Author Archives: Jonathan Williams

Adam Sandler’s hot for teacher in “That’s My Boy”

Oh yeah? Well my dad's friends with Vanilla Ice. Oh, never mind (photo by Tracy Bennett)

He’s got it bad, got it bad, got it bad. He’s hot for teacher. That should be the theme song for Donny Berger, Adam Sandler‘s latest lovable loser, who father’s a child with his hot junior high school teacher (Eva Amurri) in That’s My Boy. But even though the soundtrack has at least three Van Halen songs (including “Cradle Will Rock,” which is equally appropriate), “Hot For Teacher” isn’t one of them. But with all the other jackassery that follows Donny’s endearingly dimwitted adventures, most people probably won’t even notice.

After Miss McGarricle is sent to prison for having sex with her student, a media frenzy makes Donny a pseudo-celebrity before he’s even out of high school. The 30-something Donny, however, finds himself guzzling beer, owing thousands of dollars in taxes and estranged from his son Han Solo Berger (Andy Samberg), who has changed his name to Todd Peterson and created an entirely new life for himself. But when Donny is propositioned with an offer that will eliminate his tax debts if he can arrange a reunion between his son at the women’s prison where McGarricle has been serving her sentence, he’s unable to refuse.

What better place for father/son bonding than an all-night strip club/omelette bar? (photo by Tracy Bennett)

Though money is his initial motivation, once Donny arrives unannounced (and uninvited) in a run-down Fiero with a Rush logo on the hood just days before Todd’s wedding, he and Todd gradually develop an odd bond that forces Donny to reconsider exploiting his son’s anonymity on a reality show. And although his son and bride-to-be Christina (Leighton Meester) are appalled at Donny’s immature and slovenly behavior, he has a charm that wins over the rest of their family and friends.

Before you know it, Donny’s showing Todd how to have a real bachelor party as he and his friends go to an all-night strip club/omelette bar (yep) where the featured dancer is that overweight black hooker from Borat (Luenell). Then they go ice skating with Vanilla Ice and Todd Bridges. Then Donny finds out Christina’s been engaging in acts that make his whole student/teacher thing look downright wholesome. This all, of course, ruins the wedding, which turns out to be a good thing for Todd.

White trash family reunion (photo by Tracy Bennett)

There’s a whole bunch of Sandler and Samberg’s Saturday Night Live buddies in this movie (Colin Quinn, Will Forte, Ana Gasteyer, Rachel Dratch), as well as plenty of inane comedy, toilet humor and the kind of sophomoric laughs you’d expect from a movie about a teenager living out every boy’s fantasy starring Adam Sandler. The moral of the story (if there is one) is that age ain’t nothing but a number when it comes to true love. And when Todd and Donny pay a visit to the present-day Miss McGarricle (Susan Sarandon, who flashes a vintage Hulk Hogan shirt from under her orange jumpsuit), the connection she and Donny have is still apparent with the fingering gestures they give each other against the prison’s glass partition.

That’s My Boy is retarded and inappropriate on just about every level. I happen to think that makes it pretty hilarious.

That’s My Boy. Directed by Sean Anders. Starring Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg and Leighton Meester. Rated R. www.thatsmyboy-movie.com.

“Rock of Ages” is an ’80s rock musical for almost all ages

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Sherrie (Julianne Hough) and Drew (Diego Boneta) serenade each other at Tower Records in "Rock of Ages". (photo by David James)

Based on the Broadway musical of the same name, Rock of Ages initially looks like an ’80s hair metal version of Glee. In many ways, that’s exactly what it is. Yet somehow Rock of Ages is a lot of fun to watch, especially if you’re a fan of (or grew up in) the ’80s.

