's moved back home, isn't he? And they all become the a tag team. And so there's the three brothers now.

Sidey: Now it's

Reegs: it's a great bit where they're working out, where they discover their intro music and we get the entire 11 minutes of Tom Sawyer by Rush played. Did you notice that? It was great, the whole 11 minutes over the montage of them wrestling, and that was what they used in their intro

Sidey: And there is now, though, going to be the hierarchy of who's the one that's going to get the title fight.

Dan: it's Fritz the dad that is going to decide this, not the

Reegs: He announces it. He announces it

Sidey: just says it. Yeah,

Reegs: You can see in the back he says that David's gonna be the one who gets the push, not Kevin. And you can see the sort of look of hurt and surprise on his face in the ring.

They carry it on. Anyway things are going.

Oh no,

it's that's what he tells afterwards in the locker room, doesn't he? Tells him you're going to go off to Japan, you're going to go all around the world. You're going to fight with Ric Flair. You're going to feel them. You're going to be the champion. And then he says to the boys, you made him this good.

You pushed him that far to do it. And they're absolutely broken. We've they're covered in blood and like, we've already seen that Kerry's using painkillers to get himself

Cris: and like, we've already seen that Kerry's using painkillers to get himself covered.

So, anyway,

Reegs: Yeah. So anyway, Pam and Kevin get married. Yeah. And he goes to the toilet and he hears someone being sick. And it's David, he says it's just stomach cramps, but there's blood absolutely everywhere.

Sidey: looks

Dan: he gets up and sort of goes and has a little dance after his, but it's a week before his match against Ric Flair, which would be a world title flight. David dies of stomach cramps. Enteritis,

Reegs: a ruptured intestine.

Dan: yeah while touring in japan. And although You know, they're absolutely devastated by this.

They just don't understand it. They're all so close as brothers and things It's the curse of the von eric's seems to be following him. Fritz kind of is still thinking about the the title fight

Reegs: Yeah. Well he tells them I don't want any tears at the funeral for

Sidey: they're not allowed to, they're so repressed.

Reegs: And

Dan: and they flip a coin to see who's gonna, gonna fight Ric Flair and Kerry wins it.

Which is absolute killer to Kevin as well because he's put his heart and soul into this for so many

Reegs: Oh man, The

next shot of him, right, so the next shot after that, after the coin flip, it cuts to Kerry walks out to the bright lights and Kevin's behind him sort of putting the stuff on and you just see the lights reflected in his eyes like of the thing that he's desired, his father has instilled into him that he'll never get and his brother's doing.

The look of pain on Zac Efron's face, the camera kind of pulls out is so, so, you know, very affecting.

Dan: And then we get some good news and bad news, don't we? Because the good news is he wins, he beats Ric Flair. He is now the heavyweight champion of the world. And Fritz is, is overjoyed. He finally got a Von Eric that's brought this title home that he never had.

And as he's sitting on the table, he's talking to Kevin. And he's just pumped. He's going, Oh, look, I'm, I'm can't really settle down. And he takes his motorbike out for a spin. He's already had a couple of beers and you know, as he's screaming down the road with no helmet on things, aren't going to Last well and the next thing we see him wake up in bed.

He's got scratches on his shoulders and things but

Cris: gets up,

Dan: He gets up. He's on crutches. You think oh, it's been an accident, but jeez He looks like he's alive and then we see the fact that he's he's lost. Yeah, he's lost his left leg

Reegs: Yeah, horrendous

Sidey: ankle from the ankle,

Dan: he's right foot. Yeah

Sidey: We've also we've missed it. But The one brother who isn't into wrestling. He's at the dinner, Mike, he said, Oh, I've got you know, been invited to go and play some music at a party.

Oh, that's nice. It's absolutely no fucking way. You're allowed to do that.

Cris: Yeah. And his mom, I would like, it wouldn't be like the dad that's like, Oh, you heard your mom? And she's like, no, absolutely. But he's like, Oh, but we're going to get paid. That's, that's, you know, that's a

Sidey: what he wants to do. So they do the thing of breaking out in the night, don't they?

And run off and do that. And they're having a great time. It more sort of shows you the

Dan: A bond

Sidey: But

Reegs: in the aftermath of

Sidey: not what he's going to be allowed to do.

Reegs: Exactly, and in the aftermath of Kerry's accident

Sidey: He is now

Reegs: feels himself pushed essentially into the void of where Kerry was.

Dan: And we see him in the ring.

Reegs: He has a shoulder injury straight, like very early on. There's complications during surgery afterwards.

