TV This Past Weekend

This past Saturday MTV2 ran a handful of episodes from their documentary series entitled 'True Life'. For those who aren't familiar with the show, each episode documents various people going through a variety of issues in their lives. Some episodes focus of people who suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, people who are overweight, and people who are embarrassed of their parents. The particular episode that I saw was called 'True Life: I'm a Backyard Wrestler'. I had seen the episode when it originally aired a few years ago and I had forgotten how ridiculous the people on the show were. The show basically focused on a group of teens operating out of a backyard in Los Angeles. While some people might call these people creative, passionate, innovative, or talented I would just call them stupid. You should have seen the 'ring' that they were using. It consisted of old tires, old carpeting, and those mattress pads that look like egg crates. The surface of the ring was lumpy at best. Add to that the performing of powerbombs, piledrivers, and brainbusters and you have a recipe for disaster. As dangerous as the moves were, they should and do know better and are perfectly aware that they are putting themselves at high risk of killing themselves. There was one guy in particular that I want single out for now. I don't remember his name though. He came off as the unofficial leader of the group. In one segment he is talking about why he is a backyard wrestler. Is he trying to get noticed by WWF or some other legit wrestling company? Does he like entertaining his friends? Nope. He wants to be famous so he could meet a specific person. Baby Spice from the Spice Girls (That shows how old this program was). However 5 minutes later in the program he says that the reason that he's a backyard wrestler is because God told him to. So God told him to go out there and do things to himself and his friends that could result in a broken neck? Enough about him though. There was also another kid on the show that has his mind set on blading himself. He says to the camera backstage that he is going gush blood. During the match he does in fact blade himself and does manage to bleed a lot. I'd say a little less than Ric Flair level. After the match the father of the house whose backyard the match is in comes out and starts wiping the kids face off before his wife sees it. No such luck though. She sees and goes ballistic. She starts yelling and calls his mom on him. When he gets on the phone he tells his mother 'I was wrestling and I got blood on me'. Also, one of the guys says that what they do is the same as when someone horses around when wrestling with their children. It's a little different. Don't ya think? The end of the show is a little funny though. 2 of the backyard wrestlers are about to get into a legit fight over whether what they do can be considered 'art'. Throughout the show they have clips of Mick Foley talking about how dangerous and stupid backyard wrestling is and how he does not endorse it. He also squashes the rumors about how his leap off of a roof in his Dude Love video led to his WWF contract. He explains that it was years of hard work and training that led to his WWF contract and success.

Also, I didn't feel like going out on Saturday night so I decided to stay home. I managed to be flipping through the channels just in time to catch the last 15 minutes or so of the replay of this week's TNA Impact. At the next TNA PPV the main event is scheduled to be Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner taking on Sting and a mystery partner. I guess for the past few weeks Sting has been presenting Jarrett with opportunities to pick who the mystery partner is going to be. Each week Sting has a wrestler hidden behind a door and before the wrestler's identity is revealed Jarrett has to decide whether he wants the mystery man to be Stings partner or not. It's basically a rip-off of the show 'Deal or No Deal'. In fact, Sting asks Jarrett 'Deal or No Deal' as they play a cheesy version of the Jeopardy theme. Jarrett rejected this week's mystery man after which Sting ran down the mystery man's accomplishment before revealing his identity. Here's the funny part. Sting is saying stuff about how the mystery man is a former All-American wrestler, a multiple time tag team champion, and how this man is a member of the school board of so-and-so city. Throughout this build up Scott Steiner looks totally confused as to who the guy is. Then the guy comes out and it's his own brother Rick Steiner and Scott acts totally surprised. How the hell can't Scott tell that Sting is talking about his own brother? How many other professional wrestlers are sitting on a school board?

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