The premise is basically the same as Poison‘s “Fallen Angel”; a pretty Midwest girl takes a bus to Los Angeles in hopes of finding fame alongside the likes of her favorite bands such as Aerosmith, Poison and Lita Ford. Played by Julianne Hough, who has parlayed her Dancing with the Stars and country music talents into starring roles in cheesy musicals like Footloose and Rock of Ages, this small-town girl soon meets her male counterpart (Diego Boneta), an aspiring singer currently sweeping floors at the famed Sunset Strip dive The Bourbon Room. Both struggling to make it, the couple is equally excited to find out that rock messiah Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) will soon be at The Bourbon Room as part of his band Arsenal’s final show.

Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) confronts his sleazy manager (Paul Giamatti) in "Rock of Ages". (photo by David James)

But Jaxx is equal parts Jesus and Satan, and his aura creates desire and destruction wherever he goes. Like a cross between Axl Rose, David Lee Roth and Jim Morrison, Jaxx has developed a reputation for being the most unreliable man in rock ‘n’ roll. He’s rarely seen without a liquor bottle in hand and without at least three groupies at his side (or piled on top of him), he travels with an eccentric baboon named Hey Man, and Kevin Nash is one of the hired muscles that makes sure no one gets too close. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays the conservative wife of the mayor determined to shut down The Bourbon Room and take Jaxx with it, but it turns out her fight is personal as she has some history with Jaxx herself. And when Jaxx finally arrives at the club for his performance, it is both a blessing and a curse for Sherrie (Hough) and Drew (Boneta) as Drew’s band gets to open for Arsenal, but not before Drew sees Sherrie coming out of Jaxx’s dressing room and gets the wrong idea.

Club owner Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin) and manager Lonny Barnett (Russell Brand) have a lot to sing about in "Rock of Ages". (photo by David James)

The second act is nothing but tragedy as Sherrie meets the owner of a gentlemen’s club (Mary J. Blige) and becomes a star stripper while Drew signs a deal with Jaxx’s sleazy manager (Paul Giamatti) and ends up in a ridiculous boy band. The Bourbon Room is on the brink of closing due to unpaid taxes and a lurid Rolling Stone cover story reveals the inner workings of Jaxx’s world (including some dishonesty on the part of his slimy manager).

But all is soon well for everyone as Jaxx performs his first solo show at The Bourbon Room (but not before Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand profess their love for each other), Sherrie and Drew work things out and actual ’80s rockers like Sebastian Bach, Extreme‘s Nuno Bettencourt, REO Speedwagon‘s Kevin Cronin and, uh, Deborah Gibson (?) make cameos. And the whole thing is set to the tunes of Skid Row, Twisted Sister, Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard and Journey, with mash-up medleys to help further the story.

Is it cheesy as hell and dimensionally simplistic? Of course. It’s a musical based on hair metal. It ain’t lookin’ for nothin’ but a good time. How can I resist?

Rock of Ages. Directed by Adam Shankman. Starring Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand. Rated PG-13. rockofagesmovie.warnerbros.com.

Cata9tales whips up rock-infused hip-hop with glam aesthetics

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Kenny "Kreator" Perkins and Berkley Priest are Cata9tales

After meeting a little more than a year ago, self-proclaimed music nerds Berkley Priest and Kenny “Kreator” Perkins quickly realized the power of their combined talents. Adopting the Cata9tales name, the Virginia-based duo released its first album, Kick the Bad Love less than three months later. And after having a few of its tracks featured in the Platinum Championship Wrestling documentary The Booker, which premiered in March at the Atlanta Film Festival, the band recently released an EP called A Chameleon’s Dream. Known for live shows that combine over-the-top rock ‘n’ roll theatrics with hip-hop rhymes and electronica beats, the band has been hitting the road for regional performances in recent weeks with plans to do more extensive touring later this year (including the Rise of the Clarksvillans show with New Born Redemption and The Dynamo Humm this Saturday in Clarksville, Va. Before Cata9tales whips up a frenzy on stage, Priest and Kreator talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about their burgeoning career.

I was introduced to your music when I saw the PCW documentary The Booker at the Atlanta Film Festival. How did you get involved with that film?

