TV Review: Mr. McMahon (2024)

What to say about the Mr. McMahon docuseries on Netflix?  Well, it was more or less what I expected it to be.  Any documentary made with Vince McMahon's willing participation is obviously going to include a lot of skewed viewpoints, half-truths, and outright lies.  Couple that with numerous talking heads who worked for Vince and consider him a mentor and father-figure, and there's no shortage of praise on display here, some of it valid, much of it not.  Fortunately this series also boasts plenty of fact-checking and counterpoints from industry figures like Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer (who got a ton of screen time), author David Shoemaker, and New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick.

The doc was mostly filmed before the Janel Grant allegations were made public (This is made clear via title screens), and thus mostly plays out as a history of Vince's business ventures and myriad scandals over the decades, seemingly intended for a less initiated audience than someone like me.  There's not a lot of new information here if you're a wrestling aficionado, but it is one of the few McMahon history pieces where we get so much input from Vince himself.  We get the usual distortions and self-aggrandizing like "WrestleMania III drew over 90,000," "Ted Turner was mean to me in the 90s," "I was right to let the show go on after Owen Hart died," "I had no choice but to screw Bret out of the title," yadda yadda yadda, and fortunately (again), numerous voices of reason are on hand to refute most of Vince's more ridiculous claims.

AEW Grand Slam Dynamite 2024 Review: Bryan and Nigel Add to Their Rivalry

AEW Grand Slam was another banger of a show from Arthur Ashe Stadium, as we knew it would be.  Three stellar matches, all very different, plus two solid short matches made this show a very easy watch.

Things kicked off with the Danielson-McGuinness bout, and while not at the level of their best work, this was a helluva grappling contest that showcased the beautiful poetry of chain wrestling.  Nigel looked like he hadn't missed a step in his 13 years away from the ring, exchanging holds and counters with the best technical wrestler in the world.  Nigel worked Danielson's arm after slamming it into the ring steps and the post early on, and it affected Danielson's ability to use the LeBell Lock.  They exchanged their big moves and Danielson went for Nigel's rebound lariat, but Nigel cut him off with a lariat of his own for a double down.  But they landed in such a way that Danielson was able to apply the LeBell Lock after shaking off his injured arm, and he eventually got the tapout (Nigel appeared to say "thank you" as he gave up).  Just a lovely scientific match between two of the best to ever do it.  ****1/2

AEW Grand Slam 2024 Dynamite & Collision Preview & Predictions

It's September and you know what that means, it's time for AEW Grand Slam!

The fourth annual free TV PPV-caliber event once again emanates from Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY, and judging by the diminishing box office returns I think next year they should move it somewhere else.  Holding any wrestling event in the same venue every year is a challenge at best, and it seems like this one has run its course at Arthur Ashe for a while.  But as always the Dynamite lineup should be pretty spectacular, and even the Collision card this year looks very good.  Let's take a gander.....

Dynamite

FTW Championship: Hook vs. Roderick Strong

I still think it's time to lose this fake belt, as it's not officially sanctioned by AEW and it was only ever a prop that got defended once in a while.  Now it's become a full gimmick for Hook, who defends it frequently.  Let's get a real title on this guy instead, huh?  Anyway, this should be a very fun mix of grappling and no-DQ bells and whistles.  Hook just won this back from Jericho so he isn't losing it here.

Pick: Hook retains

Top Ten Things: Fawlty Towers Episodes, RANKED

Welcome to yet another edition of Top Ten Things, where I pick my ten favorite of somethingorother....

Today what's on my mind is the classic British sitcom Fawlty Towers, one of my all-time favorite comedy series.  Created by John Cleese and then-wife Connie Booth, Fawlty Towers takes place in a shoddy English hotel run by an eminently rude, impatient man and his rather domineering wife.  Supported by a clever, quick-thinking waitress and a bumbling Spanish waiter, the hotel and its staff get into various misadventures and hilarity ensues by the truckload.

Cleese's inspiration for Towers was a hotel called The Gleneagles, where he once stayed with the Monty Python cast.  Flabbergasted by the rudeness of its owner Donald Sinclair, Cleese mined this character for all the comedic material he was worth, and in the process created an incredibly funny, highly influential series.  As with most British sitcoms each season consisted of only six episodes, and Cleese and Booth only made twelve total, with a four-year lag between seasons. 

Here are the twelve episodes of Fawlty Towers, ranked.....

