Louis Theroux vs WCW | The Flawed BBC Wrestling Doc!! - Wrestle Me Review
Вставка
- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- Hear the FULL EPISODE AND MANY MORE at / wrestleme
Marc & Pete potentially prod a sacred cow and cast a criticial eye over one of Louis Theroux's not-actually-that Weird Weekends, by reviewing his 1999 wrestling documentary, featuring the cast of WCW Monday Nitro!!
Hosted by Marc Haynes & Pete Donaldson; Edited by BanyaBat
/ wrestleme
/ wrestlemepod
stak.london/sh...
Follow Marc Haynes at: / marchaynes
Follow Pete Donaldson at: / petedonaldson
*******
wrestling, wwe, wwf, wcw, vince mcmahon, wrestle me, podcast, review, commentary, tnt, lord alfred hayes, raw, monday night wars, world championship wrestling, world wrestling entertainment, world wrestling federation, 90s, undertaker, paul bearer, wrestlemania, hogan, hulk, hulk hogan, 1986, roddy piper, hulkamania, jesse ventura, shoot match, shoot, wrestling shoot, rick rude, mark starr, ravishing rick rude, wcw champion, secret, secret shoot, 90's wrestling, goldberg, streak, 1997, 1998, wcw monday nitro, lord steven regal, steve regal, william regal, macho man randy savage, louis theroux, weird weekends, louis theroux bbc, wrestling documentarty, 1999, bbc 2 - Комедії
A Scott Steiner interaction would have been life changing for him
"So Scott, am I right in saying you're a mathematician?"
“YOU KNOW….(cuts a 15 minute promo basically just insulting Rick Flair
the lad as 1:58 probably wouldn't have done very well out of that
@@PHILD0 Steiner at that point was more known as a lyrical savant, his prime as a mathematician came only 8 years later.
@@primetimemonkyhours743 BUT YOU SEEEEE...
Editor: "Hey louis, should we cut the bit where the guy asks you about doing research?"
Louis: "Of course not, that was the best bit of the episode!"
When people don't know Louis in himself being ignorant is a whole work??
@@geedee1264 It is but I think he genuinely didn't know who that was.
@@geedee1264 It wasn’t a work, it’s clear in interviews since that Louis didn’t know anything.
8:18 ‘he didn’t want to talk’
The delivery of this made me properly laugh. Wonderful content as always chaps
I think your being a little harsh on Louis here. The reason his documentaries were so engaging was how disarmingly awkward and, often, ridiculous he was in his interactions. Most take their subjects very seriously; he came at them from the angle of a generic, everyman kind-of character who was often as bewildered and confused as the people watching at home. That was part of the charm; it also helped him gain access to people and their lives which many other documentary film-makers wouldn't have been granted. His gentility and, apparent, innocence (ignorance?) Broke down those walls with people.
I like the videos but sometimes they can be very harsh
Agree, and not only that, but Louis also made an effort to get involved with whatever unusual lifestyle he was covering and didn't mind looking a bit of a tit in the process. I think this effort to do the thing he was reporting on helped so much with earning trust and establishing a rapport with the subjects of the documentary.
Incidentally, this is a quality he steadily lost as he got older. Now, he just stands off to the side and asks questions and he just isn't able to establish the same kind of relationships because of it.
Relieved to see a few comments like this! Thought I was losing my mind hearing these marks completely fail to understand how a Louis Theroux documentary works.
Not a WrestleMe fan in general, but youtube put this on my homepage so I thought I'd give it a go since I've never seen a review of Louis's WCW doc from a wrestling fan perspective. Couldn't even make it to part 2. This was a series of increasingly dumb and frustrating takes on the style of documentary that Louis pioneered. A style which produced some of the greatest reality television ever. The guys sounded completely butt-hurt that Louis knew nothing about wrestling and hadn't "done any research", while failing to realise that the whole intrigue of Louis's work in the late 90's was that he explored subcultures like wrestling with little to know prior knowledge of them. He is a journalist. We literally see him doing his research in real time!
Hopefully the OSW boys will get round to a Louis review at some point. I guarantee it will be fairer, more insightful and funnier
@@mrnaughtycatAnd Far Left.
He was disarming but he typically did research on the subject before doing it.
The wrestling one he has even stated he didn’t want to
Do
It showz
Raven so offended that he didn't know who he is. He didn't know who Piper or Savage were.
On a bit of a high horse wasn't he? 😂
@@adamcammack3534 Yeah I like Raven but he's not famous enough a wrestler to use the "do you know who I am?" line.
