Category Archives: Featured

Georgia Wrestling Now welcomes the Alabama Wolfman, the Kentucky Wolfman and Drew Game

Halloween’s over, but this week’s edition of Georgia Wrestling Now is as monstrously wacky as ever. Team All You Can Eat’s Matt Hankins and Wrestling with Pop Culture talk to the Alabama Wolfman, who hasn’t been seen since being defeated by Dragula at Monstrosity Championship Wrestling’s matches at the Wrestling with Pop Culture Anniversary Party last March. He has something hairy in store for Dragula at MCW’s Nov. 16 event at Club Famous in the form of his angry cousin, the Kentucky Wolfman. And if MCW’s Wolfmen don’t provide enough absurdity for one show, we also talk to Drew Game about this weekend’s matches at WrestleHemia, a rock ‘n’ roll wrestling sideshow at JJ’s Bohemia. It all begins at 7 p.m. EST and you can call in with questions and comments at 347-324-5735.

Amidst the rock 'n' roll sideshow atmosphere, Drew Game's arrogance does not go over well with the WrestleHemia audience.

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“The Black Earth” parodies zombies, wrestlers and beer drinkers

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Zombies are mindless idiots that roam aimlessly looking for their next meal. Sometimes, the people fighting them are just as dumb and narrowly focused as the zombies themselves. In the case of The Black Earth, the heroes are a couple of bumbling rednecks more concerned with getting another six pack than stopping the zombie outbreak in their small Southern town. Based on the comical antics of Kurt Angle and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in the WWE of the early 2000s, Hank (Jefferson Traywick) and Johnny (Jon Dannelley) use their pest control skills to ward off the undead pests that are taking over the town of Black Earth. Along the way, they encounter more bumbling idiots and a hot babe or two, and take plenty of beer breaks. Before the film’s world premiere tomorrow night at the Plaza Theatre (tickets available here), writer/director James T. Warbington talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the film’s wrestling influences, the bands on the soundtrack and which wrestling personalities are likely to be appearing at the premiere.

Where did the name The Black Earth originate?

There’s actually a town called Black Earth, Wisconsin. They were OK with us filming there, so we just named the movie The Black Earth. The short film was an official selection at the Driftless Film Festival in Madison, the Iris Film Festival out of Pennsylvania, the Horror Emporium Insane Asylum out of Illinois and the Minneapolis Underground Film Festival. It was also listed as on of the top 50 shorts of 2011 on the Internet Movie Database. It piqued a lot of people’s interest, which helped us raise the money for the feature. The budget was about $2,000, which is really small. I drove to Alabama, the other director flew in from Pittsburgh and another guy flew in from San Jose, California to film it.

The short was filmed in Wisconsin, but the full-length was filmed in Alabama. Why was that?

The short film was just the first scene, where they’re all in the house together. There are few different actors in the feature film because the others were either really bad or just couldn’t make it to Alabama. But it’s the same two main characters. Quinn [Levandoski], who plays Jake, flew down from Wisconsin and will be at the premiere.

There are a lot of bands featured in this movie. How did you get so many bands to let you use their music?

I was in the Tone Deaf Pig-Dogs. I started the band in ’88 and they reunited about five years ago. I was like, “Dude, give me some music.” They were like, “Here you go.” I also played with Round Ear Spock for a while, then played with Andy Samford for a while, so they were glad to be on the soundtrack. I contacted The Real McKenzies and they said, “We’ve got a new album coming out, so don’t use any of the old stuff. We’ll send you a copy of our new album and you pick what you want.” Mojo Nixon actually contacted me and said, “Use what you want. But if you get famous, you gotta buy me a beer.”

How did you come up with the idea to make a zombie movie with characters based on wrestlers?