Kreator: That’s a film made by my cousin, Mike Perkins. He contacted me about doing a little bit of music for it, so I sent him a few of the tracks we were working on at the time and it made it in there. I’ve done music for some of his other documentaries. One was about a motocross team and I did some instrumental tunes. In The Booker he uses a snippet of “Give em the Boot” and some other small things that aren’t actual Cata9tales tracks. And he used part of “The People vs Jesus of Nazareth”.

Priest: Some of them are Cata9tales tracks that he took the vocals off of so he could use the beat and background music. But “Give em the Boot” was featured in there since it uses a lot of boxing analogies in the lyrics. That was probably the biggest song off our first record and people still kind of gravitate towards that one.

Your music could be classified as hip-hop, but unlike most white rappers today your sound is more of a throwback to the sounds of the ’80s and ’90s. How did you guys come up with this unique Cata9tales sound?

Kreator: We grew up in the South and the music we listened to as teenagers influences us a great deal, especially the early ’90s when they were starting to meld styles like hip-hop and rock together. We both played instruments and come from rock bands, so that type of arrangement and song structure is common to us. We tend to lean more towards that, but we use the technology of hip-hop, which is sequencers and beat machines and that sort of stuff.

Priest: I don’t consider myself a rapper. I consider myself a poet, if anything. But I’m really a rock ‘n’ roll-style front man who just happens to be able to rhyme and not really sing so much. So it’s kind of a weird thing. But Kenny are massive music fans and music nerds. We’re well studied in it, so what you get is essentially a lifetime of each of us studying all these different kinds of music and playing a lot of different instruments in a lot of different bands. And it’s suddenly coming together in this last year or so in creating this weird hybrid hip-hop music. It’s not a conscious thing where we’re going to sit down and make this kind of music, it’s just what comes out.

It looks like you guys are starting to branch out from your Virginia base. What do you have planned for this summer?

Priest: Yeah, we’re starting to break and play more. We’re going to play Richmond, Philly, D.C. and New York. We’re sending out press kits and doing everything we can to get the band out there and push it. It’s kind of a now-or-never thing because we’ve gotten to the point where we can go out and really put on good shows, and I’m proud of the last record we did. We’re still in the baby stages, but we’re at that stage where it’s time to break out and really push it.

It’s mostly weekend shows with some mid-week shows here and there. It’s not jump on the road and stay on the road yet, but I want it to be that way by the fall. Because of where we’re located, we’re kind of in the middle of nowhere, but we’re lose to a lot of different cities within a two-hour radius. So we’re trying to nail all those cities and we’re talking about relocating at the end of summer to somewhere that has a little better musical climate than where we are right now. I lived in New York and Los Angeles for a long time, so I have a lot of connections out there. So we’re very fortunate that we already have some inroads in some of these places.

Do you have a backing band that joins you on stage or is it always just the two of you?

Priest: We have other musicians. Kenny and I write everything and we’re the core of the band, but when it comes to the live show we go the Alice Cooper route with a big production and a lot of energy with me hanging from the ceiling and throwing stuff and light shows. We usually have a guitar player, bass player and a hype man on stage. Sometimes we work out other routines, but generally speaking we’ll do some small shows where it’s just me and Kenny, but if we’re doing a big headlining show we do the full band thing.

The new EP just came out in April. Are you working on any new material or are you focused more on getting this music out to people?

Kreator: We’re always working on something new. Right now we’re focusing on playing live, but we’ve always got stuff cooking on the back burner.

Priest: Yeah. Last time we sat down to have a rehearsal, we ended up cutting samples most of the night. So we’re always working on stuff and there is new stuff coming out. But through the summer, and probably through the fall as well, we want to promote what we’ve got now that we have a decent amount of material to stand on. We’ve released these two records and given them away; the next release we won’t. We’d rather give stuff away and build a fan base. It’s a cliche to say this, but it’s really not about money for us. It’s about the art and really just loving what we do, and it really had nothing to do with trying to be rich or anything. Though money would be nice.

You mentioned that you’re planning on doing a more extensive tour in the fall. Do you have an specific cities or dates booked yet?