@@reallymakesyouthinkwhere you around in the 90s because the flock was pretty popular. there's a reason raven is on the box art for wcw/nwo revenge.
@@reallymakesyouthink I mean, he has literally been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder, but even so, he was still a pretty major player in WCW during his run.
Raven did think he was a big star maybe in ECW but not in. WCW or WWE
Even as a kid I used to respond, “you think that I think it’s real!?” Exactly as Mark put it.
I think to over 99% of the population, it would be considered weird and niche.
Don't be so hard on Louis, I know he can come across as a little weird................ oh sorry, you're talking about wrestling.
This "weird and niche" wrestling thing had over 10 million weekly viewers in 1999.. which was >3.6 % of the entire US population back then.
@@Tittymaster Weird as some people wonder why men enjoy watching muscle bound oiled-up guys play fighting each other. Niche as it is, even Wrestling says it aims for the male audience between a certain age. And this is 2024 not 1999, TNS was pulling in over 2 million back in the old days.
turning up at Man City. " who are you?" "the tea lady", "so what so you do?"!!!
I can't imagine any of the current City players doing it but I can imagine Keano being astounded at someone turning up with no preparation and expecting some of his time
me either lol.
Roddy Piper rolled with it so brilliantly in this documentary, if you watch his clip on Bill Maher's old show he does the same and comes out on top.
Think youse come off as a little defensive in this lol. The charm of the weird weekends is that he was slightly uninformed and thrown into things he wasn’t familiar with . 17 mins of having a go it seems. Him being posh doesn’t make his output less entertaining. Just seems like you two totally missed the point of the show
Also, the main narrator of this channel sounds every bit as posh.
exactly
I ended this after one sentence as I knew the ignorant pathetic nonsense this would consist of. I suggest they read the weird weekends book and actually come to understand the idea of the show and how effective the style was.
I think he may have been more knowledgeable than he appears in the show.
Love you guys man! Keep it coming! I knew I was going to laugh my ass off as soon as I saw the picture of the episode! You didn’t let me down boys!
I think that's the charm of it, that he has no idea about any of it. The Weird Weekends were as much about Louis being the fish out of water as the other people being "strange". In a way, I think being this guy who has just shown up and who knows nothing about any of it probably got him more of behind the scenes glimpse than if he had gone in there already knowing everything. He captured stuff that a wrestling journalist probably wouldn't have been interested in because he's just this wide eyed seemingly innocent guy that the BBC have sent to do this show.
I’m astonished on the quality of the video from that time. It looks like it was filmed yesterday. It made me sad realizing that it wasn’t. Great video.
I totally thought that Jamison was in the thumbnail and that “Louis Theroux” was his WCW name.
"Didn't you do any research before starting this endeavor?"
"No."
🎶Ding, bading, dading, ding ding 🎶
I love this episode, and part of that is how clueless Louis is to the industry. Isn't that the point? He's exploring American subculture.. I'm sure he did enough research to form a basis, and context for his findings, but beyond that he's going into it fairly blind and naive.
Better that then some arrogant journo mocking the sport, scoffing over what they do and asking them things like about steroid use.
Louis is playing more the "tell me more about it" line, which allows subjects to open up and give more.
I would rather watch Louie than 90% of journos who mock the subject and act like smart asses.
Most media would be far worse to them than Louie was.
Louie's questions come from a place of ignorance. Most other journos questions come from a place of arrogance.
It's not fake, its choreographed. Ask my brother who did it for a decade and has only recently stopped walking with a stick.
No one calls Shakespeare fake. They call it a play. They don't call a concert contrived. Despite every second being rehearsed. People just love undermining the level of talent, athleticism and psychology that pro wrestling encompasses at high levels.
@@brandi33 Wrestling is fairly unique though in that it's origins were very much about maintaining the reality of it despite it being pre-determined. Shakespeare didn't claim his plays were documentaries...that's a bad analogy, but you know what I mean, right? Wrestling spent decades and decades maintaining kayfabe so it's only natural that that leads to people questioning things when they see behind the illusion. Less so by the late 90s, admittedly. It doesn't excuse the shitty attitudes of those who look down on wrestling and its fans but it explains why there's a difference in how they perceive wrestling as opposed to perceiving a movie.
@@dennett316 Maybe not Shakespeare, but Konstantin Stanislavsky entire shtick was to create 'reality' on stage and this later bled into the modern style of American Film and the method style of acting.
