Sleeper Hold!! Available from Splatter Theatre Press!

Professional wrestling can be dangerous. Broken bones, crushed dreams... murder. Twenty years ago, acclaimed writer, David Hayes, told author Jeff Dolniak about a project former professional wrestler Joe Broni wanted to do. This was his story of love, betrayal, and murder. It tells the sordid tale of how an independent wrestling promotion was menaced by a black-gloved killer, hellbent on destroying everyone... except for the popular Tanya the Tyrant. What connected her to the deranged fiend? Find out here, in Sleeper Hold! From the author: "Joe invited me out to his favorite greasy spoon for lunch. I paid. It was ok because it was Joe. We chatted for hours on how we would attack the project. It was surreal. I loved watching Joe as a kid. He lost every match but he still left an indelible mark on young Jeff. As time went on, I found out things about Joe. Things about the business that would forever change how I thought about the circus surrounding the squared circle. Horrors. A darkness that went beyond the sweaty athletes in spandex. Splatter Theatre Press has been brave enough to distribute this book." Featuring contributions by Paul Counelis , Kurt Belcher, Caleb Thusat, and Dalyn Viker. Buy your copy now! https://splattertheatre.com/products/sleeper-hold

Movie Review: Wrestling Queen

Mr. Peabody, if you please, set the wayback machine to a celebratively spectral time in early '70's sports...when gritty, no-holds-barred wrestling, and the equally raw, 'bash & dash' world of roller derby were the respected, underground competition-reveling form of sports entertainment, for the moment...a time when, although a clearly choreographed, performance-driven form of sporting combat, still made quite an impression upon devotedly eager viewers...gasp-induced witnesses to wincingly excruciating blows, tosses & holds...the rampant spray of sweat, spit & blood...and the echoing of repeatedly wet, pounding sounds...slamming home, not unlike that of continuously stricken, well-tenderized meat...the humble, albeit no less grueling and compelling beginnings of a national pastime, which has since evolved into quite literally, an institution...

Oh, yes...as it probably was, with folks in many homes other than mine, when I was a kid, it was a time when me and my late Mom...bless her soul...vehemently (...and growlingly) commandeered the boob tube from my Dad's regularly scheduled western movie broadcast, each and every Saturday afternoon, for two or three hours, tuning into the higher-ranged UHF, for what was essentially and stereotypically monikered as the rousing gladiator sporting events for the middle-to-lower class. And as if mass gathering in front of the TV wasn't satisfying enough, there was always the odd weekend evening, city-bound roadtrip...a mere matter of clambering into the car, and jutting out to the Olympic Auditorium, in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, to first-hand gawk and cheer these battered, albeit celebrated 'warriors' in the ring (...or on the track, if the flavor of the moment, was roller derby). It is this very gnashing, almost embracingly regressive spirit, which one, oh-so privy to this time, cannot help but harken back to, when viewing the gritty and candid, 1973 wrestling documentary, and seldom-seen drive-in theater-flavored oddity, called "Wrestling Queen"...

Lingerie Fighting Championships: Leather Vs. Lace Coming to DVD April 22nd from Wild Eye Releasing

New York, NY - Wild Eye Releasing is bringing home a look at world's first all-female MMA league.  Following a successful debut on Pay-Per-View, Lingerie Fighting Championships: Lace vs Leather will be available to own on DVD April 22nd.   The Lingerie Fighting Championships were founded by Roni Taylor after seeing two ring girls get into a fight at an MMA event and realizing the audience was more interested in that fight than any of the real fights. She runs the league with an iron fist and recruits only the hottest girls to fight for her.  Lace vs Leather is the first match of the wildly successful series.
     
Lingerie Fighting Championships: Lace vs Leather features the world's most controversial MMA league where beautiful mixed martial artists, dressed only in lingerie, train and do battle.  Starring Lingerie Football star Michelle "Scrapper" Blanchard and ex-pro wrestler Arik Loegen, go behind the scenes for an action-packed mix of combat sports, drama and humor in the tradition of UFC and WWE.

Movie Review: "The Booker" (2012; IndiePix Films)

...oh, how this viewer misses the good ol' days of professional wrestling...those gritty, sweaty renaissance days of yore...say, about the late '50's, to the mid-to-late '70's, when the action spoke louder than the words...even louder than the often aggressively confident, sometimes boisterously arrogant fighters...back in the days when it was much more about the fight, than about outrageously colorful and self-heralding extrovert, the 'product'...or rather, the fighter, presented himself. OK, admittedly, even the awesome and spectacular fights back in the day, were carefully choreographed...indeed, the fighters truly knew how to put on a show...it was hardly as 'fake', as some naysayers might suggest. And some righteous body slams...the sound, unlike that of raw meat being pummeled and slapped onto the taut canvas...and heck, even some respectable bloodshed, definitely made things much more grueling, and well, much more 'realistic'. In the advent of the almost ridiculous, clown-like personalities, wrought from the '80's, as well as the introduction of the respectable Ultimate Fighting Championship, in the '90's, the professional wrestling venue's spectacle seems to have become more about the flash, than the fight...