12. The Kipper and The Corpse

There are no bad episodes of Fawlty Towers, but my least favorite is episode 10, which involves a hotel guest dying suddenly in his sleep and the gang going to great lengths to hide his corpse from the other guests while they await the coroner.  This premise was actually recycled for an early episode of Roseanne, and in both cases things veer a little too far into unlikely slapstick for my taste.  Still this one has plenty of fun moments, such as Basil's ruthless sarcasm when the guest asks for breakfast in bed the next morning ("Rosewood, mahogany, teak?  What would you like your tray made out of?") or Basil's fear that expired kippers may have caused the man's death.   

Favorite Moment: When a doctor who's staying at the hotel examines the body, he grills Basil with "You mean to tell me you didn't realize this man was dead??" and Basil's reply is amazing: "Look, I'm just delivering a tray, right? If the guest isn't singing 'Oh What A Beautiful Morning,' I don't immediately think, 'Oh there's another snuffed it in the night!"

11. The Builders

The second episode of season 1 centers around some hotel renovations gone horribly wrong.  Basil and Sybil take an overnight trip and leave Polly and Manuel in charge of the hotel.  In order to save money (and unbeknownst to Sybil), Basil has hired the incompetent contractor O'Reilly to add a doorway to the kitchen and close off another doorway to a drawing room.  Unfortunately O'Reilly's men can't read a schematic to save their lives, and instead they wall off the dining room door.  In a panic, Basil demands O'Reilly come back and rectify the situation before Sybil returns.

Favorite Moment: Upon returning home and discovering the mess, Basil calls up O'Reilly and threatens physical violence if the shoddy work is not corrected: "If you're not over here in twenty minutes with my door I shall come over there and insert a large garden gnome in you, good day."

10. Basil the Rat

The final episode of the series deals with the hotel being slapped with a citation for numerous health code violations.  While the staff scrambles to rectify these issues and avoid closure, Manuel's pet rat gets loose, triggering a whole new set of problems.  This felt like a good way to end the show, as certain recurring jokes had reached the end of their shelf life.  But it was good for one last hurrah, culminating in the trademark zany Fawlty humor.

Favorite Moment: The health inspector reads a laundry list of health violations and Basil responds with "....Otherwise okay?"

9. The Anniversary

Probably the wackiest episode (Polly even mentions the Marx Brothers in this one), is #11, wherein Basil plans a surprise anniversary party for Sybil but pretends like he's forgotten their anniversary altogether.  This of course backfires as Sybil leaves in a huff just before their friends arrive, and Basil decides to pretend Sybil is upstairs sick in bed.  One of my favorite aspects of this episode involves Basil's friend Roger only half-heartedly going along with the ruse despite clearly knowing something's up, and repeatedly toying with Basil.  This episode is probably the most "sitcom-ish" but still has a ton of laughs.

Favorite Moment: Another of Basil's friends mentions she saw Sybil driving around in the town and Basil covers it up by claiming that's another woman who looks like Sybil.  When the real Sybil comes back, Basil pretends she's the fictitious lookalike and locks her in the kitchen while he says goodbye to his friends.

Top Ten Things: Family Ties Episodes

Welcome to another television-related Top Ten Things, where I'll pick my ten favorite episodes of a classic show.

Today it's the unforgettable 80s family sitcom that launched the career of Michael J. Fox, Family Ties!  When I was a kid, Thursday night primetime on NBC was unfathomably awesome.  For a few years you had The Cosby Show (fuck you Bill...) at 8pm, Family Ties at 8:30, and Cheers at 9.  Three of the greatest television shows ever, back-to-back-to-back.  Man, those were good times.

Anyway, Family Ties ran seven seasons, chronicling the goings-on of the Keatons, your average midwestern middle class family, but with a twist.  See the parents, Steven and Elyse, were ex-hippies who spent their college years steeped in the 1960s anti-war, peace & love movement, while their eldest son Alex was a stuffy, business-obsessed Republican who dreamed of becoming a powerful Wall Street executive.  This flipped the usual sitcom dynamic of the strict parents and the rebellious teenager.  Running contrary to most family TV shows, Alex (Michael J. Fox in the role he was born to play) generally didn't get into trouble with his parents in the traditional sense; instead their conflicts stemmed from their opposing ideologies and Alex's overactive ambition.