As everyone I know who wrestles (from amateurs to semi-pros) say; "Wrestling's fake, wrestlers are real"
What about reality shows?
They are called "reality" but much of it is contrived.
Only true reality shows are live shows such as live sport, like an NBA or NFL game.
Why was this flawed. It was the funniest thing I ever saw, when he went to the power plant.
Because it triggered neckbeards.
Becase this guy was a clueless moron entirely unprepared and spends the entire time making himself look like an imbecile and it's not funny.
Srg had a keyfabe alert
I did the Alex Wright techno dance on a grotty nightclub floor in a small Polish town around 2000 much to everyone's horror
Job guy Sgt Buddy Lee working him til he throws up is hilarious. he's such a dork
Unlike grown men who watch muscled up males in their underwear pretending to fight each other? What a joke.
He absolutely gets his lesson at the powerplant lol
Damn, how did Louis Theroux even manage to get widescreen footage of Nitro in 1999
At the time, pro wrestling WAS beating Monday Night Football on the ratings by a mile, and technically, was the most popular sport in the country at the time. The ESPN hatchet job was an attempt to make the industry look as bad as possible in hopes of getting viewers to quit watching. The late 90s were a weird, wild, and wonderful time to be alive.
Lol no. There was NEVER a time when Wrestling was able to compete with American Football. Not even if you combine Raw and Nitro ratings. To give you a few randomly picked comparisons from 1998 (before makes no sense, since in 1997 most of the time Raw was doing 2.x ratings and Nitro below 5 while the NFL was constantly doing 10 to 17 ratings and before 1997 the difference was even bigger)
September 14, 1998. Raw: 4.0. Nitro: 4.5 NFL (49ers vs. Redskins) 12.7
October 5, 1998: Raw: 4.5. Nitro: 4.55 NFL (Vikings vs. Packers) 16.8
December 21, 1998: Raw: 4.7. Nitro: 4.0. NFL (Broncos vs. Dolphins) 16.3
September 27, 1999 Raw: 6.8 (with the famous "Rock: This is your Life" segment). Nitro: 3.0. NFL (49ers vs. Cardinals) 13.3
October 25, 1999 Raw: 5.6. Nitro: 3.5 NFL (Falcons vs. Steelers) 12.5
November 29, 1999 Raw: 6.5 (the much hyped "Raw is Love") Nitro: 3.1 NFL (Packers vs. 49ers) 13.1
January 3, 2000: Raw: 6.4. Nitro: 3.3 NFL: (49ers vs. Falcons) 10.0 (and this was the closest rating i could find, the only one with less than 1.0 differential)
September 18, 2000: Raw: 5.7. Nitro: 2.75. NFL (Cowboys vs. Redskins) 13.5
November 6, 2000: Raw: 5.1. Nitro 2.5. NFL (Vikings vs. Packers) 14.6 (the legendary Antonio Freeman catch/touchdown)
Highest unopposed Raw rating: 8.1 (May 10, 1999). Highest unopposed Nitro rating: 6.0 (August 31, 1998). Highest combined rating was on January 1, 1999 (Foley wins the Belt and "Fingerpoke of Doom") doing 5.7 and 5. respectively, so a 10.7, which is still vastly lower than 99% of all the NFL ratings from 1998 to 2001
The WWF couldn't even compete with the NBA. A few examples i found:
June 21, 1999- 6.0 rating vs. 12.1 for game 3 of Spurs/Knicks NBA Finals
June 19, 2000- 5.8 rating vs. 14.7 for game 6 of the Pacers/Lakers NBA Finals
I remember watching this, it’s one of the most uncomfortable things I ever watched. The bit where he throws up during training has stuck in my mind ever since.
Louis always knew EXACTLY what he was doing with the whole posh twit schtick. Clever bloke it must be said.
PS fans of this channel - years ago, I set up a Wikipedia page for Catweazle (if you know, you know) only to have it removed by a Japanese moderator. I would welcome people trying to get it reinstated,. Best wishes.
Why would Japanese people remove a wiki page for a 1960s British TV show?
@@stalfithrildi5366 Thanks for the response - nice one...! With regard to the wrestler Catweazle, I guess he was just a Wikipedia moderator trying to do his job. He would have looked up Catweazle on the web and decided that he wasn't a big enough name to deserve a Wikipedia page. I only mention that the moderator was Japanese to highlight the fact that he would likely not have known what a household name Catweazle was in the UK during the 80s. To me, the strength of Wikipedia is exactly this sort of 'local knowledge' that people can share worldwide.