Priest: We don’t have anything locked in yet, but we’ll hopefully be able to put some dates out by the end of next month.

For more information, go to www.cata9tales.com.

Georgia Wrestling Now welcomes AIWF’s Matt Classic and Anthony Henry

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On this week’s edition of Georgia Wrestling Now, Team All You Can Eat’s Matt Hankins and Wrestling with Pop Culture talked to Matt Classic from Allied Independent Wrestling Federations. We also heard from NWA Anarchy Young Lions Champion and Augusta Wrestling Alliance Heavyweight Champion Anthony Henry. This show also included discussion on recent and upcoming events in NWA Anarchy, NWA Alternative Pro Wrestling, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, WWE and more.

Augusta Wrestling Alliance Heavyweight Champion and NWA Anarchy Young Lions Champion Anthony Henry

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“Prometheus” creates an entirely new look at a familiar film

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Something is watching over these egg things. But who or what is it? (photo by Kerry Brown)

For a film that’s supposedly not a prequel to 1979’s Alien, Prometheus sure does bear a lot of similarities to that movie. And considering the standard that Ridley Scott set for sci-fi horror with that film, any correlation is a lot to live up to. Which is exactly why film-goers’ guts are ready to burst with excitement over this latest installment in the franchise. Or not installment. Or whatever. But even after a few days of gestation, I’m not quite sure whether or not Prometheus quite stands up to the film that may or may not have given it life more than 30 years ago.

What I can say is that Scott is clearly following a similar formula here. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s actually quite clever. But you tell me if any of this sounds familiar. After archeologists in the near future conclude that some sort of Promethean being on a distant planet could very well have engineered humanity, a ragtag group of scientists, crewmen, corporate scum and an android fly to this distant place (on a ship called Prometheus) in hopes of meeting their makers (or making a quick buck). It’s all funded by Weyland Industries, the company that has been (or will be, since the events in the previous films have yet to happen) willing to sacrifice the lives of humans in exchange for exploiting what they find on other planets.

Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) and Janek (Idris Elba) look out at the unknown in "Prometheus". (photo by Kerry Brown)

Charlize Theron plays the icy cold Weyland employee overseeing the expedition, and her suspicious nature makes for some uneasiness amongst the rest of the crew. Her seemingly evil empowerment is offset by the optimistic archaeologist (Noomi Rapace) who chooses to believe that she is answering a call from a godlike being. Michael Fassbender plays David, the android, and he accurately captures the creepy nature of a being that is almost human, but not quite (and who has likely been programmed with some sort of ulterior motives, if the other movies have taught us anything). Powerful female characters and androids have become standard in the Alien films and Prometheus is obviously no exception to that rule. These are also the characters that typically weather the most abuse, only to come out stronger (and still alive) after all is said and done (with the heroine reluctantly relying on what’s left of the android in order to escape).

But it’s not just the characters that are familiar here. Once they land and begin exploring this mysterious planet, they discover a series of cavernous structures where someone (or something) has created a livable habitat beneath the surface of an otherwise uninhabitable terrain. These caverns, as well as the things found inside them, are clearly from the same eerily imaginative settings of H.R. Giger, the artist whose work heavily inspired the Alien movies. And the farther they go into the ribcage-like tunnels, the more biomechanical discoveries they make until they eventually end up in a dark room with large egg-shaped things meticulously lined up all over the ground.

I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not an alien hive. At least not like the ones we’ve seen before. But these canisters are shaped like eggs for a reason, and it has nothing to do with omelettes. Things continue to be simultaneously familiar and shockingly new as the story really starts to hatch, with phallic creatures that like to shove themselves down people’s throats, corpses found with their chests opened from the inside and unknown life forms that are conceived in the womb’s of other species. And while Weyland was just an ambiguously Orwellian notion in the previous films, the old man himself makes an appearance here (thanks to holographic technology, initially) to reveal his own personal agenda. The fact that he’s played by Guy Pearce in old-man prosthetics not unlike those worn by Theron in Monster implies that we might see Pearce as a younger Weyland in subsequent films (at least I hope that’s why Pearce was cast here instead of an actual old man).