Remember when Austin would sing “Kumbaya” to Vince and all that? That was some of the funniest stuff I can remember so I said, “I wish I had two characters like that who just drink beer.” I’m a goofy punk rocker, so it made sense for that to be in the story. I like zombie comedies, especially if you don’t have a good budget. If you’ve got no budget, you’ve got to make fun of yourself. We were talking about writing these two crazy redneck brothers and I told co-writer C.L. Robbins, “They should be a lot like Kurt Angle and Steve Austin. They’ve got to think that they’re shit don’t stink, like when Austin kept playing guitar and couldn’t sing and was out of tune, but he thought it was great.” That’s what these two guys have got to be. The one brother never really fights, he just drinks. But no matter what, they think they’re invincible and awesome. Of course, they’re actually just lame rednecks who get drunk, So that’s where that idea came from.

They used to say that wrestling imitated life, but I’m starting to think that life imitates wrestling. Even when somebody’s making an entrance in the movie, we’d talk about theme music. So we had Sherri [Eakin] comes out with her big rocking ’80s song where you see her legs and she’s all sexy and she pours beer all over herself. That was all based around wrestling. Whenever something’s cool, Chris [Robbins] says, “That’s Diesel.” On the set that’s all you’d hear and there are all these outtakes of us going, “Dude, that was so fucking Diesel.” We’re talking about Kevin Nash, of course, because we’re cheesy wrestling goofy-asses.

The world premiere is tomorrow night at the Plaza Theatre in Atlanta. Where else will this movie be screening?

We’re going to play it in Atlanta, then it goes to Pittsburgh, San Jose, Chicago and Madison. We’ll have DVDs at all these screenings, and the DVD will be for sale online by December. It will also be available Amazon Instant Video and we’re trying to get it on Netflix or Redbox.

What can we expect from tomorrow’s premiere, aside from the movie screening?

The cast of "The Black Earth" from left to right: Jenny Nicole Helms, Jefferson Traywick, Sherri Eakin, Jon Dannelly and Quinn Levandoski

Chris is going to introduce it, then I’ll come out and we’re going to do a question and answer session afterwards. A majority of the cast will be there. So we’ll have Quinn coming down from Wisconsin. We’ll have Hank and Johnny (one’s coming from California, the other’s coming from Birmingham). Jenny Nicole Helms, who plays Sara, the bitchy girl, will be there. A lot of the crew will be there and the other director, Alex Traywick, will be there, along with co-directors C.L. Robbins and Corey Campbell. We all used to work on movies together and as years passed we all became friends and started hating the directors. So we created Family Curse Productions, which is a group of directors, editors and writers that has absolutely nothing to do with the people who we worked for before. We all love wrestling and horror movies, so it works out well.

Then we’re having an after party somewhere. Marc Laurinaitis will be there and his brother, Animal from the Road Warriors, should be there. My wife grew up with the Laurinaitis family, so they like to come out and support me. They actually bought their own tickets, so I saw their names on the ticket list. Johnny‘s not going to be there, which may or may not be a good thing. I don’t know.

Molly Harvey takes up Residents-y with Jeffrey Bützer’s Tender Prey

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Molly Harvey is no stranger to costumes and identity ambiguity. As a long-time collaborator with The Residents, an avant-garde act known for performing with giant eyeball heads and other theatrics, she has spent most of her career providing theatrics for music (or is it the other way around?). After working with the Bicycle Eaters’ Jeffrey Bützer, a multi-instrumentalist who has been known to stage musical tributes to David Lynch, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Tom Waits and others, last year on the Black Mass pre-Halloween show, Harvey has found different ways to portray other people. Tonight, Bützer and Harvey return to 529 with the likes of T.T. Mahony, Johnny McGowan, Matt Steadman and others as Tender Prey, a tribute to Nick Cave that includes songs ranging from The Birthday Party to Grinderman. The show is free and also includes performances by Cave Women (playing covers of Nick Cave, PJ Harvey and the like), Ben Trickey performing a Tom Waits set, Andy DeLoach doing Leonard Cohen and puppet shows from Ninja Puppet Productions. As the unmasked Harvey prepares to sing a few Cave songs, she talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about her theatrical background and future musical ideas.

Advertising for this show prominently credits you as being from The Residents. Since the identities of the members of that band have always been obscured, is it OK for you to be revealing yourself in this manner?