By the way - I did mention all this to him at the time, but he wasn't convinced...!
He pretended to be an idiot and completely naive to everything he was doing a documentary on. Only Saville really outwitted him
Its like walking up to John Holmes, dropping trow and asking if you have what it takes to be an adult film star. Nope. Not at all.
I mean he basically did that too
The lads struck on an interesting point with this sort of tangent.
Like, if you've heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect, what those scientists who discovered with it was that it requires the same skills to understand how to be good at something as it is to just be good at it.
In other words, the only kind of person who could think they could just walk and be an expert without having done any study or practice is an absolute idiot.
@@Antonicane A bit like you thinking you understand how a Louis Theroux documentary works
@@larrysanders3829 lol u mad bro? 🍵
@@Antonicane Yes!
Dwayne Bruce: “You can be the biggest muscle head but that doesn’t mean you’re gonna make it. Just look at my muscles and I can’t even get on TV that’s why I’m teaching people like you”
I read that they had a bunch of journos come from the atlanta news station and just took the mick at the powerplant so sarge went full bore at theroux for that reason, he actually said in shoot interviews he was proud of louis because even though he was way out of his depth he actually tried. He wasn't "bullying" him.
Wow that’s Elix Skipper at the beginning there!
He is Bizarro John Oliver. Albeit 20 years displaced in time.
God, now I wish that John Oliver would've done this because, as far as I know, he's at least a bit more respectful of pro wrestling than Louis.
@Kaltagstar96 John Oliver is actually a huge wrestling fan and in fact did an episode of "last week tonight" about how poorly wrestlers are treated by the industry (McMahon), it's worth a watch.
@@mikesanborn4541There is also a very good video on here of Maven reacting to John Oliver's piece.
@@mikesanborn4541 I think that I've seen that, I went into it thinking that Oliver would've been like Theroux, but he was nothing but respectful while also calling out the many, MANY shitty parts of the industry.
It really is like watching a Daily Show segment where instead of clowning the interviewee, they clown the interviewer.
Lots of comments about Louis’ meetings with Jimmy Saville, as expected. People don’t seem to realise (i) that (like most psychopaths, or likely psychopaths) Saville was *extremely* charming and was frighteningly good at getting people to like and trust him; and (ii) while people may have known about what Saville was doing nobody had the influence he had during the 70s, 80s and even most of the 90s, and many were discouraged from talking about it even in the 2000s (ITV attempted to make a programme about the allegations but were told to shut it down). Saville was like a mob boss; most of the people who knew who he really was were either entirely powerless or else so caught up in the same lifestyle that they would almost certainly go down with him. Saville was possibly one of the most dangerous men who have ever lived, so we can’t blame Louis for not asking him difficult questions (especially when Louis was a relative unknown at the time, and could easily have had his career shortened by Saville).
Saville was a national treasure. Must have been very hard to even question him let alone accuse him
Besides, I saw a documentary where Louis admitted he was wrong about Saville, and then asks people he interviewed in his first doco about Jimmy of they changed their mind about him too (many of his assistants still defended him).
It was refreshing to see someone from the media humble themselves and admit they got it wrong, rather than have their ego stick to their guns despite the evidence, which most journos would.
Weird weekends was so great
😂😂😂remember watching this the night it aired ffs.
They missed easily the best part of this out - Louis' famous promo as his wrestling character, Waldo, for his bout against Pistol Pex Whatley!
Louis Theroux: [speaks in his normal posh English voice, doesn't shout and is pretty unthreatening]
Waldo's the name. London, England's the place of origin. A new face on the block. I'm gonna wrestle Pistol Pez Whatley, the one and only, the legendary. Am I excited? Am I honoured? You'd better believe it. Is he going down? I hope so. He's good, but he's been in the business a long time and it's time for a new face to take over. Is it me? I hope so. I'm gonna throw every move I know, and I've been practicing, I've been trying really hard, and I'm gonna get in the ring, his time is over, maybe now it's time for a new face on the block, me - Waldo, the one and only, at the Georgia Dome this Saturday, tune in! Pistol Pez Whatley, the legend, with the utmost respect, I'm afraid to tell you, that I think you are going down.
[the cameraman laughs, but Pez is impressed by Louis' verbal fluency]
Pistol Pez Whatley: He's good with words already! That's excellent!
I enjoyed a lot of Louis, back in these days. But you guys are spot on! Thanks for making this vid.