David (Michael Fassbender) studies this omnipotent view in "Prometheus". (photo courtesy Twentieth Century Fox)

Whatever was inhabiting this underworld (and may still be lurking there) definitely has some omnipotent technology, which offers some splendorous visuals that help explain what’s actually going on here. But as the aliens did in the previous films, it seems that something with no regard for anything other than a primal need to kill has violently wiped out these not-so-heavenly creatures. You do eventually get to see the humanoid beings that supposedly set all this in motion. You also get to see some things that are definitely directly connected to scenes from Alien. And after one character successfully removes an in utero creature in a gruesomely intense scene, that familiar feeling that the only way to survive is to blow everything up and hope for the best really starts to set in.

While it all sounds like what you’ve seen before, Scott’s ability to tell this parallel story without it being the exact same thing is quite impressive. And the way Prometheus ends definitely puts an entirely new perspective on the events that will presumably lead into the beginning of Alien, while also leaving things open to a Prometheus sequel. But for as many questions as it seems to answer, it presents at least as many new ones, which is truly what brings things full circle. And in true Scott fashion, you don’t truly see “it” until the very end.

Proemtheus. Directed by Ridley Scott. Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce. Rated R. www.projectprometheus.com.

“The Icon” Sting prepares for Slammiversary title match

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From his World Championship Wrestling debut as a blonde surfer with colorful face paint and tights in the ’80s to the mysterious Crow-like persona he adopted for most of the ’90s after the arrival of the NWO, Sting has earned his moniker as “The Icon.” As the only WCW Champion to never appear in WWE, Sting made his full-time debut for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2006 and has become one of the company’s main attractions. Sting‘s look and demeanor changed again – this time to “The Insane Icon,” an off-kilter character based on Heath Ledger’s take on the Joker – after Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff‘s takeover of TNA over the past couple of years. Having helped restore some order by defeating Hogan for control of the company at Bound for Glory last October, the four-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion has been absent from Impact Wrestling for the past two months. But he made his big return on May 31 by defeating current champion Bobby Roode in a non-title match. But when Sting faces Roode in the main event at Slammiversary this Sunday, it will be for the TNA Championship. As Sting prepares for his much younger opponent, Wrestling with Pop Culture gets to hear from him about his outlook on his career, TNA’s new format and other topics.

Outside of WCW, TNA has been the brand you’ve been most closely identified with. With TNA celebrating its 10th anniversary this weekend with Slammiversary, how does the company compare today to its earlier days in Nashville where you made appearances? When did the moment come about that you decided to make TNA, as you’ve described it, your brand?

It probably came the second or third appearance I made with TNA. Spike was coming onboard and they were interested in my return to wrestling along with Dixie Carter, Jeff Jarrett and, at the time, his father Jerry. So it was just something that I said, “It’s now or never.” I didn’t like the way wrestling ended in 2001 for me, so I just took it on and I loved the brand.

The difference between then and now? Well, we were at the fairgrounds in front of not very many people. The fairgrounds are not even there anymore. Now we’re in 120 countries worldwide, we filled up Wembley Stadium earlier this year, which was phenomenal, unbelievable. The ratings we have in other countries and here in the United States are growing every year. We are a growing company and it feels good. They’ve been good growing pains.

What would you say has been your defining moment during your TNA run?

I don’t know if there’s really one moment. Although I will say that the first time walking through the curtains at the Impact Zone – even the fairgrounds for that matter – was almost a life-changing event for me. It had been so long since I had been in the ring and I was wondering if people had forgotten who I am. Then when I got in there and there were chants of, “You’ve still got it!” That, to me, was the defining moment. It felt good that night.

Who have been some of your favorite opponents in TNA?

I would have to say Kurt Angle at Bound for Glory in ’07. He took me to my limit that night. That one match will go down in history for me as one of my better matches. It was pretty long and intense and we had a really good pace the whole night. A year later I was still feeling that one.

