Falls Count Anywhere

04-25-03

No matter what I say, you'll just look at the picture.

Welcome to Falls Count Anywhere. My name is Chris, and I am quickly getting too big for my britches.

SmackDown!
With all the bad talk this show has been getting, I wasn't expecting anything much. They must have polished it up in post, as I enjoyed a goodly portion.

Cena opened things up. He actually did a nice little promo. It's true, the man can talk. I actually care about his challenge a little bit, which is amazing. Rhyno is a star in the making, and the fact they have a fine little opener says that they are both walking right towards stardom.

Hey, the FBI is doing their thing, and I am not annoyed. I didn't think that was possible. Sable shows off her business. YEAH! Her face is a handle away from being a suitcase, but I still appreciate her bod.

Pushing the whole visit to Norfolk is kinda slimy, but then again, if it was anyone but the WWE, everyone would be cool with it.

Nunzio and Chris Benoit. I really like these two. Their respective styles mesh well, but the whole FBI interference thing lessened it. I wouldn't mind seeing these two have a full length match.

You know, seeing Nunzio and Benoit really makes me want to see Taz back in the ring. He would work magic with these guys.

Mysterio vs. Matt Hardy…psych! Crash joins the Hardy flock. Great Tornado DDT. It is quickly becoming the move de SmackDown! Really good stuff.

They should never dig up blown spots for TV. It encourages the audience to react to dangerous situations.

Rikishi and Piper meet. What did I do? Wear a shirt! Wear a shirt! Not too good, but it coulda been worse. Sean O'Haire may get something from this Piper association. Piper should just be kept talking.

It's too soon to get an actual picture of the challenge from WWE. Remind us on Monday. In the meantime, click for the full-sized version of this one.

Sable Invitational Bikini Contest. No matter what I say, you'll just look at the picture. Torrie and Sable give Bound a run for its money.

Chavo vs. Benjamin was fine stuff, but obviously not what the crowd was looking for. Chavo is just so great. It was obvious that this match just happened to give an excuse for the teams to post-match brawl. Still, good enough.

Big Show: bad. Tajiri: always entertaining. This wasn't good, but again, fun for what it was. Tajiri's comebacks were well done. Beautiful springboard enzugiri by Tajiri (as if you might think that Big Show hit one)

Ninety Dead Tigers, dude. 90 of 'em. What does that have to do with wrestling? Nothing, but I'd still rather have 90 dead tigers than Hulk Hogan under a mask as Mr. America. Gratuitous Ass shot of Stephanie was sweet.

A lot of Cena. He's not huge over yet, his responses are getting better, though. It's like HHH back in 1999, getting shoved down our throats, but in the end, it'll for the best.

Wow, this A-Train vs. Brock match was long. It felt like one of those long 1980s matches that Hogan would find himself in. It wasn't bad, since Brock is 100 times better than Hogan, but too long. Still, did the duty for the show.

All in all, a better show than I had heard, but not great.

NEWS
Jeff Hardy has been let go from the WWE. The truth is, it was more of a mutual thing, as he has not been happy for months and his work has shown it.

I think this could be a big deal, as he is easily the most over wrestler let go in recent months, and if he wants to wrestle again, he would be great working with the X-division guys in TNA.

The Hardys were on the road to being one of the legendary tag teams, but splitting them up killed any chance Jeff had of working big time. Shame too, as Matt has just started to take off and Jeff had just blown his last push. No word on what this means to Lita or anyone else in the fed associated with Jeff.

The Paul Hough Interview
For those of you who don't read my Festival Movie reviews, Paul Hough is the director of the fantastic documentary The Backyard. He's a graduate of NYU, a school that has high enough standards to not accept me. His film has played at festivals around the world, and has theatrical releases set up. I met him at the Sonoma Valley Film Festival, and his doc will be showing at the Coachella Film Festival this year.

Chris Garcia: OK, when did you start watching wrestling? Were you strictly a WWF fan?