Got this on DVD and seen it when it first aired. Raven and Alex wright , Piper , unreal. Sarge wanker. Only knowing hard body Harrison through this then learning what he done years later
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they are unable to do it themselves." -Brendan Behan
He is not even a critic in this. He is just some guy wandering in, completely mystified and curious as to how everything works.
@Rocketboy1313 He is absolutely critiquing a subject for which he openly shows contempt, and his disingenuous "documentary" is ironically more transparently pandering than the predetermined nature of wrestling.
This is not a true statement
@@Rocketboy1313Nope. He isn’t curious in the least. Genuine curiosity is a wonderful thing. He is not curious. He doesn’t care.
Uh... I think Louis worked you mate
What worse than Goldberg spitting on the floor is Goldberg spitting tobacco juice on the floor.
The comments are hilarious. Of course he didn’t know anything about it; that’s the entire point of the show he was commissioned to produce. He goes it, plays dumb, and gives an insight into a world the average BBC 2 9pm viewer know anything about.
This isn’t a wrestling documentary, it’s a Louis Theroux documentary about wrestling.
I personally don’t care for his “gonzo” style, but the comments are hilarious. “Disrespect” comes up a lot. Seriously!!! 😂😂
Wrestling is a fun show and he got some really good content during the end of the “kayfabe” era.
Your review is painfully one-sided because you’re viewing this in a niche as wrestling fans - as with your commenters - but ignoring the market this documentary was actually produced for.
So you're saying that BBC 2 9 PM viewers of the late 90s and early 2000s are complete idiots?
@@fredcasdensworldno -I’m saying they know nothing about wrestling, Theroux put together a fun little documentary about a subject the majority of watchers haven’t cared about before or since
@@fredcasdensworld No, quite the opposite. This show is about Louix, actually.
@alexkrycek3359 anyone over the age of about 10 who takes wrestling seriously is sad anyway
I haven't watched any Louis Theroux stuff since the early 2000s, but even as a kid I found his whole shtick to be insufferable. Obviously it's a gimmick and he's playing it up for the show, but his popularity completely bewildered me as a kid. He covered a bunch of subjects I was interested in, but I just spent every episode annoyed at how much of a bumbling idiot the guy was. Like, I get what he's going for, but I couldn't sit through it.
It's fun to hear two guys tear into the gimmick 25 years later.
Alex wright was bullshitting louis however because he wasn't allowed to describe or name the character until it was unveiled on tv, he said in a shoot interview.
Oh, nice catch, because I was watching this and thinking "isn't that the Berlin gimmick?"
"he didn't want to talk"
I don't think Finlay was impressed with that posh accent, everything he would've grown up hating about Britain back in Northern Ireland (I'm guessing he's Catholic from his ring gear).
He was mates with Regal and Davey, but they were working class lads, and I'd guess they didn't represent British authority to him.
You can't really make those assumptions. Performers and athletes play up Irish heritage just because it's an easy thing for people to understand and latch on to. Wayne McCullough was a protestant from Northern Ireland, but he represented Ireland in the Olympics and played up being Irish. 'Irish' Sean O' Grady was a Baptist redneck kid from Texas whose boxing gimmick was the Irish thing. It worked against him when he fought for the world championship in Glasgow, because protestant terrorists made death threats against him and his family. He claimed it rattled him so much that it affected his performance. You don't have to be Irish to be annoyed by the british class dynamics that Louis Theroux has made a career out of. It pisses lots of English people off too.
I mean, if you are part of any group he interviews their activities would not seem that weird surely. Though yes having a, say, small and insular, rather than a substantial and constantly-nationally-broadcast, group would probably help it be weirder
Weird weekends was a classic show!!😂
Well done lads. Keep up the good work.
On the point of "it's not absolutely real", I've started reading the book Ballyhoo, and it seems that sort of question has followed wrestling since the early 1900s. Just let us enjoy the spectacle without feeling the need to question us
It was even asked in Ancient Greek times. And probably even before that.
Yeah, there are Ancient Roman manuscripts discussing if wrestling match outcomes were fixed in order to get the most popular guys to face each other to make the most money possible.
Funnily enough, I got to the bit about Frank Gotch, and no matter how questionable wrestling was, the press were certain he was on the level. I imagine a similar theme will appear when I get to Jim Londos
There's an article from the Boston Globe in the 1870s openly talking about the worked nature of wrestling!