Sidey: Toxic shock he goes into, yeah,

Reegs: syndrome and brain damage.

And you see him at a press conference afterwards. Fritz is already talking about when we're going to get him back in the ring and that he can barely

Cris: guy can barely speak, yeah.

Reegs: together. It's awful. And it's really not that surprising that very soon afterwards, I think he takes his own life,

Sidey: I thought it was bit, when he does the pills I thought that was gonna be it. And it reminded me of the raw TBAs when, oh, the Wilson

fella does it but he then It goes on a little bit and he goes off. They find the note. He says, I've gone to a better place. And you're like fucking hell another one's gone like fuck and this time because the mom

Reegs: It's horrendous because he never wanted it to wrestle in the first place. His father forces into it and then the second he does he ends up in a coma and then when he, when he gets out of the coma his father still wants him to wrestle.

Sidey: him to wrestle. Yeah, it's awful. At this time, the mum was fairly stoic at the first funeral. This time, she has to wear the same dress. Yeah,

Reegs: Yeah she's like, I can't believe I've got to wear the same dress

Sidey: again. Everyone's going to know that I'm wearing the same dress.

And it's

Cris: Pam.

Sidey: It's the daughter in law saying, Look, everyone's there for you, no one's worried about what you're wearing. It's just like a mum. In

Reegs: about you or what you're wearing. It's just like a

Dan: one displaying any reasonable kind of, like, cause she's upset and crying and grieving, and she's the only one who is. Which was

Reegs: which was their actual birth name. They, they had taken on the Von

Erich

Dan: it's not the brains in a way that gives him the emotional, you know, Skills

Sidey: He's just not been, he's not been raised in a way that gives him the emotional, you know,

tools to be able to cope with all this shit that's going on. So he just retreats from it and sleeps on the floor of the gym. And at the funeral. Even on the day of the funeral he won't go home. She's like, just come home with us.

She's got fucking, like, six month old or whatever it is. And he's just not able to do it. He doesn't know how to cope. I was amazed that they actually managed to, you know, hang in there, the two of them. Like, you know, because it's fucking really bad shit. I mean, the mum just fucking buried her third fucking son.

It's fucking brutal.

Reegs: Yeah, you see him.

Dan: and it looks so painful as he keeps trying to get up and make this happen, you think it's never going to happen, but it actually does happen. And he goes

Sidey: Texas Tornado?

Dan: Where he wins the Intercontinental Championship, which is the, the second biggest trophy out there at the SummerSlam.

Sidey: the old man's fucking made up with that.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah, he's really he's really pleased.

He's given the task of running the WCCW to Kevin, but that is losing its popularity now because the WWF is taking all the stars and it's just dwarfing this kind of local wrestling county,

Sidey: Yeah. There's an offer on the table for theirs.

Dan: Yeah, they're, they're wanting it, but Fritz doesn't want to sell.

Sidey: No, but it's not his decision anymore. But he

Reegs: given it over to Kevin.

Sidey: proxy, he still says to Kevin, you are not fucking welcome through these doors.

I did not give that to you so you could just give up at the first

Reegs: But also when Kevin goes, they don't really explore this point in any, any detail. But when he goes through the books, he's like, I didn't get hardly any of

Sidey: he's been screwed. He's been

Reegs: he's

Cris: And then the dad's like, oh, what, you think you can live here for free?

Yeah,

Reegs: I know. Yeah, I know.

Cris: it's like, well,

Reegs: I know it's his son.

Cris: Christ. Oh, the numbers don't add up. What, you think you can live here for free? Okay.

Sidey: Kerry's, Kerry's been on the phone. Now, he's struggling. Even though he's, you know, successful and he's got the belt. We've seen the first interaction when he's come home.

He has a real ding dong with the old man, doesn't he?

Reegs: He gives him a gun for Christmas

Sidey: but he also

Reegs: he doesn't shoot it. It's very ominous because he's like, you always shoot a gun when you give it to him. He's like, he says straight away, you've got to go outside and shoot it.

He's like, no, I'm not

Sidey: I said to Kay, I think the mum's going to end up shooting Fritz. That's, that's why. Cause I didn't know the story. I was just thinking of some, you know, they

Dan: you know, that gun's

Sidey: going to

Dan: shot at some point

Sidey: But he's been on the phone after this. I think it was, was it Thanksgiving or Christmas or whatever the thing is.

But then they go off and he phones Mike and he says, I'm in a fucking bad way. You know,

Reegs: Kevin, yeah, from the motel.

