RING ROASTS 2 DVD (Kayfabe Commentaries)

When I was growing up as a wrestling fan there were four times a year that I couldn't wait for. The Royak Rumble in January, WrestleMania in March, SummerSlam at some point in the summer and then Survivor Series around Thanksgiving. Over the years a couple of those have fallen off my radar, and some new things have replaced them, such as Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's Best of LA event, CHIKARA's King of Trios tournament, and when ROH would bring in the Dragon Gate guys for WrestleMania weekend.
Now when I set up my wrestling calender, one of the events I look forward to the most is when Kayfabe Commentaries does their now annual Ring Roast event. Last year started off with a bang when the Iron Sheik roast DVD rocked my world. As a huge fan of the Howard Stern roasts and the Comedy Central roasts, I was actually surprised no one in wrestling had yet to do something that was clearly gaining popularity in the real world. Hell, I just bought Jeffrey Ross's I Only Roast The Ones I Love book because of how much Ross kills at these events. I usually end up having to rewind my DVR because I missed a joke from laughing so hard. The Howard Stern roast of Andy Dick is also worth going out of your way to listen to.

Ring Roasts 2, with guest of honor Terry Funk, establishes the Ring Roasts event as one of the premier wrestling events of the year. The dais was filled with solid comedians and wrestlers who have shared plenty of time with the Funker. As with Scott Hall's infamous appearance during the Shieky Baby roast, this year's show had New Jack losing his mind and trying to steal the spotlight by acting like an obnoxious jerk. New Jack aside, and ignoring King Kong Bundy's atrocious set, wrestling fans will find a lot to love about this two disc DVD set.

A common theme in the Ring Roasts events seem to be the wrestlers on the dais not fully understanding what a "Roast" is and instead use their time to tell stories about the guest of honor. To be completely fair, this is actually a good thing because my experience with wrestlers has driven into my skull that almost all of them are nowhere near as funny as they think they are. Instead they stay within their wheelhouse and I think it ends up helping the event as you get some humorous, and at times heart warming tales. Dennis Stamp almost steals the show when he takes the podium. Mike Graham, Kevin Von Erich, and JJ Dillon also bring home want a great person Terry Funk was to be around over the years.

Now every good roast saves their best for the end and this particular show had a murderer's row lineup as Matt Bridgestone, Missy Hyatt, and Mick Foley ended up flooring me and the live audience. Bridgestone has some killer material that some may find it "mean," but I found myself dying and hoping he was signed for next year's show. Bridgestone was also heckled by New Jack, but unlike Ryan Maher earlier in the night, he didn't let Jack throw him off his game and instead gave it right back. As for Missy Hyatt...wow. Missy's set fits right in with any you would see on a Stern or Comedy Central roast. The surprise of the night. Mick Foley ended the show and was his usual entertaining self. A couple years ago I went to a WrestleReunion show and they taped a "One Hour with Mick Foley" show that never ended up seeing the light of day. His material here was just like that fantastic night so many years ago. Foley knows how to tell a story, and when he does it in his humorous, self depreciating way, it reminds me of why I have stayed a fan of his throughout the years.

If you're a wrestling fan, you're going to love this DVD.

www.KayfabeCommentaries.com

INCORRUPTIBLE #1 (Boom! Studios)

Boom! Studios has really put out some interesting comics. In a way, they remind me of the old Awesome Comics stable. Say what you will about Rob Liefeld, but his Supreme book (written by Alan Moore) has some trades that hold up to any book by Marvel or DC. Besides the superhero stuff, Boom! has some cool licenses, including comics based on the movies 28 Days Later and Die Hard. Then they somehow got the license to do Pixar comics as well as a great Muppets book. I think many of us are patiently waiting for a huge Muppet comeback in the near future, and one way to get ready is to read the various Muppet titles and get one of those cool WHAT NOT muppets available at http://www.fao.com/whatnots/index.jsp.

Anyway, I've been digging Boom!'s flagship title, Irredeemable, for a while now. It centers around the basic premise of "What If the World's Greatest Superhero Went Nuts?" Just like Supreme did, Irredeemable takes a Superman archetype character - in this case Plutonian - and presents a story that really draws you in. Been a huge fan of Mark Waid for a long time, and this is another classic. Throw in great use of flashbacks, unbelievable covers by John Cassaday, and decent art, and this is one book to put on your pull lists and definitely search out for the trade. This may be heresy to some, but I get a small Miracle Man vibe reading Irredeemable and that is definitely a good thing.

Incorruptible looks at the other side of the coin. What if the world's greatest super villain got inspired by the hero going insane? A life altering moment leading him to realize "someone has to draw the line." The first issue just came out and I'm already hooked. Put this one on your radar, and while you don't have to be reading Irredeemable to enjoy Incorruptible, it will definitely add to the experience.

Wrestling DVD of the Year

Dragon Gate USA's OPEN THE HISTORIC GATE DVD: In a word? "Wow." Talk about starting off on the right foot. Just on presentation alone, DGUSA's first release is right up there when it comes to production values with the best that has ever been done in wrestling. This is the type of DVD that has an intangible "value" which makes fans feel like they got their money's worth and get them to look forward to future releases. It doesn't hurt that Open the Historic Gate was also, top to bottom, the best PPV that any wrestling company had to offer this year.

So not only do you have the main show, which just so happened to be the debut show of DRAGON GATE USA, but you also have a bonus disc full of goodies. The DVD would be worth getting if it were just for the main show, having matches with the likes of BXB Hulk, Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, Shingo, and Dragon Kid from the insanely great Dragon Gate promotion in Japan. These are world class workers on a level that very few ever achieve. I like to compare them to Cirque du Soleil performers in that they have an artistry that you just haven't seen before unless you watch them in action.