I heard someone say once "if wrestling is the oldest sport, professional wrestling is the second oldest"
Jack Dempsey worked with catch wrestlers when he was writing a book on unarmed fighting for the military during WW2, and one of the things he said was "I understand why it's fake now because if they did it for real they'd kill each other." This would have been a popular era in wrestling when you'd expect people to be naive. When you understand a little bit about grappling the next thing you understand is how much easier and more profitable it is to fake it.
Saturday Wright Fever!!
Raven sneaking in a double bird the moment the camera focuses on him.
Ok, How have you guy not covered this before. lol.
Ever seen any of his other docs?
Especially the Scientology one?
It’s interesting that around the same time the BBC showed this and Wrestling With Shadows in a matter of months you couldn’t get two more different perspectives on wrestling
Louis should have done his research but I think that it showed how WCW was run at the time that they allowed themselves to be shown in this light as I think WWE at the time would have stage managed it a bit better and maybe not allowed someone to walk up to their wrestlers and say who are you Louis Theroux should have done his research but I think by letting him in to the areas they did in hindsight showed a bit of the unprofessionalism that eventually sunk the company
WWE around this time were desperately trying to stop Beyond the Mat being released after having willingly participated in it's filming. To this day they are still ruing that decision not to stage manage that a bit better, as Beyond the Mat exposes the true horror of the Mick Foley vs The Rock "I Quit" match that WWE would love to erase from history but can't. On the WWE Network they've edited out pretty much all hits to the head but Beyond the Mat will forever contain the unedited reality.
Sooooo glad for this - I gave up choking the chicken to Pete for Lent and now I'm a throbbing robin for these guys!
ezm8
It wasn't even that unreasonable of a question that he asked really but timing is everything i guess. If he had spent a few days with them or done a day at the power plant first and as part of that asked his question on how the matches are laid out (completely fully rehearsed or go in there with an outcome, a time limit and a couple of spots agreed etc) i'm sure they wouldn't have been that bothered as it is part of the process of learning. From someone who knew nothing about it if anything it is actually a pretty useful question to find out the answer to, he just asked the wrong person at the wrong time.
11:42 Goldberg clearly has a wad of dip in his lip and HAD to spit
Way back in 2001, it was - of all people - Gyles Brandreth who caught Theroux out. It was Theroux's turn to be interviewed, and towards the end, Brandreth and he had the following exchange:
"...Suddenly I lean forward and find myself saying to him, in a near-hysterical rush: 'Louis, you are someone with an alpha mind and here you are spending the golden years of a life that can only be lived once trailing a ventriloquist and his dummy, a magician and his assistant, the Hamiltons, Jimmy Savile . . .'
"He sits up and almost shouts at me: 'I can't think of anything better to be doing with my golden years. I feel privileged and blessed by the life I'm living. I am excited to be me. I think Jimmy Savile is one of the most fascinating people of the age, really, of any age.'
"He stops. We sit and stare at one another in silence. He looks puzzled. 'Why is that a crap answer, Gyles?'
"I keep silent. Eventually, he says, 'Deep down, I'd like to be Shakespeare, but that's true of anyone who has ever written a sentence.'
"'Yes,' I sigh, packing up my recording equipment, 'and once you accept that you're not Shakespeare, and not likely to be, it doesn't much matter what you do, does it?'"
"'That's a good quote. I like that. Can you give me that, Gyles? I want you to give me some good quotes. That'd be a great line to end on.'"
###
And then there was that moment in the mea culpa documentary he made about Savile in 2016, where one of the victims utterly shredded Theroux, and he had to just sit there and take it. This was electrifying television, but not the spark he may have had in mind.
what's your point?
@@RataStuey Can you read?
I saw this at the time; WCW was (I think) actually available in 1999 as a compilation programme called Worldwide, on Channel 5. Still, I agree with you that it was bumbling to go in with nothing. And not just him - he had a TEAM of researchers who are there to do the legwork for the interviewer / presenter!
Same here - the more Louis has gone on the less I'm interested, Weird weekends Is still good but the lack of understanding or caring about wrestling screws it
Thanks this episode made my day
Wrestle me Mark Wrestle me Pete
I love how raven just took the piss out of him.
He's not having any of Louis' "I'm a silly upper-class Englishman" gimmick. My favorite part is that Raven still called him an idiot decades later. He deserves it. Raven may be an insufferable jerk but sometimes people like that are useful.
I need Part II !!!!!!
What is the music you use for intros and outros? It sounds real good! Also your guys' content is pretty entertaining!
Keep kicking all the ass! Love the channel.