No, they’re going to kill me now. I was actually always named on the records and stuff, so I was always the one non-anonymous member. I was more of a collaborator. I wear costumes when we perform, so my identity is always obscured. When I was touring with them, there wasn’t any Facebook or anything. So I could play, then walk around the venue afterwards and nobody’d know who I was. But now it’d different because people can just look on Facebook and see me.

Do you still perform with The Residents?

I perform with them when they come to town. They’re on the West Coast, so it’s kind of hard for me to leave and tour with them. So I do little things with them when they come through.

How did you get involved with The Residents?

Just by weird happenstance. I moved to San Francisco when I was 21 and just happened to meet them. I worked in a cafe that they came into and, of course, I didn’t know it was them. But I developed a friendship with the singer and little by little we revealed things about each other and I realized he was involved with the band. I had studied theater in college and had just graduated. I think one day I was like, “Hey, can you use me to do anything?”

You’ve also worked with Gwar, an equally theatrical band, though not quite in the same vein as The Residents. How’d you get involved with Gwar and what did you do for that band?

I was living in Richmond in 1989 and I think almost all of Gwar is Virginia Commonwealth University art school dropouts. They’ve been doing Gwar for 28 years, which is crazy. They did a 35 millimeter film in the early ’90s called Skulhedface that Jello Biafra was the star of. So I did a scene in that. I never performed live with them, I just did the thing in the movie.

Richmond had an amazing music scene, and still does. Because of the art school, I think Richmond just attracts certain people. Now, with certain cult bands having come out of Richmond, a lot of people actually move there to start bands.

How did you start collaborating with Jeffrey Bützer?

I met Jeffrey through [guitarist] Matt Steadman. Jeffrey was a Residents fan and I knew Matt because we worked together. I was looking for something to do and Jeffrey is kind of a mover and a shaker and always has stuff going on. I guess Matt told Jeffrey about me and Jeffrey was familiar with what I do. So we talked and we still have a lot of ideas of stuff to do, but he’s a busy guy who’s in a million bands and is always making projects. We really want to do something original together, but so far we’ve just done these shows that are covers of people we like. They’re fun and people like to go see them. Last year we did Black Mass at 529. That was a lot of PJ Harvey, Leonard Cohen and stuff like that. He has faves.

What will your role be in the Nick Cave tribute tonight?

I’ll be splitting the songs. Michael Bradley is also singing some songs and he’s got the perfect Nick Cave voice. Then I’m singing six or seven songs, then Carrie Hodge from What Happened to Your Fire, Tiger? is going to sing backup on a couple and lead on one.

Bützer and I have had a few conversations about The Residents and he seems to be really excited about working with someone who has also worked with such a mysteriously avant-garde band. Was there any hesitation in letting him advertise you as a member of The Residents since the rest of the band does a great job of hiding its identities?

It’s nice to have people like Jeffrey because I never really tell people that. If I get up on stage with him at one of their shows, he’ll be like, “It’s Molly Harvey from The Residents!” Sometimes I’m like, “I don’t know if you should say that.” It’s always been a weird thing because my name was out there, but my face wasn’t. But at the same time, I’m not a prominent part of The Residents and they’re always changing and working with different people all the time. On a practical level, if I want to do more stuff, that’s a thing on my resume that differentiates me from everyone else. I’m never comfortable leading into a conversation with that, but having someone like Jeffrey doing it is kind of nice because he does make things happen and he is excited about it. Even though it is a little bit of a gray area, if it can lead toward me working with cool people that I may have never otherwise known, I’m all for it.

You mentioned that you’d like to do more original music with Bützer. Have you given much thought to what kind of project you’d like to work on with him?

My background is in theater. Even though I sang as a kid, I really approach singing as an actor or performer. I’m definitely not a trained musician, but I do write and in the past two or three years random people in my life have been like, “Have you ever thought about writing songs?” Working with The Residents, I certainly wasn’t writing their material, and doing theater I was interpreting other people’s words. But I’ve been asked enough that I finally gave it a try. I have a couple of characters I’ve come up with. Everything for me is very character driven, so it would be more of a narrative about a certain character. But there are some little things brewing.