Paul Hough: I started watching wrestling just maybe a year before Ultimate Warrior Vs. Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 6. I was originally a Hulk Hogan fan - but after that match - which I consider the greatest of all time - switched to loving The Ultimate Warrior.

CG: I've read elsewhere that you worked on the Women of Wrestling pay-per-view. What was that like? Was there the general disorganisation that the sheets talked about? And, did you get to touch Lana Star?

PH: Yeah, I directed about half of the entrance videos eg. The Riot car explosions, the Lana Hollywood intro, the Swimsuit stuff for the PPV (that was fun!) I still have some of the Lana footage if you want it for your personal collection.

I really think this could've been a great show - but yeah - there was a ton of bulls**t. I've never experienced such professional backstabbing as I did on that show. I think I may still be under contract not to talk about it...

CG: The Backyard features some fairly brutal moments, and some very passionate reactions to them. Was there any moment where you yourself felt uncomfortable with what you were seeing?

PH: Well as you said a lot of it is pretty brutal. When you see a kid get thrown into a grave - covered by a plank of barbed wire which is on fire - it's hard not to react when shooting. When I turned up somewhere I never knew what to expect.

Luckily once in Arizona a photographer came with me who was a second degree black belt. We were at this tough, tough federation called HIW - where even the audience carried knives...literally. After about 5 minutes there a punk kid pulled a knife on my photographer, and as I spun around I saw something out of a Jackie Chan movie - as the photographer disarmed the kid.

I just regret the camera wasn't rolling. Otherwise there was one other situation in gangland Modesto that stood out as being completely scary - but at the same time I felt protected by the various wrestling federations.

CG: What was the strongest reaction you've seen to the film? Anyone ever angrily storm out? Anyone throw up?

Van Dam has taught us so much, including about fashion.

PH: Someone fainted at our first screening in Austin, Texas. Lots of women walk out of the movie - and they're pretty vocal about it too. Originally, I had a lot of anonymous emails from "pro wrestlers" vowing to hunt me down because they didn't want a movie about backyard wrestling to exist - but then I got emails back with apologies once they'd actually seen the movie.

CG: The Lizard is an amazing character. The fact that him making the cut of 250 of TE2 got a pop from the Sonoma crowd really speaks to his impression. How'd you find him?

PH: I got really lucky with The Lizard. He was a wrestler I noticed in a federation in Modesto - and something just struck me about him as him being someone I should follow. I was pretty apprehensive at first since he seemed a pretty scary guy...but we've become great friends and a lot of good things are happening for him.

CG: Do you keep up with the folks you featured?

PH: Yeah - pretty much everyone. I have a newsletter at www.thebackyardfilm.com which they're all on.

CG: Have you watched any of the Best of Backyard tapes? What do you think of them?

PH: I watched a couple of them a few years ago. A lot of the "deathmatch" stuff is from HIW who are featured in The Backyard.

CG: Any plans to do more with wrestling? Other documentary? Perhaps directing my script of the Brian Pillman story?

PH: I'm working on a new wrestling show.

CG: More than one person who's seen it has called it the "Beyond the Mat" of the backyard. I noticed that you thanked Barry (Blaustein, director of Beyond The Mat -- ed.) in the credits. Has he seen it?

PH: Yeah - Barry Blaustein saw the film and is a huge supporter of it. He actually introduced the film when it screened in Los Angeles. He also helped out in the editing stage and gave me some great advice.

CG: And finally, where did you draw the line between being a wrestling fan and a documentarian? Did you have a hard time setting the limits of what you would show for reasons of telling the stories of the participants lives and what you would show because it was an awesome spot?

PH: I'm a wrestling fan and filmmaker - so put together what I think both a wrestling fan and non-wrestling fan would like to see. Certainly wrestling fans get more of the in-jokes and you can tell by who laughs where as to if they're a fan or not.

If I wasn't a wrestling fan or didn't know the lingo/business then I don't think I wouldv'e got the access I got from a lot of the kids, and from guys like Rob Van Dam.

Chris Garcia