Jim Powers [RF Video Shoot Interview]

The Good
Sometimes a whole lot of honesty comes from an unexpected source. For the same reason that Jim Wilson's Chokehold was good, this shoot interview with former WWF and WCW undercarder Jim Powers is good. Both were good athletes with potential, both squandered underneath, both blame politics and even homosexuality and both are quite honest about the dirty world they lived in. Jim Powers, however, was generally liked by his peers and was by no means a rabble-rouser. He is also much more straightforward about his own abilities, dependencies and legacy. While I went into to this expecting nothing special, it ended up being very enjoyable. Powers ran with some rebellious types and was able to shed light on characters like the Ultimate Warrior (whom he calls "Jimbo"), Kerry Von Erich and Paul Roma. He is also as up-front about drug use and abuse as anyone this side of Jake Roberts. His views on steroids - "they work!" He even goes into such detail about his and his buddies' daily pill-popping, needle-poking and line-snorting that he takes a second to acknowledge his daughter might here this and than continues. His views on the matter are very well thought-through and although I don't agree with living that lifestyle, he certainly explains how it was practically essential. This was unlike many others.

The Bad
Who is Jim Powers? I don't mean to bury the guy, but a career of jobbing at the worst and being a middle-of-road guy at best does not exactly make you a great shoot interview candidate. Jim Powers' greatest strengths are whom he ran with, what he saw and remembers and how honest he is about it all. Does he really dish the dirt? Not to the extent that he seems bitter and makes those old buddies look bad, but he definitely does not the WWF any favors in terms of PR. What Jim Powers lacks in star power, main event experience, booking knowledge and psychology sense, he makes up for in being in the right place at the right time and being alive and aware in an era that wants to ask him about it.

The Rating: ****

Bruno Sammartino [RF Video Shoot Interview]

The Good
Eric Gargiulo's RF Video shoot interviews are so hit-or-miss. While I tend to think he is significantly better than Rob Feinstein, he is not as good as a number of other interviewers. This shoot interview goes nearly three hours and the advantage that Gargiulo has here is that he has interviewed Bruno Sammartino more times on his Pro Wrestling Radio show than anyone, so he has a good rapport with Bruno and knows which stories to get him to tell, which issues will make him bristle and probably which questions to avoid. That being said, Bruno is one of those people whose interviews I will always listen to because he is well-spoken, he is honest and he has a legacy that is second-to-none. Gargiulo is pretty familiar with Bruno's history, so he is able to direct things coherently and chronologically. The story of his journey from a sickly child hiding from the SS in the Italian mountains to a weightlifting standout and eventually one of the biggest drawing cards of all-time is remarkable. He goes into being blackballed early in his career, building a legacy in Toronto that led to his New York City return and all the amazing feuds and people he rubbed shoulders with over the years. Bruno has a million stories and he shares some of the best ones here.

The Bad
Interestingly, I would say if you can only listen to one Bruno Sammartino interview, I'd listen to this one. Although I personally prefer his shoot with Jim Cornette, this was a little more comprehensive. However, if you've heard a lot of interviews with Bruno (and he has definitely done a lot), you might find a lot of this redundant. It seems like Gargiulo's intent was to get that career overview interview while making sure Bruno tells some of his best stories along the way. This is the standard RF Video shoot in many ways.


The Rating:  ****1/2

Secrets of the Ring - Dusty Rhodes

The Good
Gabe Sapolsky sits down with Dusty Rhodes (this was while he was working with NWA-TNA) and they go through his journal, specifically the year of 1987. If you love Dusty, I cannot imagine you would not enjoy this. He is a toned down version of his "American Dream" character and delivers so many of those "Rhodeisms" that it spices things up. They talk briefly about building things to this high-point in Jim Crockett Promotions. Dusty talks about his jump from Florida, his promotion of Starcade and how that changed, his relationship with Jim Crockett (and other big wigs in the business) and they go over some of the turmoil that followed JCP's decline. The crux of this is going through the year, picking out some key shows, talking about Dusty's booking psychology, the UWF merger and JCP's expansion and they discuss the talent. If you want to know about how the War Games, the Great American Bash tours, the Crockett Cup and other JCP standards came to be, this is the place to hear about them. Why did Ronnie Garvin get pushed so hard? Why did Nikita Koloff "replace" Magnum TA after TA's car wreck? How could he successfully run two and three shows every night? Why did Dusty not push the UWF talent harder and try to work an interpromotional feud? Dusty has some great answers and especially as it concerns that last question. If you look at the history of interpromotional feuds, there is a trend. Sometimes the invaders are put over strong (Poffos in Memphis, The Outsiders & nWo in WCW, UWFi contingency in New Japan) and business spikes, but ultimately the whole things cools off ad transitioning to the next big thing can be hard as it is kind of "hotshot" type angle. Sometimes the in-coming crew is buried (WCW/ECW talent in WWF being the most infamous example). Dusty explains why he, as the booker, could not justify pushing these outsiders over the talent that he'd been up and down the road with. He felt he gave the in-coming stars chances and several delivered Steve Williams, Big Bubba and, of course, Sting. However, some of them like Eddie Gilbert, Terry Taylor and others did not. I cannot say I entirely agree with his stance and feel like that missed opportunity probably did JCP more harm than good, but I think his defense is reasonable.