The two Keaton daughters were also wildly divergent characters.  Mallory the middle child (Justine Bateman in an often underrated performance) was a more typical teenage character - struggling at school and focused on her social life - while the youngest (until season 3) Jennifer was a precocious preteen who later displayed advanced intelligence and academic drive like Alex, albeit with much more compassion.  Then there was Andy.  Introduced in season three as a way to explain star Meredith Baxter-Birney's real-life pregnancy, Andy didn't become a full-fledged character until season five, when they magically aged him from toddler to preschooler so he'd have a speaking role.  Child actor Brian Bonsall was passable in the part, with stilted delivery but occasional moments of genuine sweetness and humor.

Movies of Disbelief: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Welcome to another installment of Movies of Disbelief, here at Enuffa.com, where I examine one aspect of an otherwise okay or even a great film and discuss why it sticks in my craw.

Today's subject is one of my favorite movies of all time, ALL TIME.  It's the action film I hold above all other action films, and the one that solidified Harrison Ford as my first childhood hero.  I'm talkin' about Raiders of the Lost Ark!

The brainchild of George Lucas, Raiders was conceived around the same time as the original Star Wars, with Lucas paying homage to the adventure and sci-fi serials he enjoyed as a kid.  Both ideas began to flourish simultaneously but he set aside the earthbound action-adventure one and concentrated on what would become the most enduring sci-fi/fantasy franchise of all time.  Once Star Wars became the phenomenon it did, Lucas then turned to his other big idea, revealing it to his buddy Steven Spielberg after Steve suggested he'd like to direct a James Bond film.  Lucas replied, "I've got something better - The Adventures of Indiana Smith!"  After Lucas finished describing the concept in detail, Spielberg said he was all-in except for the name.  Lucas then suggested "Indiana Jones," and history was made.

Raiders of the Lost Ark was a masterful swashbuckler, chock full of iconic action set pieces and led by an equally iconic lead performance from Ford, whom Lucas initially wasn't even considering for the role, fearing that the actor-director pairing would be the popcorn version of Deniro-Scorsese.  Tom Selleck was eventually chosen as the world-traveling archaeologist, but ran into scheduling issues due to his Magnum PI commitments, and Spielberg again suggested Ford.  Had it not been for Magnum we'd have ended up with a very different movie.

Mustachioed Jones

Awesomely Shitty Movies: Regarding Henry

Welcome to another edition of Awesomely Shitty Movies, here at Enuffa.com!  For those who haven't joined us for one of these, I take a movie with both good and bad aspects (or awesome and shitty ones), and separate them from each other.  Put each of them in "timeout," if you will.

Today's subject is the 1991 melodrama Regarding Henry, starring Harrison Ford and Annette Bening and directed by Mike Nichols.  Regarding Henry is the story of a hotshot jerk lawyer who's the MVP of his firm but who doesn't have much of a relationship with his wife or daughter.  Henry is the victim of a shooting, which leaves him with retrograde amnesia and a childlike personality, and he has to put his life and relationships back together from scratch.  Feel-good feelies ensue....

The film has elements about it that work and most certainly some elements that don't.  It received mixed reviews and failed to make much of a splash at the box office, but it's still affectionately remembered as one of Harrison Ford's more touching roles.

So here I am to lay out the pros and cons of this intriguing but very flawed film....



The Awesome


Harrison Ford

I'm a huge Harrison Ford fan.  Always have been.  I'll watch just about anything with him in it, and in 1991 I made it a point to do so.  His natural, effortless performance in this film carries it a pretty long way.  Had a lesser actor (Bill Pullman for example) been cast in this role the movie would've fallen right on its stupid face.  In the first act Ford plays a very convincing self-important asshole (which makes me wonder why he hasn't been cast in more villainous roles), and after the shooting he slips right into the simple-minded version of Henry.  We care for him a great deal in spite of his earlier transgressions.  Ford does more with facial expressions than just about anyone in the business, and he makes the material work about as well as it can.

For you wrestling fans, CM Punk's slicked hair was inspired by Henry's.

Annette Bening

Bening was an emerging star at this point and her turn as Henry's wife Sarah is fully believable and heartfelt.  When Henry's a successful, unscrupulous lawyer Sarah is basically a kept woman who seems at ease with this business-like relationship, and later she takes on the burden of becoming the breadwinner/caretaker of the household.  We feel this new, overwhelming stress weighing on her and the performance rings true.  Bening and Ford have great chemistry that holds the film together, even when the script shortchanges them.

For you wrestling fans, AJ Styles' soccer mom hair was inspired by Sarah's.

