Youshoot DVD series review

Last time I looked at Kayfabe Commentaries Guest Booker series, this time it's the same company but a different series. The idea behind the Youshoot series is that it's basically a shoot interview but all the questions are submitted by the fans. There have been a lot in this series and I haven't watched all of them but will review the ones I've seen and give a overall view of the series. So lets begin with one of the first ones they did.

Sandman
The name alone should let you know that this has the potential to be entertaining and it is. From the very first second you know that Sandman is drunk and through out the shoot he continues drinking. Now this adds to the shoot in the humour department however it effects it in many ways. One thing that happens a lot is that the Sandman forgets what he's talking about and has to ask the host (Sean Oliver), he's also hard to understand from time to time as he's slurring his words. So this does effect the shoot however the Sandman's honesty and outrageous stories more then make up for it. It's not the best and you probably won't watch it over and over again but it's still good.

New Jack
Speaking of outrageous we come to the next volume, New Jack. Jack doesn't hold back one bit and really funny because of it. However like Sandman he's hard to understand from time to time and seems to talk a mile a minute meaning that you can miss out some key facts of some of his stories. Now you do get the feeling that some of what he's saying is rubbish and it's said to make himself look good or in the right. This probably happens when he's asked about his infamous incidents e.g. Mass Transit, Gypsy Joe and the indy wrestler he stabbed several times. Jack goes into details about all of these incidents, not in great detail which is probably a good thing when it comes to how gruesome they've been described in the past. This is a great combination of funny and serious however Jack seems to spend more time insulting the people who have asked the questions to me and you nothing in an answer because of it. Like Sandman's it's worth a view but not repeated viewing.

Kevin Sullivan
One of the biggest names in the business and one of the most controversial superstars is in the next volume. The amount of subjects covered is huge from his in ring career, to his gimmicks, to his booking, to Brian Pillman and lots more. Sullivan shows that he doesn't have a ego at all, which you think he would have considering what he's done, and he shows a great amount of details about the backstage of the wrestling business. This is one of the DVDs where you will likely learn some details which you thought wouldn't be true so it's a great watch. The DVD takes a very serious turn near the end when the subject of Chris Benoit and Nancy is brought up, Sullivan answers every question and is even given a chance to just express himself at the end.

Jim Cornette & his lost Questions
This is 2 separate releases, this was done because after the 4 hour first volume was released many fans apparently emailed and asked where their question was during the shoot so they got Jim back to do another one. Now the first DVD set focuses around wrestling and his career because Jim Cornette has worked so many places this takes about 4 hours as he gets lots of questions from each company. The 2nd DVD is more about random stuff that fans wanted to know, just general questions really. Both are amazing to watch, Jim Cornette is one of the best interviewees in the wrestling business, he's always entertaining and the time flies by because of it. I've watched both shoots several times they are that great, I would easily recommend these to anyone. You could probably watch these everyday and still be entertained. And some of the best bits are him cussing people out, including a classic part at the end of volume 2 where he asks for just 5 minutes to express himself about Vince Russo and 25 minutes later he finishes. This is way I love Jim Cornette.

Dixie Carter LIVE
This is probably one of the worst DVDs in my view and is for a simple reason. Now either Dixie has deluded herself into believing the answers she's giving or she's giving them to make TNA not look like the waste land that it actually is. The fans hold nothing back and the amount of times WCW 2000 is brought up, Hogan & Bischoffs awful running of a company and Vince Russo's booking is great. A video is also shown where Jim Cornette asks about why Vince Russo is still hired there. The answers are awful and not believable, at one point she says that it's not Vince Russo's booking and she was gonna fire everyone except him from the booking committee. You can give it a view, you may learn something about TNA but Dixie not entertaining in my view and the rest of the series easily out shines this volume.

Bob 'Hardcore' Holly
Now I don't like what I've heard about Holly and I only watched this as it showed the fans really giving it to him about how awful he is in the ring and how he's a bully. Now Holly covers the bully issue several times and it sounds believable however my theory is, of course a bully would make up reasons for what he did and not see himself as a bully. So either what he says is true or I'm right and personally I'm shooting with me. But back to the DVD itself. It's not a bad watch, a lot is covered and like many others he holds nothing back, you get to see how badly WWE can treat some of it's wrestlers who are not the their 'main' stars. The shoot gets a little disturbing when during a game he's asked how he'd kick a guys as, they go through several, it starts with a very detailed and long account of how he would KILL Mr. Anderson and he does skip some names but nothings he says "I'd just cut their throats", now Holly that's not beating someone up that's murder and it was not nice to watch. This again is probably worth one watch but not repeated viewing.

Maria Kanellis
This is a great shoot. This really brings Maria out into a new light, many people would of stereotyped her as just another Diva search girl who was in wrestling for no reason but after watching this that view is changed. You get to see her true personality, something WWE never showed and gave her nothing after nothing after he 'stupid girl' gimmick. You also get to see a real knowledge and love of pro wrestling which again WWE never took advantage off, how different things would be if they took up some of her ideas. Now like the others Maria holds nothing back and goes into great detail about anything she's asked about. Some of the best bits are the section focused around CM Punk and a section on weird fans. If you didn't like Maria before this you'll likely end up falling in love with her at the end of it. I love this shoot and this is another one that you can watch over and over.

Overall
Lets start with the bad points, there's not a lot. The biggest downer of this series is actually the video submitted questions, not all of them though. Now you'll see a lot of familiar faces if you watch several DVDs which can be good, the guys from offthemarkshow.com usually submit questions that are good and can be funny, however one of the guys from the show the 'Hez' (I believe) express is really hard to understand and his questions are sometime skipped. Also there videos of guys trying to be funny which is dreadful and guys pretending to be wrestlers and doing promos which are meaningless in the long run and just take away from the shoot.
However that is the only bad point about this series. The fact that the questions come from the fans mean there usually great questions which you'd like to know the answer to. Another good point is the games that Sean Oliver plays with the guests, these range from the Hoe Bag, to name the object to 'F', Marry, Kill and more. This don't take away from the shoot and are really funny, they also show the true feelings of the people playing them. Also the games are rather specific to the interviewee so they do have a purpose and are placed in the shoot very well.
So overall I find the series hit and miss, as much as you have to see the shoots as they are good some don't deserve repeated viewing which makes you question if you should pay out for them. I'm 50/50 on them as 4 are worth repeated viewing while 4 are probably just a one off watch. So it seems that I'm undecided on it. The real test will be the most recent releases in the series which is Sean Waltman, which should be good, and the next one being shot, which I've submitted a question to, including the Iron Sheik. Anyways the series is a great watch, I love many of them and like some of the others. I only dislike 2 really so the series is good in my view.

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