Icons of Wrestling: Abdullah the Butcher

Director: n/a
Distributor: TWC (The Wrestling Channel)
Released: 1/06
Featured Talent
Abdullah the Butcher, Jim Melby, Antonio Inoki, Martha Shreeve

The Good
The "Icons of Wrestling" series from TWC in Britain does some cool short documentaries on some legendary figures. This one of Abby is better than others I have seen because he is a more recent star, so they had more quality footage (including he and Hulk Hogan in New Japan, although they overplay the impact of that match). Seeing the house where he grew up, hearing from his mother and his restaurant in Atlanta made this unique. However, his views and stories about his family made this a real human story.

The Bad
At twenty-two minutes, it is difficult to really capture a career like Abdullah's. This has a long and unnecessary part about World War II, which adds something in other shows, but not this one. The lack of commentary from people keeps the scope of this narrow. The worst part however is when they call Bruiser Brody "Tug Taylor" and Carlos Colon "Calos Stalone." Despite these gross errors, they do not detract greatly from the story.

The Rating: ***