You’re facing Bobby Roode for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship this Sunday, and you’ve faced him in the past, including on last week’s live Impact show. What are your thoughts on how he’s grown as the TNA Champion and how have you been maintaining your conditioning against someone of his athleticism?

Whether you love him or hate him or you’re indifferent, Bobby Roode brings it every single night. He looks the part, he can work with anyone and have a great match and I think he carries himself well. I have personally pushed to keep him where he is, so I think there’s something good there and we’re all witnessing it now.

I’ve been in the gym every day this week and every time I’m put into a situation where I’m going to work with someone like Bobby Roode or Kurt Angle, believe me, I’m trying to get that cardio in and I’ve got a trainer I’ve been working with the last three months. We’ve made some huge strides and I’m just trying to get more mobility and flexibility in my movements and my body. So I’m training a lot differently now and I’m training more consistently and harder than I have in a long time, combined with eating the right way. Last Thursday night I could tell there was a difference in the way I felt in the ring, I had lots of fans and some of the wrestlers make comments, and I think this week will be even better. Over the next eight weeks, 16 weeks especially, I’m hoping to get back to where I was 15 years ago.

With your talk of the future, every year Dixie Carter asks you to stay on another year. Do you see yourself finishing up your career in TNA?

It’s almost ridiculous for me to try to answer that question because every year I think, “This is it. I can’t physically go on anymore” Dixie has been persistent and I’m having a good time. A the same time, we’re growing. We turned WCW into what we turned that into years ago with Monday Nitro and I’d love to see the same situation here with TNA. It’s hard to walk away when we’re not quite there. Some people may think we’re not going to get there, but I think there are a whole bunch of people who think, “Oh, yes we will.” We’re getting ready to launch some new stuff, you’ve seen some bits and pieces of it and it’s only going to get better as time goes on.

As of this moment, yeah. Never say “never” in this business, we all know that. And wrestler’s honor means jack, right? It doesn’t mean anything. But I can tell you that as it stands at this moment I’m happy where I am and if things continue the way they have, I can see myself hanging my boots up right here.

When you talk about changing your diet and your workouts, that doesn’t sound like somebody that’s thinking about ending your in-ring career anytime soon. Is that the way you look at it right now?

No matter how hard I train, what trainer I get or what I do, the bottom line is I am aging. After a while you just can’t go. There have been times where I don’t know if I can do another match. But, I come back and heal up and start to feel better and train differently and things go well. I’m training because whether it’s a month or a year, I want to be remembered as the Sting who can still go.

TNA has received criticism for relying too much on the older guys at the expense of fresh talent. How would you respond to that?

You cannot please everyone. It boils down to, do we pay attention to everything we read on Twitter or all the blogs, websites and dirt sheets, or do we listen more to what the wrestling fans are saying in the arenas live? How do they react to each individual wrestler? Furthermore, what are those ratings like every quarter hour? These days you can break it down to a five minute rating. The answers are there and you’re not dealing with a bunch of idiots who don’t have brains. There are people behind this machine that want to make it the best it can be. So they’re not going to try to cram something down somebody’s throat that’s just not going to work. They’re going to at least come up with a good blend of some of the older guys and some of the younger guys coming up – i.e., Bobby Roode and Sting. I think that is paying off, it’s working.

You’ve been a main event wrestler for more than 20 years and you’ll be in another main event pay-per-view title match this Sunday. What keeps you excited and motivated about wrestling after all these years?

There was a time when it was really hard for me to find the love and get motivated again. But in the last couple of years, especially the last 12 months, there’s been something that has sparked in me and the interest and motivation is much higher. I’m having more fun now than I think I ever have. I’ve taken some risks, I’ll admit, changing my character up a little bit. Some people like it, some people don’t. But I think overall people have enjoyed watching it. I love the group of people I’ve been working with; Dixie Carter has been so good to work with and seems to get better every single year. A lot of fans don’t know this about me, but I’m still nervous walking through those curtains 25, 26 years later.