The Bad
Dusty Rhodes is such a hit-or-miss person for me. He is someone who I can pop for when he does his schtick, I thought he had some great ideas in Crockett and 1993 WCW, I would crack up at his color commentary and thought the WWE Documentary on him was great, however his book was unimpressive, his RF Video shoot was lackluster, his matches and booking were awful at times and he has kind of become a cartoon character and his serious side seems to have retired years ago. This shoot is a great concept and it has some great content, however I would say I was a bit disappointed. I don't know if it was the lack of depth in his notes, Gabe's lack of digging or Dusty's lack of communication skills (hard to believe, considering he was one of the greatest promos ever), but this shoot interview was not the masterpiece I would have hoped for.

The Rating: ***3/4

Savage

Director: n/a

Distributor: Altux Films Production

Released: 1978?

Talent Featured

Iron Shiek, Jerry Oates, Bull Ramos, Dutch Savage, Jimmy Snuka, Jesse Ventura, The Von Steigers

The Good
An interesting little look at Portland wrestling in 1978 that is kind of just a hodgepodge of clips of matches, candid comments from fans and wrestlers and some actual promos as well. While there is not commentary on things, clearly this was edited to portray pro-wrestling in certain way. While the "fakeness" of the sport seems to be a focal point (and it would continue to be so for another twenty years), there is not really an effort to "expose" the business. The fans are clearly believers and while some look crazy for getting so angry at the heels, the ones they interview seem normal enough. The grandma who talks about making shortbread for Johnny Eagles is a classic stereotypical pro-wrestling fan, so are the toothless old man, insane lady in the front row (who cusses out one of the Von Steigers), the crazed nerdy guy and stern blue collar-looking guy. Pro-wrestling was a very different product then and its core fan base was very different as well. An interesting little glimpse into pro-wrestling of an era gone by.

The Bad
While this has some cool footage from an underexposed territory, this is nothing spectacular in the day of YouTube. I think the featuring of Dutch Savage and Bull Ramos is the most significant as those two have scarce footage floating around. This was very short, offered no real commentary and was kind of incomplete in terms of portraying the angles going on. Personally, I cannot validate watching much current "wrestling," when there is so much great stuff from yesteryear that is readily available and free on YouTube. This might not be the best example of an amazing gem, but it is certainly something that is neat to watch once and not have to go through some of the transactions that many went through in the tape trading era for something so mediocre.

The Rating: ***1/2

Straight Shootin' with Ken Patera

The Good
Over-the-top shoot interviews can be fun and they certainly gain the most notoriety. While not as wild as the Iron Sheik, Jamie Dundee or Billy Jack Haynes, Ken Patera certainly has some unique perspectives, candid comments and colorful language to say the least. He could be billed as angry, bitter and crazy based on this (and his drunken RF Video shoot), but he unquestionably had a stellar career and worked on or near the top in a variety of promotions for over a decade. However, he had some rough times in life and never quite reached the upper echelon. He was a top-notch Olympic lifter who is often seen as someone who blew it at the Olympics (he did get a bronze with a bad knee, so his "failure" was not quite like Mark Henry's). He was a great working heel with legit credentials, but is not mentioned in the same breath as many other "legends" he worked alongside. He is often remembered best for his low points - his pathetic babyface run in 87-88, his two years in prison, his wacky Shiek gimmick in the AWA. He is a man who really gave everything he had to a business that left him with numerous personal problems. I think he has some validity in his bitterness, but he goes about it in a much more entertaining way than many of his peers. In spite of some of the insanity here, Patera is able to really get into his greatness and if you can move past the bullshitting, mudslinging and name-calling, you can know that he is not obscenely overstating his legacy. All of that aside, he is a hilarious storyteller. He rambles, he stumbles over words, he swears incessantly and has incredible stories involving Ric Flair, Wahoo McDaniel, Curt Hennig and many others known for their decadence. While he does have a filter, he is more wide open than a great many legends. He talks frankly about his own personal, professional, physical and martial problems. Even with all this, I am still not sure if I would call him "bitter."