If Egon Spangler from Ghostbusters and Mr Bean had a baby it would grow up to be Louis Theroux
hmm, I dunno, WWE make documentaries all the time without knowing who Fred Wiseman or Barbara Koppel are.
Why is Ardal O'Hanlon from Father Ted walking Louis Theroux around WCW?
Where can i lsiten to full epsidoes of this show? I see them on spotify but the link days to go to their patreon?
You should check out the documentary with Regal in his first year in WCW.
That would be great, the one that Robbie Brookside did and still essentially kept kayfabe
I lost all respect for Louie when he wouldn't ask Jimmy Saville the hard questions
And then he tried to spin that failure in his favor and milk it to gain sympathy.
Hot Gossip or Pan's People?
If only he investigated Jimmy's bags the way he did Piper's@@wellesradio
Didn't he straight up ask him if he was nonce?
BBC2 has achieved ratings much higher than even the most watched Raw and Nitro.
Yeah because for quite a long time it was one of only three channels.
@@pmc8451 okay agreed, but consider the population of the U.S is over 4 times that of the U.K.
This all feels a bit contrived "Wrestle Me" guys. You don't talk about his promo, you don't talk about Sarge getting him to run the ropes til he throws up. This is a really unbalanced little video on what was a great show from the 1990s. Louis Theroux wasn't lazy or sensationalistic... he put himself in fascinating areas of american subculture and walked his way around it. Always interesting and entertaining stuff I loved "Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends". With this video it feels like you're being contrary for contrary's sake and it seems a little silly.
They do on their Patreon
Sarge has a lot to say for a guy who runs a training with very few successes.
90% of the big names in WCW were old guys who had already made names for themselves in WWE (Hogan, Hall, Nash, Piper, Macho Man etc). Other than Sting, DDP, Booker T and Goldberg, WCW had very few original superstars.
The Powerplant had nothing on the WWE Performance Centre and NXT, which has produced 90% of today's up and coming WWE stars, rather than pinching them from other companies like WCW did.
They would have hated this guy wrestling more than they did Lord Steven Regal 😂
💯 I'm subscribing Bruvs.
Well Louis Theroux did say that Jimmy Saville was "quite likeable"....yep.
He probably was nice to keep up the act. Can’t be a creep and a known asshole.
So did thousands of people
He fixed it for Louis
@@seancomrie4714 I would be inclined to agree as Savile was loved by the public for many years, however it appears that the BBC knew a lot more about it than the public did. A lot more. As in everybody there knew but nobody wanted to do anything about it. They even went as far as banning Johnny Rotten for years after he made a comment about hearing that Savile was into all kinds of nasty things.
Not defending Jimmy Saville here for a minute.
But funny how these allegations only came out after he died and can't defend himself.
Where were these allegations while he was alive, so that they can be tested in a court of law, where Saville will be questioned? Then if guilty, he would go to prison and the victims get justice.
Now, a dead man can't answer for his crimes and his victims get no closure or sense of justice.
Looks like the WCW representative LT went thru trolled him! Haha By sending him to the more intelligent wrestlers, who wouldn't come across crazy like he wanted or ones that wouldn't make wrestling look bad, in general..what a douche!
Louis was and still is THE weird in weird weekends.
That was the point of the documentaries, it seems a lot of people missed the point of him not doing research and just rocking up, THAT WAS THE ENTIRE PREMISE
FFS
Shhhhh, they still think they are clever, do spoil it for the naive children.
I was thinking this through the whole episode. Love these two, but early Louis goes right over their heads.
The best wrestling pod . You guys and markyd with the only ones with class. Even thou one of you seems lk he doesn't know nothing about wrestling.
You guys are off on this imo. Just because you’re fans of the “athletic entertainment” world of “professional wrestling”, shouldn’t mean you can’t see & understand the intentional but also genuine bewilderment of Lois Theroux while being inside that sub culture. He documented certain lifestyles that were completely alien to him. That was the whole point of his documentaries & it’s exactly the reason why they became some of the most interesting & entertaining documentaries ever produced.
Louis Theroux was always a terrible journalist. The guy knew Saville's reputation, made two shows with him, and got nothing.
Naw Louis rules dude .he knows what's up.very subtle but digs DEEP
Louis doesn't go into these unresearched. He appears uninformed or not understanding so that the people he's interviewing feel the need to over-explain, and then he gets more out of them that they would normally give.
See the episode with Mr Savile for the most textbook of examples.