How difficult was it to take those risks and change things up a bit?

It’s scary. There’s no other way to say it. The last time I felt like that was when I changed from the blonde flattop haircut and slowly but surely emerged with a white face, trench coat and baseball bat up in the rafters. It’s one of those times when you think, “Well, wrestling fans are going to fart all over this and you’re done or it’s going to work.” To step out, especially at my age and with all my years of wrestling, and try something like that, I think it was pretty gutsy. I know it’s a gamble and I know there are potentially people who are going to absolutely hate it, fart on it and then you’ll be remembered as going out as this horrible character. But for me, I think you have to take risks. I’m trying to tell some of the younger guys to do that and trying to show them that taking risks is good.

You’re the only WCW Champion never to appear in WWE. You said in another interview that you did come close to appearing at WrestleMania in 2011. How close were you to actually going over for WrestleMania?

On a scale of one to ten, I think the first three times or so over the years that I spoke with Vince McMahon, there were probably a couple of times that I got up to a six or a seven. This last go-round, we were probably at about a nine. It was very, very close. I was actually surprised that things turned out the way they did.

What was your reaction when Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff joined TNA a couple of years ago and what has it been like working with them again?

My reaction when they came in was guarded, but at the same time with open arms. That was then, this is now. It’s a completely different time and we all have a different frame of mind and different agendas now. I think we’re more on the same page now than we were then, so I think it’s been good.

Following their arrival and the subsequent changes they made in TNA, your on-screen demeanor changed quite a bit and you did some things that were uncharacteristic of what we had seen from you previously in TNA. Considering the more recent changes going on in TNA, which sort of started at Bound for Glory 2011 when you defeated Hogan to give control of the company back to Carter, what are some recent or upcoming changes that you think will maybe undo some past mistakes and put TNA where you all want it to be in the wrestling world?

Only time will tell. Although I may not agree with every single thing that I’ve done in the last year or two, or for my whole career for that matter, there are times when I’m still willing to try it because I’ve got a group of people saying, “I think it’s going to work. Let’s try this.” Then it gets to a point where you’ve just got to say, “OK. I’m just going to make this the best I can possibly make it. Whether I feel it or not, I’m just going to get out there and do my job and do it well.” I think with some of this new stuff we’re getting ready to do, the more reality-based stuff, there are going to be wrestlers that surprise everybody and who will emerge. And there’s probably going to be other wrestlers who may not be able to find a niche in all this. If we honestly all go into this with the right frame of mind and say, “Let’s just make it the best we can possibly make it,” then I think we have a really good chance of creating something that has never been done before. And I think wrestling fans will probably get on to it.

For more information, go to www.impactwrestling.com.

Rob Hammersmith keeps Skid Row’s pulse pounding

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Joining skid row is not something most people aspire to do. But in the case of rock drummer Rob Hammersmith, it has been one of the best career moves he’s ever made. Formerly of Wednesday 13’s glam punk band Gunfire 76 and one-time Atlanta act Rockets to Ruin, Hammersmith joined ’80s/’90s metal band Skid Row two years ago following the departure of Dave Gara. Having previously opened for the band with Rockets to Ruin (whose 2006 Love Drugs Rebellion EP was produced by Skid Row’s Rachel Bolan), Hammersmith likely never expected to eventually join one of the bands he grew up listening to. Since then, Hammersmith has been pounding away on “Youth Gone Wild,” “Monkey Business” and other songs that influenced him as a musician, while sharing the stage with some of his other favorite acts (Skid Row was even part of last year’s KISS Kruise). With a new album in the works and a summer tour that starts this Friday, Hammersmith talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the new music, tour and the surreality of being a member of Skid Row.

You were in a few other bands previously, but how did you end up in Skid Row?