...that balance between the sport and the show...looking at professional wrestling in a much more artistic meld, rather than the low-brow and commercial stigma, which it has since been pigeon-holed into...fighters, who are less 'showboat', and more 'hungry'...yes, that's also what fight promoter Steve Scarborough (...aka Steve Platinum, in labeling his proposed wrestling championship brand, the Platinum Champion Wrestling) remembers, back in that exciting time. And if he has anything to say about it, he would see that...to quote a medieval term...'fair time' come to pass, once again. His vision...his dream...his journey is the subject of intrigue, turmoil and measurable triumph, in the documentive study herein, called "The Booker"... 

Movie Review: Piranha-man Vs. Werewolf-man: Howl of the Piranha

This movie...I just can't...seriously, I lost enough IQ points watching this movie that it's difficult to...I'm at a loss...what a stupid poopy flick.

Our story centers around Lexi Glass (oy vey), a news reporter that first broke a terrifying story: two blonde women have been savagely murdered. Despite the fact that two does NOT make a pattern, she reports the women as victims of a serial killer and his "Baby Doll Murders". Never mind that's the most ridiculous name, considering the women aren't babies or dolls or look like either nor are babies and dolls left at the scenes. The witnesses she interviews on camera claim they heard howling, like a large dog or wolf, near the crime scenes.

Lexi’s boss accuses her of sensationalism (from a news reporter? The hell you say!) and gives the story to Dirty Diane. Can you guess why she has that nickname? *winkwink* Lexi is pissed but continues to follow the story and look for clues. During all of this, Lexi's dreams are quite disturbing: she is at each of crime scene and witnesses some kind of wolfman attacking the women. In between those gruesome visuals, she makes out with some random guy in the woods.

After a bunch of other people are murdered (not all perky blondes, by the way), Diane dons a blonde wig to bait the killer. When it works really really well, Lexi is there to report. Too bad the killer is still around because her cameraman is the next victim while Lexi passes out. In her unconscious state (which I realized it was after the back story is thrown up all over us), a man in a wrestler's mask explains her origins. Her father didn't die in a place crash! Her mother didn't die while birthing her! Her whole life has been a lie!

No Holds Barred FIRST TIME on DVD July 3rd!

Details are still pretty sketchy, but the awesome 1989 pro-wrestling dramatic action comedy No Holds Barred will be released on DVD for the very first time. Stars Hulk Hogan, Tiny Lister, Stan Hansen and a bevy of others, this is the film that only Head Cheesers and similarly bizarre people have been waiting for.More details soon.

Movie Review: Ultimate Death Match II (2010, MVD Visual)

Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I love professional wrestling. I've been following the likes of The Missing Link, Abdullah the Butcher, Bruiser Brody, Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper and so many other superstars since I was six years old. Wrestling captivated me as a youth. It doesn't so much now but I still have a great time watching it. A few months back when I was doing an entry for our Cinema Head Cheese "Movie Burrito" column I did a review for Shawn Cain's Ultimate Death Match. I wasn't terribly kind. It just wasn't what I had expected. Cain's done a sequel, but this time he's attempted amp it with quite a bit more talent from the wrestling world - even with some of my personal favorites (Raven, Kevin Nash and the returning Al Snow). Is it an improvement? Most definitely.

Buy Ultimate Death Match II on DVD

Movie Review: The Rise and Fall of WCW (2009)

When I was a kid, my little brother and I were glued to the television every Sunday morning. No, we weren't watching the ramblings of Oral Roberts. We were watching another mouth from the South, Jimmy Hart. The likes of Hulk Hogan, "Macho Man" Savage and the Iron Sheik graced our television screen. We loved every second of the WWF back in the 80s, but there was something else going on that we didn't really follow. We really didn't have cable, so the WCW went under our radar. Years after we stopped watching, Hulk Hogan signed with the WCW and eventually joined the infamous NWO. That's when I started watching.

Buy The Rise And Fall of WCW on DVD

World Championship Wrestling was much more than just a secondary league. It was a pioneering league that was first to hit the national stage. In the early days of professional wrestling, leagues were regional. Occasionally, a star would travel between leagues. It was unheard of for an entire league to travel, but that's what the NWA did. The owners made another smart move. They partnered with superstation TBS, which was owned by Ted Turner. Turner liked wrestling's popularity and gave them a slot on his national channel.