Sidey: You know, I'm struggling and blah, blah. He actually reached out only to his brother because he knows if he goes to a man, he's going to get nothing. Kevin then speaks to his dad and says that I need you to look out for him.

And he says, well, that's for you guys to sort it out. And you're like, fucking hell, man.

Reegs: I just didn't understand,

Cris: He just doesn't know how to

Sidey: He's so, I

Reegs: so himself. Anyway, so he does, I think he keeps asking him where he is and he won't tell him he hangs up before, before he

Cris: Yeah, but he tells him at least go home. If you don't want to come here, just go home and I'll come and see you.

And then when he goes back

Reegs: door opened and then you're

Dan: He arrives just in time to hear the gun shoot. Yeah. And he

Cris: Kerry killed himself.

Dan: Kerry's killed himself.

Sidey: I mean, and

Reegs: He has a fight

Sidey: basically. No, first of all,

the dad. comes over and he's, you can see that he's obviously upset but he's still like, won't cry and he knows he's lost a fourth fucking son. Yeah.

And Zach, everyone just fucking, you were supposed to fucking look after, told you to fucking look after him, wrestles him to the ground. And I, he's strangling him. I thought he was gonna kill him. He is. He's strangling him. And the old man's, you know, very close to fucking being unconscious. And he lets him go

And then he goes and picks up his brother and takes him, plunks him

Dan: Yeah, and while he's doing that he has this kind of vision with his brothers in the afterlife and Kerry's got his foot back and Mike's there for you to play his musical kind of dreams and David's

Sidey: David's got the belt.

Reegs: him the, he gives him the coin that he'd

Sidey: leaves

Dan: And even little Jack Jr. is a little toddler. And he obviously comes back into it. Into reality and everything. And we see that he's, he's selling the WCCW wrestling. he's had enough and he doesn't give a fuck anymore. What dad thinks. And he, I think the guy who Jerry Jarrett, his name is who's buying it.

He he had to listen to Fritz say, you can't sell it. You know, you can't buy that, but he knows it's not his to say no anymore. And he goes ahead and buys it. Kevin goes to hell. Ahead in sells it and he just doesn't want

Sidey: Well, there we've seen a snapshot of his family life there. They've got two kids living in a shitty little apartment. The missus is

working. He's,

Cris: house, and

Sidey: not making much. He's like, this has got to change, you know, And he's like, fuck that, fuck my old man, you know, I've just, that's it.

And he flogs it. It probably wasn't worth as much when he sold it as it might have been a few years back, because it's dwindled a bit, but it's just, this is enough. Enough is enough.

Reegs: And

then the end is really fairly poignant. I mean, we get some, some indications that, like, what's her name? The mother is just going to completely,

Cris: Oh no, the mom.

Reegs: is just going to completely disconnect from the family. She just goes off to do painting and tells, Fritz

Sidey: Well, she says, she says earlier with the musical brother, her son, and he's looking and she says, Oh, I painted that. And there's this really nice painting of the house.

Cris: In her first house. That was my

Sidey: house. That was my first house.

And he goes, Oh, how come you stopped? And she says, Oh, I had my reasons. I suspect it was probably when the first Boy died and she just packed up and she just shut down and then yeah fritz comes home and I guess every day dinner would have been waiting this time There's no dinner. Yeah, she's got the easel out.

She's doing some painting and

Reegs: He's like, where's dinner? And she's like, oh, I wasn't hungry. And then it's pretty clear.

Like what's going

Dan: silence there where he's just kind of looking at her. It's not computing, but he also thinks. I ain't getting anything out of this

woman anymore, and

Reegs: getting anything out

Sidey: um,

Reegs: Woman anymore. He goes to meet his kids after they come off the school bus, he's making dinner, his wife is now running the veterinary practice that she was, she's pregnant again. She's a working woman and he's like taking more of a, you know, non traditional role, especially for the time period and the kids come back and the kids are playing.

Sidey: football.

Reegs: And he starts to cry and they say to him, why are you

Sidey: Fuck I might go now

Reegs: and he said, I know. Yeah. And he says, Oh,

He

says, Oh, you're not supposed to cry. And he says, that's silly. I, you know, I cry all the time so that they're being normal about it. You can cry dad. Why are you crying? He says, well, I guess it's because I used to be a brother and now I'm not a brother.

And Oh my God.

Sidey: And they, they just like cuddle into him and say, we'll be your brother's dad. And you're like, fucking hold it together.

