Guest Column: Bloodstained Memoirs DVD Review

Ay-ay-ay-ay-ay. Where to start with this Bloodstained Memoirs DVD Review?

Directed by David Sinnott, presented by Al Snow and featuring a cast of interviewees that is almost a who’s who of professional wrestling, and a substantial amount of hype surrounding it, my expectations for this were really pretty high. However…don’t believe the hype.

The interviewer (Dean Ayass, although whether he’s merely doing the voiceovers or whether he’s the physical interviewer I’m not sure) and Al Snow have about as much passion for what they’re presenting as there is heat for TNA in the Impact Zone.

In terms of what a presenter can bring to a pro-wrestling DVD, see Diamond Dallas Page in The Best Of Nitro collections. This isn’t that. This is devoid of enthusiasm and full of self-promotion. As such, it creates a disconnect between the questions and the interviewee, the tones don’t match and it feels weird.

For instance, in an interview with Chris Jericho, he does nothing but shill Fozzy and talk about his love of Fozzy. He talks about his involvement in showbusiness and philosophies on entertaining, but it’s all focused on Fozzy.  I’m a music fan so I found it quite interesting to hear Jericho’s thoughts on The Beatles and Queen, but given that this is supposedly a documentary on professional wrestling, the decision to include it is laughable.

The rationale is obvious: get as many big names in the film as possible, regardless of the actual content or quality of the interview itself. Which leads us to the interview with the Hot Rod.

Roddy Piper needs no introduction to anyone. However, at this point in time, Piper was still deeply entrenched in the old school mentality of keeping kayfabe and not pulling back the curtain, at least not in his own career.

In recent interviews Piper has relented a little, particularly in his 1984 WWE Timeline with Kayfabe Commentaries, although it’s visible how uncomfortable he is in doing so.

In this interview, he visibly stops himself from going into detail when discussing a match against Bret Hart. He almost uses the term “finish” and stops himself.

When he talks about the end of the match, he suggests that he should have won because the ref should have checked Bret for unconsciousness before checking his (Piper’s) shoulders were on the mat. The interviewer never challenges him, and for the integrity of a documentary, it’s somewhat strange.

However, there are upsides.

The interview with Christian Cage is interesting to a degree, although again, the interviewer doesn’t really press with questions, which is a little disappointing. There’s footage of Foley doing a meet and greet with fans which, albeit cool, feels really, really bizarre.

Even as a film, it’s slightly bizarre. It’s aimless. There’s no real point they’re trying to make, no real message. I understand they’re looking for the testimony of the guys to stand on it’s own, but that’s not even asserted. It’s just Al Snow giving a brief introduction before launching into a sit-down interview with a bored-looking (and sounding) professional wrestler.

If you’ve never watched any interviews with wrestlers or anything like that, then this might be for you. There’s very little – if any – real probing questions asked of the interviewees. If you can get it second hand, it might be worth a watch. Arguably the most insightful interview on the DVD is with Ultimo Dragon, talking about his career and injuries.

In summary, this can be summed up in two words: superficial and dull. I’m almost impressed with how boring this was given the collection of individuals that they had testimony from. Get “Beyond The Mat” instead.

Michael Brown (@MichaelBrown_91)

***The full line up of contributors to Bloodstained Memoirs are: Nora Greenwald, Chris Jericho, Ultimo Dragon, Keiji Muto, Christian Cage, Rob Van Dam, Roddy Piper, Mick Foley and Jimmy Snuka.***

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