Georgia Wrestling Now welcomes “Wild Child” Joey Kidman, Atlanta Midget Wrestling’s Pit Bull and TNA’s Gunner

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Halloween’s only a couple of days away, which might explain the eclectic nature of this week’s Georgia Wrestling Now. After attending WWE‘s Hell in a Cell at Philips Arena on Oct. 28, Team All You Can Eat’s Matt Hankins and Wrestling with Pop Culture talk to established and emerging competitors from upcoming Georgia wrestling shows. Our first guest is preparing for one of the biggest matches of his young career as he challenges the Ultimate Dragon for the Peachstate Wrestling Alliance Heritage Championship on Nov. 3, and I’m talking about the “Wild Child” himself, “Rock & Roll” Joey Kidman. Atlanta Midget Wrestling‘s Pit Bull talks to GWN about the promotion’s Columbus Georgia Convention and Trade Center debut on Nov. 9, and its return to the North Atlanta Trade Center on Nov. 10. Finally, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling‘s Gunner talks to us as he prepares to challenge Rick Michaels for the Pro Wrestling Resurrection Heavyweight Championship at Turmoil on Nov. 4.

Former TNA Television Champion Gunner challenges Rick Michaels for the PWR Heavyweight Championship at Turmoil. Photo courtesy TNA Wrestling.

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Santino Marella looks to have a hell of a time at Hell in a Cell

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Courtesy WWE.

While his language barrier mishaps and comical in-ring demeanor are what most people think of when they hear the name Santino Marella, it’s easy to overlook the Milan Miracle’s reigns as Intercontinental, United States and Tag Team Champion. And after recently teaming with Zack Ryder to form Team Co-Bro, Marella’s chances of advancing to the tag team tournament finals at Hell in a Cell seemed promising given Co-Bro’s first-round win over Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel. Unfortunately for Marella, Co-Bro fell to the Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow) to be eliminated from the tournament. But Marella still hopes his cobra will have a chance to strike at the pay-per-view, and recently talked to Wrestling with Pop Culture about that possibility, among other things.

You’re not scheduled for any matches at Hell in a Cell. Do you think there’s any chance of you being part of this pay-per-view?

I was hoping to be in the finals of the tag team tournament with Zack Ryder, but…

I was sorry to see how that turned out for Team Co-Bro. I’m also sorry to see yet another Hell in a Cell pay-per-view without Santino Marella on the card.

I do not have a rich history with this pay-per-view, but this has been a great year for me. In 2012, I’ve been on every pay-per-view this year! So I definitely hope I’m involved at Hell in a Cell because I want to keep the streak going. It’s also a very prestigious pay-per-view because always something special happens at this pay-per-view, something that’s going to blow your mind. That’s the job of this pay-per-view, that’s the goal. There’s always something very shocking and that’s why I want to be part of it because I want to see history in the making.

With Hell in a Cell being in Atlanta, it’s fun to recall almost a year ago when Raw was in Atlanta with the Muppets. And you actually got some help from Beaker…

Yes. That was, for me, one of the most memorable things I have ever seen. It was right up there with when I met Bob Barker because the Muppets are not just a piece of Americana, that’s an icon for the world. Every country knows the Muppets. They’re the originators. It puts me in the feeling of when I was little boy. Everyone likes that nostalgic feeling to feel like a kid again. The Muppets were amazing.

Courtesy WWE.

Beaker gave me potion and this potion was to give me super strength and speed. But I could not swallow it because it tasted so bad I thought maybe it was wrong one, maybe it was poison. So I spit it out in the face of Jack Swagger. It was accident, actually. He spun me around and I spit at the same time. And from spitting it in the face, I was able to roll him up and beat him. It wasn’t, I’m sure, what Beaker intended. But it got the job done.

WWE has made a point of holding big events in Atlanta over the past several years. How do you think your personality and wrestling style fare with Southern audiences like the ones in Atlanta?