Reegs: together. Yeah. But it, you know, the, The

the idea that the kids are free to express their emotions in a healthy way to say that they do cry and it's okay to cry over this thing shows that the cycle of trauma has, has hopefully been broken.

And

Sidey: it has been because we get the epilogue everywhere. When, when they, their very first day, Pam had said, I want to have a farm and I want to have load land and I want to have a vet practice and I want to have all my family live on the ranch.

And that's exactly what they've managed to achieve. And that's a great picture of the real family. And one kid has been thrown so

Cris: seen that, yeah, that's amazing where the kid's so

Sidey: we were staring at the TV and Katie, I've been like, quite a few seconds like fuck there's a kid like right

Reegs: there's a kid lying on the ground. So you

Sidey: you do get that sort of yeah like you say just a bit of a happier ending but then i don't know if anyone else read it but when you read about the real family there was a another brother who fucking killed

Reegs: himself.

What? What? What?

Sidey: like there's just too much too much suicide there was a fucking another brother so three

Reegs: Chris, yeah, killed himself as well. Yeah, it's such a desperately sad, sad story.

Um

Dan: And, And

that's where kind of, I guess this film didn't hit with me so much, just in the fact that it's quite bleak.

It's it's got great performances in, there's a physical transformation in Zac Efron that, you know, Is hard to ignore. And a great performance by him. To be honest, you know, I thought it was the guy Fritz who plays the dad. I really like him as well. He was in Mindhunter. And I like him on on screen. But it was just a bleak, sad film. There wasn't a, I remember the other film The Wrestler that was big at the time and, and again, kind of dark, not much. I mean, nothing really, although it happens is, it's just, A tragedy after tragedy in this film. I was watching it on a Sunday with a hangover.

It wasn't really the kind of lift your spirits movie that I needed at that point. But for this

Reegs: this is about breaking cycles of generational trauma.

Right.

Dan: Yeah, I was in my own generation of trauma that day. So.

So

I probably it suffered my enjoyment, suffered through just my own physical state on Sunday and where I wanted to be to watch this.

I think other people really enjoy this. I know it's got. Good critic reviews and things and saying it's the best sports film ever. It's not. I'll tell you that right now. It's not. It's a drama. It's pretty bleak. It's got some wrestling in, although sports drama is again, quite a weak thing because it's, It's WWF wrestling.

It's not actual sports. It's all worked out before. So, well, it definitely is, you know, let's not try and pretend it's not and, and so it was a a decent enough movie. I can't ever think I'll watch it again,

Cris: No,

Dan: I, I kind of enjoyed it for the,

Reegs: in his pants

again.

Dan: for the day. Yeah, there's a lot of pan action. I mean, if you want to see guys wearing pants fighting for a belt, this is it.

Sidey: yeah. Counterpoint to that, it's the best film I've ever seen, ever. Zac Efron. Is someone I actually have always had a bit of a soft spot for.

It just seems like a good egg, you know, it does seem like a good guy, sort of self aware about what he's all about. He's really fucking good in this. Really like, it's a really, really good

Cris: a

Reegs: it's very layered,

Sidey: Yeah. We haven't mentioned the hair,

the

Cris: hair! It's very layered.

Sidey: is like character in his own, right. The, the old man, you're like, he's such a bastard, but that's a good performance as well.

I don't mind it being a sad story. That's funny. It still happens, you know, I mean, it's super fucking tragic what's happened to those boys. And obviously the mother as well.

Reegs: it's surprisingly subtle, I think for, for such a, what could be quite a lot of melodrama.

And it, it's like, you know, the abuser in this one is not a screaming violent maniac. Is, is, is awful accident. Like much more calculated and insidious and, and they're driven by how broken he is and his way of coping

Cris: almost without so many words, really.

It's more like what's not spoken

Sidey: it's just the relationships like i'm i'm not going to love you unless you're fucking successful at

Dan: The

matter of fact like everybody knows I love Kerry the most, Kevin the second, David third, Mikey last, but you can move through the rankings and he's saying that dead

Reegs: ranking. I'm not saying that dead

Dan: continued. No, he's and brave.

He's

not joking. To, to his

Reegs: but when you hear it in the movie, like

you said, it is

funny.

Yeah, it is funny. It's got a great soundtrack to as well. Frankie Valli and Blue Oyster Cult and a load of other stuff. And it's got a great look to it as well. Fucking strong recommend, but desperately sad.

Dan: It's a, it's a feel bad sports movie.