You know, I’ve kind of lost track. I played in several Atlanta bands. I played in a band called Union Drag for a while, I played with Eliott James and the Snakes for a long time, then I played with Wednesday 13 for a little while in a project called Gunfire 76. That was between Rockets to Ruin and Skid Row, so I went out and did some touring with him over the course of about a year. At that time, Wednesday was in the process of going back and doing another Murderdolls record, so I came home from the Gunfire 76 tour and didn’t have a gig and didn’t really know what I was going to do at the time. Having known Rachel and the guys in Skid Row for a while – Skid Row actually took Rockets to Ruin out on a handful of dates when they put out Revolutions Per Minute in 2006 – it just kind of worked out. I came home, didn’t have a gig, they needed a drummer and I got a phone call. So it worked out well for me.

I understand Skid Row is working on a new album, which will be the first one since you joined the band a couple of years ago. What can you tell me about the new music and your involvement in the creative process?

We do have some new songs. We’ve done some recording, although we haven’t done anything past the demo phase. But we are working on new music and we’re taking our time with it. We’re making an effort to do it in a way that we feel comfortable with, so we’re not rushing to do it, we’re not up against any deadlines, and it’s a good place to be. We can take our time and we’ve got a really busy summer with shows, so that’s going to be our focus over the summer. When we have days off here and there we’ll continue to work on the songs, but as far as having a release date or target date, we don’t at this point.

I noticed you have a lot of tour dates scheduled over the next few months. Will you playing any of the new stuff on this tour?

It looks like we might try to do a couple of the new songs as early as the Wild Bill’s show, which is the second date of the tour. Wild Bill’s is a great gig for us. We’re typically not bound by time constraints or anything like that. A lot of the shows that we do, the time slot might not be quite as flexible as it is in other situations. So that’s a good opportunity for us to go out and play maybe one or two of the songs we’d really like to get out there in front of people. I think there’s a real good chance that people will be hearing some new songs this summer.

Who else will be playing with Skid Row this summer?

Bigfoot has been around for a few years now and Rachel worked with them in the studio a couple of years ago. They’re great friends of ours, a great band and we always like playing shows with those guys. The other band on that bill is The Dreaded Marco and those guys have been around for about two years now. A lot of people know Mike Froedge from Open Sky Studio and his several other bands. But they’ve been doing really well over the last year or so, so we’re excited to be playing with those guys. But those bands are only playing with us at the Wild Bill show.

We’re doing a handful of shows with the guys in Warrant, which is a band we play with quite a bit. We did a handful of shows with those guys last summer and the bill works really well because the crowd seems to really respond to both bands. So we’ll do a handful of shows with those guys and L.A. Guns (Phil Lewis and Steve Riley’s version) is another band we’ll be doing shows with this summer and, again, that’s a bill that seems to work really well. But in between that we just do what makes sense for us. We’ll do a lot of shows with local openers, depending on what region we’re in. The summer’s good for us, though. We’ve got shows with Shinedown, a show with Kid Rock, a show with Papa Roach, so it’s going to be a good summer. Each weekend or each run of shows we do is going to be slightly different from the last, which will be fun.

For someone who grew up listening to Skid Row and all the other bands you just mentioned, what is it like to go from being a fan of those bands to playing in one of them and sharing the stage with the other ones?

It’s definitely a surreal feeling and I still have those moments where I just sit back and take it all in. It’s usually right at the beginning of “Youth Gone Wild” in the set when I get a chance to take a deep breath, look around and take it all in. It’s a really cool feeling and I’m just really grateful for the opportunities I’ve had that have led me here. Words kind of fail me when I get to this point in the interview. It’s just a really cool feeling, the guys have been great to me and, as you said, I’ve always been a fan of the music. With as much history as this band has, there’s a lot of guys they could have called. And when they call your number, that’s not something to take lightly. I have a good time with it and, as you said, I get to go out and play with these other bands I grew up listening to, so that’s always a lot of fun for me.

For more information, go to www.skidrow.com.

Wrestling with Pop Culture has free tickets to see Skid Row, Bigfoot and The Dreaded Marco at Wild Bill’s on June 9. Comment below with your favorite Skid Row song for a chance to win a pair of tickets to the show. Winners will be chosen at noon on June 8.