In that part of the country, the fans are so passionate and so crazy and we always love to come there. When the fans are so crazy, they elevate us and make us put on a better show. The louder they get, the more we go crazy, then the louder they get in return and there’s just this circulating energy that goes back and forth. I’m telling you, the feeling and atmosphere in the arena is second to none. We love coming there.

Do you think you might try to talk to any Atlanta icons for Santino’s Foreign Exhange while you’re in Atlanta?

I would like to go to the Georgia Aquarium because I heard the aquarium is very nice. There’s a restaurant we usually go to close to the airport called the Spondivits and we like to get the steamed bucket. I know that’s not a real icon, but we enjoy Atlanta. I’m going to try to steal the show if I can. I hope I don’t get arrested for stealing.

www.wwe.com

Wade Barrett hopes to bring his Barrett Barrage to Hell in a Cell

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Recovering from injuries can often cause competitors to lose their momentum upon their return to action. But in the case of former Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett, his WWE return has been highlighted by a dominant winning streak and change in attitude he likes to call the Barrett Barrage. Although this barrage has not yet guaranteed him a match at this Sunday’s Hell in a Cell, Barrett is still hoping to compete at the pay-per-view on his quest to obtain championship gold. Here, he talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about his new mean streak and his goal of becoming the first English WWE Champion.

You only recently returned to WWE after recovering from an injury and returning to your bare-knuckle boxing training. Since then, the Barrett Barrage has been in full effect as you’ve dominated one opponent after another. Where did you find this extra aggression?

Courtesy WWE.

I’m glad to be back. It’s been seven or eight months since I got injured, so a lot of frustration and aggression has built up in that time. That’s combined with a slightly new style of bare-knuckle fighting-oriented offense. It’s good to be back and I’m looking to go places pretty soon.

You’re not yet scheduled for a match at Hell in a Cell, but you’ve previously had great success at this pay-per-view, picking up one of the biggest victories of your career over John Cena two years ago. Given your record there, what do you anticipate for this Sunday’s event?

You’re right, that Hell in a Cell match against John Cena is probably one of my biggest victories ever. It was a huge moment for me, especially so early on in my career. But the card’s still wide open for this year’s Hell in a Cell and, fingers crossed, I’ll hopefully be able to get myself on the card.

A lot of people have had career-defining moments at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view and in the Hell in a Cell match. How would you feel about actually competing inside the Hell in a Cell cage?

It’s an amazing match and I haven’t actually had a Hell in a Cell match yet. I think it’s something that really just lends a certain legitimacy to the toughest competitors in the WWE. When you look at the people who’ve had the most success in those kind of matches, guys like Mick Foley, the Undertaker and Triple H, those are some of the toughest guys to have ever competed in WWE. I’d certainly like to see myself in that category of tough guys. When the opportunity comes, I’d definitely like to step into the cell and take on whoever might be up for the challenge.

You’ve defeated just about everyone you’ve gotten in the ring with since you’re return. Is there anyone in particular you’d like to face this Sunday, given the opportunity?

I’ve always got my eye on the champions here in WWE, be it CM Punk or be it Sheamus, who are the two champions at the moment. I’d love to step in there with either one of them. England’s never had a World Heavyweight Champion or a WWE Champion, so I’d love to be the first one. But the way wrestling works, you have to work your way up the ladder a little bit first. I don’t expect to be thrust into the title picture with either of those guys, but in the long run whoever the champion is – I don’t care if it’s CM Punk, Sheamus or anybody else – that’s the person I’m going to be going for.

You’re obviously not the only person with your sights set on those two. But there are some other interesting match-ups to be had between you and other fellow Europeans such as the current United States Champion Antonio Cesaro.

Courtesy WWE.

Yeah, definitely. I’m a big fan of Antonio Cesaro. I think he’s done a great job since he’s gotten here, and I’m very impressed with his intellect. He speaks five languages or something like that. That in itself is hugely impressive, then he’s done such a great job in the ring since he got here. So his momentum continues, but he will be losing that momentum if he comes across the Barrett Barrage in the ring.

