WWE/A&E "Biography"

[...TG]

https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/wwe-ae-co-producing-five-biography-documentaries-280846

I didn't know A&E still did these. Seems like a reaction to the Viceland documentaries that are premiering soon. From the article, Billy Corben will be directing the Savage episode. He's pretty notable (he did the "Cocaine Cowboys" docs), so hopefully that one at least won't be the WWE-whitewashed version of history.

[El-P]

3 minutes ago, ...TG said:

so hopefully that one at least won't be the WWE-whitewashed version of history.

Of course it will, they co-produce it.

[flyonthewall2983]

I find this very interesting only in that I remember the time A&E did episodes of Biography on WWE talent, until the network obtained the rights to Wrestling With Shadows and that was finished. 

[The Thread Killer]

Massive thread bump here, but it’s for a reason.

The latest season of WWE Biography on A&E started a couple of weeks ago. The Season Premiere was a 2 Part episode called “The Curse of the Von Erichs.”

I know what you are probably thinking. WWE already did the “Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling” years ago. Then there was the independently produced “Heroes of World Class” documentary. Most recently there was the Dark Side of the Ring episode “The Last of the Von Erichs.”

Because of all of that, I went into this not really expecting much that I had not heard already. I was actually really surprised by this episode, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the production on this episode was top-notch. The A&E produced biographies are done in cooperation with WWE, but A&E handles the production, and it really shows. Over the last few years some of the Biography specials they have done have actually been better than the WWE produced documentaries that were on the network. For example, I think the Bret Hart and Mick Foley episodes of Biography were superior to the WWE DVD’s and documentaries produced about those guys.

More importantly, in the case of “The Curse of the Von Erichs” this episode of Biography was produced with the full cooperation of the family, so they have access to all sorts of family home movies which have never been seen before. Even more interesting than that, there are interviews with family members that have never given interviews before, most notably the widow of Kerry Von Erich. I can honestly say that there is family information that is disclosed in this episode of Biography that has never been disclosed before. I know this may sound almost impossible to believe, but the history of this family is even more tragic than we already knew, if you can even believe that. This episode also challenges some of the popular narratives that exist about the tragedies that have occurred within the Von Erich family.

Anyhow, my point is that I highly recommend watching this episode if you have an interest in the Von Erich family. It’s a fascinating Biography.

[WrestlingPower]

This season has been very well done for sure.  The interviews with Kevin's adult daughters and Kerry's ex were all excellent.  I like the approach they took to the Horsemen doc, focusing on the 80s version and just quickly recapping all the later versions without muddying up the story by going into all of that in detail.  The LOD one was very well done but had a MAJOR flaw just like the Hogan Netflix one, you really can't properly tell their story without the Japan portion.  It really undersells how big of stars they were and how much $ was rolling in.  This one had like a 15 second mention of Hell Raisers but ignored Japan altogether otherwise.

[sek69]

Animal's widow has been on social media calling that episode bullshit, so something's going on there.

[The Thread Killer]

30 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Animal's widow has been on social media calling that episode bullshit, so something's going on there.

She’s very upset that she was not asked to participate in the episode, but Animal’s first two wives and his daughter were. Thing is, she met Animal much later in life, long after his Pro Wrestling career was over, so realistically I don’t know how much she really could have contributed to a documentary about his Pro Wrestling career or The Road Warriors. It’s my understanding she didn’t even know Hawk. She was physically with Animal when he died, and she’s claiming Animal’s daughter is lying about the details of his death.

The relationship between his last wife and the rest of his family is clearly very strained. Animal’s body was barely in the ground when she was online trying to raise money off the guy’s name, claiming he didn’t leave her any money and that he didn’t have Life Insurance, so she was essentially broke. She ran more than one unsuccessful Crowdfunding attempt after he died, trying to get financial support she claimed she needed. Apparently the rest of Animal’s family tried to ice her out of his Memorial Service as well.

I guess Animal did leave her the Road Warriors/LOD trademarks (apparently he owned them, not Hawk or Ellering) so she has had disputes with the rest of his family around that, as well.

[The Thread Killer]

Having said all that, I still thought “The Curse of the Von Erichs” was outstanding. The 4 Horseman episode was okay. Family drama aside, The Road Warriors episode really wasn’t all that good. There were glaring historical omissions, (like @WrestlingPower said, Japan was totally ignored.)

And I’m sorry but when you put Peter Rosenberg and Sam Roberts forward as your main Pro Wrestling Historian talking heads…I just can’t take you seriously.

[WrestlingPower]

Yeah the RWs one, while well produced, did come across as clearly lacking.  How many times did they go back to Hawk's drug problems?  I have no doubt it probably affected things but they didn't even mention him doing monkey steroids which affected his heart.  No mention of them returning to WCW, which I *think* happened in the early Nitro era before their WWE return.  No mention of Animal being injured and getting the Lloyd's of London thing that was at least a decent sized factor in Hawk going off & doing the Hell Raisers thing.  It was common knowledge that Animal wasn't happy about it but he shouldn't have been totally blindsided since he was basically out of the business at that point.  He literally couldn't wrestle without forfeiting the $ and then when he came back it had to be in tags.