AEW All Out 2024 Review: Uncomfortable Violence

As I predicted, AEW All Out overshadowed All In for the second year in a row.  This show was on its way to maybe being the best top-to-bottom wrestling PPV I've ever seen, and for the first five matches nary a bout was below a four-star affair.  As it turned out the show didn't quite get to that level but it was still one of the best shows this company has ever done and an all-time great PPV, with a running theme of hatred and escalation, in the form of uncomfortable violence (that thing CM Punk promised going into SummerSlam before losing because of a friendship bracelet).

The show began with an absolute banger of a grudge match between MJF and Daniel Garcia.  These two got nearly 24 minutes (a few too many I thought, but that's a nitpick) and filled them with stiff, aggressive action.  Both guys were out to maim each other and targeted heads and necks throughout.  Late in the match they traded submissions and counters, and MJF eventually locked in a Zack Sabre Jr.-style multi-limb hold but Garcia got to the ropes and locked in a guillotine.  The ref went to check MJF's arm but Garcia stopped him and went for a second-rope piledriver from which Max escaped.  The ref was momentarily distracted and MJF hit a kick to the groin and a cradle for the win.  Post-match Max shook Garcia's hand and went to nutshot him again but Garcia blocked, kicked Max in the nuts, and gave him a second-rope piledriver to write Max off TV for a bit.  I'd have had Garcia win this (though he hasn't signed a new deal yet for some reason), but at least he stood tall at the end.  Excellent opening match.  ****1/2

AEW All Out 2024 Preview & Predictions

Well I wasn't sure All Out 2024 would upstage All In 2024 like All Out 2023 did All In 2023, but after watching Hangman Page BURN DOWN Swerve's childhood home, and with how many absolute bangers are on tap this Saturday, AEW might pull it off a second time.

AEW returns to Chicago for All Out, two weeks after their second annual Wembley show, and once again, while this lineup isn't as stacked as All In, I could see All Out being the superior PPV.  Danielson's first title defense, Ospreay vs. Pac, two really strong women's title matches, an MJF-Garcia grudge match, and the mother of all blood feuds, Hangman Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland, in an unsanctioned cage match (Dammit, how cool would it have been to see that happen at Wembley?).  This show is going to slap, as the kids say.

Not all the matches have been announced yet, so maybe after Friday's Collision/Rampage shows I'll update this piece.  But for now we have eight matches to predict.

Chicago Street Fight: Willow Nightingale vs. Kris Statlander

I'm not sure if this is for the CMLL Women's Title or not.  I thought their previous match was an eliminator; maybe CMLL didn't agree to putting their belt up in a street fight or something.  Anyway, this should be excellent as Willow and Kris have great chemistry and Willow's delivered in No DQ matches before.  I think Willow wins this since she's CMLL Champion and Kris beat her last time.

Pick: Willow

WWE Bash in Berlin Review: Well It Was Better Than SummerSlam

It's a few days late, but here's my review of WWE Bash in Berlin.  This was a much better show than SummerSlam and the crowd was white-hot like at Backlash France but unlike that crowd they weren't just there to chant shit the whole time, they actually responded to the action in the ring.  Except during the main event when they broke into the wave for some reason.  The company though decided to make it cringe by showing a decibel counter every so often.  Didn't WCW do that in the early 90s?  Can WWE for once NOT make something lame?  Nothing on this show was bad, though nothing came close to MJF-Ospreay or Swerve-Danielson from six days earlier.  For the record I went 5 for 5 on my predictions, which I only posted to Twitter.  You can go look if you don't believe me....

Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens opened the show and was a very good championship match that built throughout.  It was undermined a bit by the need to cram in "cinema," where Cody went for a springboard cutter (I think) but his injured knee buckled and Owens refused to capitalize on the injury because as Michael Cole put it he didn't want a "tainted victory."  Uhh that's not tainted guys.  Tainted would be if Owens had cheated to inflict such an injury.  This was just a pre-existing condition.  If Owens had worked over Cody's leg during the match and injured it, he'd capitalize on it, right?  How's this different?  Anyway they traded all their big moves, Cody hit a pair of CrossRhodeses and went for a third but Owens countered into a stunner for a nearfall.  Owens went for a swanton but Cody got the knees up and hit a third CrossRhodes for the win.  A very fine match but Cody as champion still feels like Goldberg 1998, where the company cares way more about the top heel stable and their drama than finding something meaningful for its babyface champion to do.  Cody's just fighting guys for the belt without a dramatic feud to hold it together.  Hey if WWE wants to be known as The Land of Storytelling, I'm gonna judge them on that basis.  Tough titty.  ****1/4