You also get an appearance by The Young Bucks, one of America's hottest young teams. Watching the Young Bucks really gives me the feeling I had when the Hardy Boyz were making their way up the WWE roster. Well before they became "Team Extreme" and were just two guys I loved watching wrestle because they had something about them that no one else had. Nick and Matt Jackson have that "it" factor and I can't wait to see how far they go in wrestling.

On top of that you have the SHOW STEALING match featuring the boys from CHIKARA. Words can not describe how cool it is that the Little Indy That Could somehow stuck around so long that idiots like me could finally get on the train. Watching Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw and the Ants go against Hallowicked, Amasism, Gran Akuma, and Icarus had me jumping out of my seat.

The bonus disc includes the new FRAY! concept that was introduced as a "thank you" to the fans of DGUSA instead of throwing out a meaningless dark match, a great match from Full Impact Pro which pitted BXB Hulk, Jack Evans, and Yamato vs. Hallowicked, Jigsaw, and Delirious (six of my favorite wrestlers all in one match), and another match from Dragon Gate Japan that had BXB Hulk teaming with JUSHING LIGER, Jack Evans, and Evan Bourne against Doi, Yoshino, Kishiwada, and Kevin Steen. There's a bunch of other great stuff too, including the long awaiting feature to be able to turn off commentary and take in the "live experience," but let's just get straight to the point... drop what you are doing and get this release NOW.

www.DGUSA.tv

Five Wrestling Books that you should ask Santa for...

5. Professional Wrestling Intellectual: A compilation of Joe Babinsack columns - If you like wrestling media reviews, and if you're reading this blog we both know you do, than this recent release has over 400 pages of reviews from F4Wonline.com's own Joe Babinsack. The wide array of reviews is pretty staggering as Joe covers the entire gamut of DVDs and books. Amidst all the reviews will be essays with Joe's thoughts on various things in the world of oiled up, hairless men who pretend to hit each other.

With Babinsack's book you'll be able to read reviews on the DVDs and books you should be watching and reading, such as SHIMMER and Ring of Honor, as well as things you probably didn't even know existed, like JR Benson's "Extremely Strange" book. As a person who has also read Benson's book, I can guarantee it will fascinate you, or scare you to death.

Just as Kayfabe Commentaries' Guest Booker DVDs don't only cover booking, Joe's book of reviews contains more than its fair shair of Babinsack's thoughts on wrestling's past, present, and future. You'll get Joe's thoughts on women's wrestling, the role of jobbers, and a solid case made for Bruno Sammartino being the "greatest professional wrestler of all time," among many others.

4. Big Apple Takedown - An oldie, but often overlooked goodie. One of the very few WWE forays into fiction, not counting the Hogan/Chyna/Angle biographies. This book contains the previously untold tale of the United States government using WWE Superstars as top secret undercover agents. And who better to use as an undercover agent than people who are on TV worldwide? Triple H. Batista. John Cena. Chavo Guererro. Well, one of those names doesn't belong.You will not be able to put this book down... no matter how hard you try!

My full review: http://www.thewrestlingfan.com/burgan18.html

3. The Story of the Development of NWA/TNA: A New Concept in Pay Per View Programming - Another classic that is on too few wrestling library shelves. With TNA going through another huge change this upcoming year, it is interesting to look back and see how it all started. This is less a book than Jerry Jarrett's personal diary - warts and all - for the first year of creating TNA. If you ever wanted to know what it really took to create a wrestling company from the ground up, this is the book for you. Jerry covers everything, and I mean everything, including an endless series of meetings with banks and investors.

Wrestling fans will enjoy reading Jerry's thoughts on Vince Russo (thinks Vinny Ru is insane), Ultimate Warrior (same) and others. You'll get Jerry's first hand near-meltdown during the Jay Hassman scandal as well as Jarrett's frank discussion of how bad the early TNA Wednesday PPVs were. Sheet readers will also find the discussion involving ProWrestling.Net's Jason Powell and PWTorch.com's Wade Keller pretty damn interesting as well. A terrific read that is only marred by a horrific, never ending interview that Jarret puts right into the middle of the book. Stops the book dead. Thankfully it picks back up and their is more than enough good to outweigh the small bad in this one.

My full review: http://www.thewrestlingfan.com/burgan22.html

2. Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling - Let's get real, if you don't have this book in your house, you're not a real wrestling fan. I actually read this book in reverse order, as it covers Hart's entire career and I was most interested in reading his thoughts on the circus of WCW. Brutally honest, Hart covers his early career in Stampede, his mid card days in WWE, his main event time in WWE, and then how it all came crashing down in WCW. One of the "little things" that made me love having this book was right at the start, with a terrific two page spread of cartoon wrestlers all drawn by Bret Hart. Growing up, I was always a fan of the Joe Jusko-drawn Royal Rumble posters. This drawing by Bret is like hybrid of those Rumble posters and one of the crazy Simpsons posters that has every character on it. I can not get enough of seeing cartoon versions of pro wrestlers.

Anyway, this book weighs in at 600 pages and I could have read another 600 more. With Bret coming back to the WWE, I smell a sequel...

1. Chris & Nancy - The lastest release from Irv Muchnick, who has already authored one of wrestling's All Time Top Five books with wrestling Babylon, is hands down the most important wrestling book in years. Irv put his journalist background to good use and picks apart every aspect of the Benoit murder/suicide. As a person who is as hardcore as they come, reads no less than three wrestling newsletters a week, and watched all the news coverage of this tragic story, I still found myself going over one new fact after another. This book should make you mad as hell if you're a wrestling fan. Mad at a system that across the board let everyone down. We're now a full year plus past this terrible crime and has anything really changed in the wrestling industry?