The Bad
I really think this was tremendous shoot interview and rate as the best of interviews of the bitter, angry and possibly crazy crowd. Ken Patera is probably the biggest star of all those guys (Ole Anderson could probably stake a serious claim to that as well), yet he has plenty of nasty things to say about half the people he worked with and some unflattering stuff about many of the other half. While I don't think he is really delusional or a bold-faced liar, he certainly has some screwy stories that I simply cannot buy. Some seem to have no merit past his convincing telling of them - Jesse Ventura was a heroine addict, Bruno Sammartino cussed out Vince McMahon back in the day for coming in the lockerroom and he was the person largely responsible for getting Ric Flair in and keeping him in the business early on. He is quite a character and curses and spits through many great anecdotes, but I'd question some of the details in this one.

The Rating: ****3/4

Straight Shootin' with Ron Killings

The Good
I tend not to like shoot interviews with active wrestlers because they can be a little too politically cautious, too angry about a recent release, too positive about their current situation and simply not have not been able to step back and reflect on a full career. They can be very interesting, especially to listen to subsequent interviews. Al Snow's first RF Video was angry and perhaps bitter, his second RF Video shoot was amazingly thoughtful considering the short span of time between them. As of 2010, Ron Killings is working in the WWE near the top as R-Truth, during this interview he was a few years into his TNA run after a failing WWF run. Some of the things he mentions (his name changes, for example) were very interesting because of how his career changed after this shoot. He seems honest, without burying WWF personnel. I think this should stand out as an example why going nuts and blasting Triple H, the McMahons and John Laurenitis is not necessary to come across as being honest and straight. In the same breath, letting some steam off about how you were wronged (because few people are let go for justifiable reasons) is fine. I found this interesting, but more in a historical relic sense, rather than a genuine shoot interview sense.

The Bad
Shoots with younger guys can be really good if they're funny and/or have good stories, but usually they're nothing special. Ron Killings, at this point, was fresh off his second NWA title run in TNA, who had just started up on FOX Sports Net. Obviously, things have changed dramatically since that time. The basic story was him breaking in, working the indies, catching a break with the WWF, having stints in developmental and at the big show, then hooking up with NWA-TNA and reinventing himself and being very successful. He was very positive and seemed quite honest, which makes for a dull interview in this case. Not that he should have been burying everybody, but for someone who is a great promo, he was mediocre shoot interview candidate. Gabe Sapolsky is a solid interviewer and even he could not bring this into the interesting category for me.

The Rating: ***

Lance Storm [RF Video Shoot Interview `99]

The Good

These early RF Video shoots were largely a mixed bag of poorly executed interviews with big names who could talk well and interviews that are "better" executed with ECW stars.  Here, Lance Storm sits in the chair and talk about his first decade in the business.  Lance is a tremendous talker in this atmosphere as he is thoughtful, respectful and is able to really dig deep on topics.  This is why his involvement with Bryan Alvarez and the Figure-Four Daily has been so great.  Although this predates his WCW and WWF runs as well as his post-retirement activities, he has plenty of time to talk about his various experiences in Germany and Japan that probably would go undiscussed if a comparable first interview was done today.  I particularly found his reflections on Germany to be great because few people have talked about it much, but he was able to put over Fit Finley and Danny Collins while talking frankly about Otto Wanz, Dave Taylor and others.  Others might find his comments on Japan to be more interesting as he discussed Jushin Liger, Shinjiro Otani, Atsushi Onita, Genichiro Tenryu, Yuji Yasuroaka and many others.  Lance also talks about breaking in with the Harts, his experiences working for Jim Cornette in Smoky Mountain as well as getting into ECW and moving up the ladder there.  If you've never heard Lance Storm, I'd highly recommend his shoots, co-hosting gigs and so on.

The Bad

The obvious digs on this would be, who is Lance Storm to have the opinions he has here?  This is slippery slope because while he had almost ten years in the business and was well-traveled, he was still relatively young and didn't have experience compared to people like, say, Jim Duggan, who were kind of negative about Lance.  In any event, Storm is a very intelligent and principled person who delivers an interview like few others because of those factors.  Some people might not have been crazy about his work, his personality or find him the most enjoyable to listen to, but I would put him in the upper echelon of shoot interviews.

The Rating: ****1/4