Outside the ring, I understand you also have a role in one of WWE Studios‘ upcoming films. What role will you be playing?

A byproduct of me being injured and being off for six or seven months meant that I was freed up and available to take part in a film called Dead Man Down, which is being produced by WWE Studios. It’s got several top movie stars in it like Colin Farrell and Terrence Howard, and it had a pretty good budget. So I think it’s going to be a good film. It was great to be part of it. I play an enforcer or bodyguard to one of the bad guys in the film, so I had a pretty cool part and really enjoyed it. It was a great experience. I think that’s being released in April of next year, round about WrestleMania.

www.wwe.com

Deathblade fights zombies in a cage during the Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse

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For the third year in a row, the living dead have taken over part of Atlanta with the Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse. And this year there’s even more zombie-killing enjoyment to be had for those with the will to survive. A ZWar has been waged on the Center for Disease Development, the agency responsible for this zombie outbreak and rumored to have something to do with Monstrosity Championship Wrestling, which debuted at AZA last October. (Read more about MCW here and here.) As has been established in previous years, the CDD has been experimenting on the living to create mindless zombies and other creatures. But now these mad scientists are attempting to completely eradicate humanity by weaponizing the living dead. But the remaining survivors are raiding the CDD’s facilities to try and regain their freedom.

A victim flees for her life during the Curse of the Undead.

If you survive the CDD’s threat, you’ll face the Curse of the Undead, which has caused the dead to rise from their graves yet again. But instead of laboratory experiments, it’s satanic-looking druids responsible for this zombie outbreak, which has resulted in the local police department being stretched to its limits with missing persons reports and other chaos. The cops that haven’t buckled under the pressure are still trying to help, but there’s little they can do when there are strange things happening (and even stranger people harboring their zombie kin) in the woods. Thankfully, there is a hero named Bruce out there who is maintaining a cheesy sense of humor while fighting off zombies with his chainsaw.

But even your protectors have a scam of their own going, and it’s called the Zombie Shoot. Unlike in previous years, where zombies aimlessly roamed an outdoor firing range, now you can be armed and chase zombies through the abandoned motel for some brain-splattering fun (for an additional fee). And if you think killing zombies is fun, you’re really going to like the Ultimate Fighting Zombies matches found in the lawless outdoor area of ZWar. And you might recognize a guy named Deathblade, who helped protect the uninfected last year, but has since taken his fighting skills to the UFZ cage for our entertainment. Fighting zombies every night is hard work, which is why Wrestling with Pop Culture appreciates the fact that Deathblade took a moment to tell us about his involvement with AZA.

What is your role at the AZA and how did they discover your talents?

Basically, they needed somebody crazy enough to keep the zombies in line and dangerous enough to put them down. And that was me. Last year I kept the town safe; this year I’m providing entertainment as a part of the UFZ: Ultimate Fighting Zombies.

What is your UFZ fighting record?

I actually retired undefeated. Now I’m in there coaching my protege Ripper right now. She, of course, is currently undefeated as well. One defeat and you’re pretty much dead, so…

I’ve noticed that you wear the face paint of various different professional wrestlers such as the Road Warriors and Demolition. Is there any meaning behind that, other than the obvious?

Deathblade prepares to fight zombies while donning the warpaint of Road Warrior Hawk. Photo by Divine Danger.

I was a wrestler myself until I got banned from every known organization for my brutal tactics. I just want to pay tribute to some of the guys that came before me and set the bar for insanity that I try to raise every night.

It’s weird that you used to be a professional wrestler because you bear a striking resemblance to a guy I’ve seen at Platinum Championship Wrestling named Johnny Danger. Do you know anything about him?

Yeah. Actually, I’m a big fan of Johnny Danger. I’d like to see how he does against some of these zombies one day, perhaps as part of Monstrosity Championship Wrestling in the future.

He’s no stranger to MCW as he grappled with monsters in the ring at this year’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Monster Bash.

Yeah, I remember that. I think he’d be a great addition to the UFZ, and Deathblade would be happy to train him.

www.atlantazombie.com