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Dark Side of the Ring


flyonthewall2983

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14 hours ago, sek69 said:

Apparently the Montreal episode leans heavily on already disproven talking points (like Bret was going to take the WWF belt to Nitro so Vince had to do what he did), so I'm sure Dave's already anticipating more idiots coming after him claiming this show proves him wrong some how. He's more or less insinuated he feels the whole subject is done to death, but when something like this comes up he has to talk about it again. 

There's a Bruce Prichard talking head with a throwaway line about "your champion showing up on Nitro" that the producers left in because they didn't think he meant it literally. That's about it.

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15 hours ago, sek69 said:

I do remember Dave saying something along the lines of the doc revealing who originally came up with the idea, hinting it would be someone unexpected. Did that make the final cut at all?

Yes. You'll know who it is immediately after viewing the teaser at the start of the episode.

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So is Bret claiming that he didn't have sex with Sunny.  That seems a bit far fetched given his reputation and unfortunately Sunny's reputation at that time.   I loved Bret comparing his bathroom brawl with Shawn in Hartford "like two prostitutes fighting in the street".  I am sure 1997 Bret and Shawn would have a different view of how that fight looked like.  

For the people who don't normally follow wrestling I am sure this is a rather fascinating story.  Except for Corrnette and Russo having a pissing contest about who gave Vince the idea for the finish it was nothing we haven't heard a million times.  Although the idea of Vince Russo and Jim Cornette talking about a screw job in 1997 is kind of a mind fuck given their history. was pretty obvious even if you knew nothing about the business.   

The biggest work in this whole thing was Scott Hall claiming that the Montreal Screwjob is a work.  For fuck sake his best friend is Shawn Michaels.  

The actor portraying Jim isn't chubby  and crazy enough.    Also the idea of Vince taking a huge off of his feet back bump from an uppercut seems like complete bullshit

 

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Plus it was pretty well known that Sunny and Shawn were a thing at the time,  so for him to make the allegation towards Bret was like some ribbing-on-the-square bullshit.

I thought it was a pretty good summation of the whole thing where Bruce Pritchard ends up being the voice of reason by pointing out this all could have been avoided if the two of them could have got over themselves. 

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One thing I find kind of humorous is that back at the time it happened, the narrative put forward in some circles was that nobody knew about the planned screwjob ahead of time except for Vince and Earl Hebner. A lot of people didn't believe that, but I know a fair number of fans did. Not even Vince's inner circle knew. Bruce didn't know.  JR didn't know. Russo claimed at the time that he didn't know, and swore on that fact when Mick Foley confronted him about it.  Even Shawn didn't know, (so by extension neither did Triple H.) Then Shawn admits on Confidential that okay...he knew, and then so does Gerry Brisco...and the pendulum starts to swing the other way. Now the more time that goes by, all sorts of people claim that not only did they know - but it was their idea.  Vince planned it.  No, Russo planned it.  No, Brisco planned it.  It was Triple H's idea ("if he doesn't want to do business we make him do business!") No, it was Cornette's idea. The Montreal Screwjob has gone from being the best guarded conspiracy in the history of Pro Wrestling to something that everybody up to and including the popcorn guy knew about ahead of time.

I admit to being biased against the guy, but to me Vince Russo just came across in this episode as desperate to be relevant to any conversation about anything at this point.  I think he'd cop to being the second gunman on the grassy knoll if the thought it might help him get exposure or back in WWE.

 

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7 hours ago, hammerva said:

So is Bret claiming that he didn't have sex with Sunny.  That seems a bit far fetched given his reputation and unfortunately Sunny's reputation at that time. 

Lord knows in his book Bret pretty much brags about sleeping with practically every woman within a 50 mile radius of every WWF event while he worked there, so I was surprised he denied it as well.

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Wow, what a shocker. Corny has talked about him explaining to Vince and the crew what a screwjob was only for years on podcasts now... Anyway, he came off like a star though, no one tells a story like him (can't believe he did the "piss on his grave" promo at the end though, that and the framing of death threats were soooo pro-wrestling).

You gotta love Corny dropping knowledge with historical details in his attics full of memorabilia, and then you got that complete idiot Russo going "Bro, I told Vince what to do bro." No idea why they even bothered with this imbecile. Scott Hall was also worthless here. Never talked about the Montreal Screwjob with Shawn. Yeah. Sure. A fair amount of bullshit in this episode, but Corny & Bruce made it smooth, at least. Gotta love Bruce talking about "dropping the championship". Even in a documentary, he has to speak like a WWE drone...

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8 hours ago, El-P said:

You gotta love Corny dropping knowledge with historical details in his attics full of memorabilia, and then you got that complete idiot Russo going "Bro, I told Vince what to do bro." No idea why they even bothered with this imbecile. Scott Hall was also worthless here. Never talked about the Montreal Screwjob with Shawn. Yeah. Sure. A fair amount of bullshit in this episode, but Corny & Bruce made it smooth, at least. Gotta love Bruce talking about "dropping the championship". Even in a documentary, he has to speak like a WWE drone...

I think that was going with the overarching reality bending theme for the series: You have the guy who regrets coming up with it telling his whole truth for the first time, while his mortal enemy is taking credit for the same thing that he very obviously didn't come up with in a weak grasp at relevance.

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Probably my only complaint was the "LGN Wrestling Superstars" flub. 

I've actually got my mom watching this, as she loves these docu-style shows. It's helped keep perspective on how this series comes off to non- or passive wrestling fans. She wasn't familiar with the Montreal Screwjob at all, so all of this was riveting to her. 

Hall seemed out of place on this episode after coming off pretty well in the Savage episode.

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This episode was as bad as the first one was good.

20 minutes of Russo and Cornette blathering on about each other. They need to get the fuck over themselves more than Bret and Shawn did.

What was the “big revelation”? That Cornette and Russo came up with it together and/or Cornette did based on some 1930s incident with Strangler Lewis? Consider me officially underwhelmed.

Scott Hall sounded looney tunes, but if the documentary had to give voice to the conspiracy theorists, I’m glad it was at least dealt with quickly. 

Maybe it’s just me, but I thought Bruce added nothing of interest to this installment.

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8 hours ago, C.S. said:

Maybe it’s just me, but I thought Bruce added nothing of interest to this installment.

So the same role he's been playing on his podcast lately.

I was pretty underwhelmed by this. I bought the season on Amazon (I think that was highlighted on the Amazon game for BTS a week or two ago) and I'm glad I only paid $0.99 for it.

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These two episodes weren't particularly compelling for someone who knows the stories, although Linda added some good details on the Savage-Liz breakup, and Cornette's additions on Montreal were worth a little. Much more interested in what's to come, especially the Gino story which hasn't gotten much press at all.

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