I never realised it was Alex Wright sat next to Raven
Who knew Ray Romano was English
You should’ve said about the Man City it would be like going up to Pep Guardiola and saying “who are you” and he says “I started off playing for my hometown team Barcelona, I went through their legendary academy then played for Barcelona with Johan Cryuff was my manager. And after my playing career I managed Barcelona with such legends in my team like Xavi & Messi. Then I managed Bayern Munich and now Man City” And Louis says “So this Messi guy is he any good?”
6:31 dude that transition is killin me man LOL
Dude it is funny how I can find a reason to respect John Stossel but not Louis despite both pretty much doing the same thing more or less because John is at least a reputable news personality in a world of just listen don't think news casters and Louis is more or less a entertainment nerd interviewer
Louis should thank his lucky stars he didn't run into Dr D David Schultz
Please do a video on ‘Grunt’ wrestling movie 🙏🏻
Louis:right wing loons
Also louis: wrestlers
Flawed??? It was hilarious! He plays the fish out of water thing well.
Raven is highly intelligent for real. High IQ
MY FRIENDS AND I HAVE HAD A RUNNING JOKE FOR THE LAST 16YRS ABOUT LOUIE AND JAMESON BEING THE SAME PERSON LOL
Why are you shouting?
God, I wish he ran into Kevin Nash. He would've been destroyed.
I wish Louis had got the John Stossel treatment.
He's peak "odious little prick" isn't he?
He kind of did by getting smoked by Sarge in the ring.
@@SteveReaves Absolutely.
I don't think anybody's going to stick up for Sarge for what he puts Louis through. It was always quite self-evident that it was toxic macho bullshit.
At the same time though, it is a genuinely arrogant thing to - as Piper pointed out - bring a film crew into the wrestlers' business, shove a camera in their faces, and start patronising them about their livelihoods.
I certainly wouldn't say Louis deserved the treatment he got - I don't think anyone would - but he was playing with fire right from the jump, so you can't be surprised he got burned.
A lot of English people need to see David Schultz
@@Antonicane apparently sarge failed accretion future WWE superstar / movie star world champ the animal Dave Batista
It's always cringe when clueless people from the mainstream media try to do a story about pro wrestling. It really seems like the media thinks it is permissible for them to disrespect wrestling when they wouldn't do the same for pretty much any other form of entertainment.
I think it comes down to wrestling being seen as low brow and a acceptable target of mockery. You wouldn't see something like this about opera or ballet or arthouse film, but wrestling is for the poors so it's okay to present it like a joke...
You're missing the point of the show. He's supposed to be uninformed.
What do you mean they don't do it to any other form of entertainment?
The media bag sports people all the time and call them out as being no good, should be dropped etc.
They go after Hollywood stars and question them. Look at the treatment Tom Cruise gets because of his Scientology.
The media slate most professions (the medical profession and the music industry seem to get a pass) but the media are ruthless to most industries and professions.
Louie , by his own admitance, asks a stupid question, usually ending in "is that what you do." then silence, feeling the guy has to reply with something stupid.. ....Everyone he,s met tries not to brand him an idiot out of politeness..
nice seeing Berlin
please review the story of Rip Rawlingson
I remember this specifically for the bit where my boi Raven has a go at Louis for making a wrestling doco while having done absolutely no research.
Like, say what you will about Raven's ego, but it's a fair cop.
Like, this is elementary school 'did not engage with the subject' stuff. The only thinking behind the premise of making a documentary about a subject the documentary maker has no knowledge can only be supreme arrogance and disrespect.
It wasn't Louis 'disarming' the subjects by feigning ignorance, he was just actually ignorant. He wasn't qualified to engage with the subject matter, and made himself look every bit the clueless rube he was.
Haha...Draymond Green would have choke slammed you
Heh. Bunch of marks. Wrestling is very popular but it is still considered very weird by the majority, even in 2024 let alone in 1999 when this documentary was filmed. I get it, I don't think you are weird, but a lot of people think it's weird. A lot of people still think it's weird to meet a man in his 30s who's passionate about videogames, pokemon or yes wrestling, because they view it as a child's activity that should be grown out of. Only really in the past two decades has it become not weird to be very into a fantasy franchise like Star Wars or LOTR or Warhammer, that used to be considered a bit weird, not that long ago in relative terms. There's a lot of things that aren't actually that weird that if you walk into a room 55% of the people in it would still tell you is pretty weird and will be surprised to find out that the other 45% not only don't find at all weird but also actively enjoy themselves.