Sidey: Yeah, strong recommend. WWE. Slam City. Yeehaw!

Dan: on, let's bring this on.

Sidey: I think the shortest runtime of anything we've reviewed.

Reegs: Yeah, and I did really like this, and it's not just because it was two minutes long an episode,

Sidey: but the first one. Because I had to watch a few just to get, you know, a real feel for it. I think I blinked or looked away for a second and I was like, Oh, it's Finnifar!

So I better put on another one. So that was the John Cena in the car wash one.

Reegs: one. Yes.

Sidey: That I watched first.

Reegs: up for this, this is based on a toy figure series of what was at that time WWE superstars. And they've all been fired of their WWE jobs and are now working in the real world.

Sidey: In Slam City, I guess

In

Reegs: City. In Slam City. John Cena's a mechanic and Rey Mysterio's a traffic man and Mark Henry's a pizza shop. Randy Orton's a zookeeper, Dan. So,

Dan: randy yeah

Reegs: that. So yeah, we watched John Cena versus the big show. see the

Sidey: He works

Reegs: looked away for. What was the

would you describe that? Well, they look

Dan: What was the the animation, how would you describe

Sidey: like the toys.

Dan: Yeah, they've got these

Sidey: they're hideously like weirdly proportioned their arms. So I was watching it with my daughter. She was just completely baffled. Like she's never seen, never seen wrestling. She doesn't know what that is. And she's like, why are their arms like that? I said, oh, they're, you know, their wrestlers are big, strong guys.

Dan: strong guys. It's almost

Sidey: that you Yeah, it's like a, it's almost like a caricature. They're so, like, they overemphasize all their, you know,

Reegs: This was literally, I mean, it's really cynical because this was literally like, let's make a toy that we can WWE. But, surprisingly good,

Sidey: Yeah. I enjoyed it.

Reegs: Did you see Kane versus the Italian fella?

Sidey: No. The next one I watched was. Stone Cold Steve Austin getting coffee

Reegs: Alright.

Sidey: from a guy that I didn't recognize, but it was obviously a wrestler,

Reegs: Yeah, probably.

Sidey: and he, He just kept saying stone cold. And he, he kept trying to make the ice coffee colder.

And he, he resolved it by punching the two coffees out into the atmosphere where they came down as a huge block of ice and stone cold, then smashed that and chugged those and then, and then burped over another wrestler, which froze him and he flicked them over and he just shattered on the floor.

Dan: That's

the kind of hardcore moves

that the best wrestlers have, I guess.

Reegs: The one we watch, one of them gets turned into a human pizza, which was quite mac carb and then tossed out of a window.

Sidey: Nice.

Dan: So it'll give you and all the kids chance or would have done chance to have a look at your character before buying them in the shop, I guess.

Reegs: No. Just make your kid wanna buy more, probably.

Dan: more, probably. Maybe. Yeah, that's it. They just keep keep on coming and they would sell try and sell two toys per per show.

Sidey: Yeah.

Dan: That's kind

Sidey: Same to me what it was. I mean, I've seen adverts longer than these things, so it's fine.

Reegs: bet you wish we could pick something as good as that next

Dan: Yeah, well if you if you've got kids that are really into into wrestling well I watched about

a minute of it

Reegs: was a whole thing? Yeah,

Sidey: do

Reegs: well.

Yeah, it

sounds like a lie, yeah. Ridiculous! He didn't even, couldn't even do two minutes! Oh my god. Awful. Did you watch it? Oh,

Sidey: Strong recommend from me.

Cris: I didn't watch. I didn't even know. There was no chance. I didn't know because normally the 22 minutes or something, I was like, I can't, I've had enough of the Iron Claw in wrestling for one thing.

Yeah. I can't commit to anything

Sidey: else.

Dan: Yeah, there's a lot of wrestling content

Sidey: Yeah,

Reegs: Yeah,

Sidey: a strong recommend.

Reegs: it.

Cris: Boom.

Sidey: there? No, his shoulder butted it.

Cris: next

Sidey: Henge, it's Christmas next week, isn't it?

Dan: Is it? Next week? Next

Cris: week.

Reegs: got any

Dan: presents. No.

Sidey: 23rd. Tuesday we'll be in the pub. And then Christmas Day is Wednesday. So we'll do something. That means we will have to release an episode on Christmas Day.

That

would

Dan: That everybody would be waiting for it. That's their Christmas present.

Sidey: everyone would be waiting for it.

Dan: Dan's gone.

Reegs: Yeah, me too.

Cris: Bye.