WWE Superstar Shelton Benjamin Rates 9 Pro Wrestling Scenes From Movies and TV How Real Is It

You would not hit someone with an open chair. That is a huge no-no. Hi, I'm WWE superstar Shelton Benjamin. You may know me as the Gold Standard. I'm a three-time Intercontinental Champion, United States Champion, three-time Tag Team Champion, three-time 24-7 Champion. Today, we're gonna be looking at wrestling scenes and movies and I'll be judging just how real they are. That was a good sequence where she grabbed the headlock and run up the rope into the headlock takeover. Like that was actually a really cool, very realistic, very accurate, you know, little sequence of action. I'm being nitpicky. When she had her foot on her neck, usually a reference saying get your foot off the neck and they will start counting because when you start counting, if they get to five, you know, you get DQ'd. So, and that's a super small nitpicky thing, but this was very good. Great athleticism on the part of her brother. I think that was a little bit of showboating. He went to the top, but I don't know why. And believe it or not, that happens a lot in pro wrestling day where guys will do stuff from the top rope and even I will go, why'd you do that? Why'd you go up there? Ah, because it looked cool. Okay. It ain't about the size of the dog in the fight. It's about the size of the fight in the dog and this dog is about to bite hard. I heard it 20 years ago. Those are like lines you could get off a Dixie cup. Remember, wrestling, to me, that's like 20% of what we do because it's storytelling. You have to, you know, learn how to talk. You have to learn how to carry yourself. So that stuff, yes. You want to practice that all the time. You want to practice that whenever you can. I started with John Cena and I remember asking him, how did you get so good at what we call cutting promos? And John said, I basically just sit at home all day and talk to myself in the mirror. And that's a part of wrestling that I think a lot of aspiring wrestlers don't get. They assume it's the moves. It's never the moves. I've seen a million elbow drops, but for some reason, when I see the Macho Man does it, it's something special. It's the personalities that surround all of your moves. The moves are actually secondary. From the setting, to the moves, to the energy. This is definitely a 10 out of 10 for me. In lucha style wrestling, you do have the ring full of guys, super outlandish characters doing some really unique moves. You would think it's like a battle royal. It's just a big game of king of the mountain. You got a lot of guys moving at the same time, a lot of moving parts. I didn't see a lot of bad stuff. I saw things I would expect to see at a lucha show. The only thing that I really saw that I wouldn't like is so many guys doing so much stuff in a small space. There's just not enough room to safely bounce around like that. The moves themselves, very good. If you ever watch, you see some amazing things. Even things that I go, wow, I didn't even know you could do that. So even when the guy has the guys in two headlocks, that one's obviously rigged, but I feel like I've seen so much lucha stuff that I go, I have no idea how they're doing that. That doesn't actually make me think that's impossible. I feel like there are guys that can actually pull that off. Outside interference. That's totally illegal. You're not allowed to do it, but hey, what the ref doesn't see, it's just that simple. As long as the ref doesn't see it, you're okay. WNB, if the ref sees it, you'll get DQ'd. And I don't mean you'll get DQ'd because that's in the script. I mean, you'll get DQ'd because that's what the ref is supposed to do. If you're going to have those kinds of situations, gotta make sure the ref isn't looking. He gave a perfect tombstone pile driver in the end. It was safe. You notice the guy's head didn't touch the mat. But the tombstone pile driver, this was made famous by The Undertaker. From a safety aspect, this would actually kill a man. To protect yourself, the guy taking the move would wrap his arms around the guy giving his waist and the guy giving it would not drive his face into the floor. Most moves, they have a name, but when associated with certain talent, they name them after themselves. The tombstone pile driver is specifically named because it's The Undertaker's. I would probably give that a nine. We call it hitting the ropes. Basically just running and bouncing off the rope. There are two kinds of ropes. There are cable, where there's actually a steel cable with a rubber casing around it. And there's rope. Real rope actually is very springy. It's actually cheaper to have. For WWE, we use real rope because real rope, you get the best results all around. It works great for catapulting you off the ring and it's more comfy. So tag matches, you have two or more partners versus another team, two or more partners. One guy stays on the outside while the two in the ring, they battle it out. And eventually the other guy literally tags out. That's pretty realistic. We will be on the ring. We'll be reaching, going, come on, come on, get to me. And it's all part of the storytelling to help build drama. I'm a three-time tag team champion. So I've done it quite a few times. And in a lot of cases, it's a good chance to catch a rest. There is absolutely bells in pro wrestling. Start the match, finish the match. After every match, you'll see the ref go ring the bell. You see a ref do that, that's to ring the bell. It's over or ring the bell, it starts. Most people aren't paying attention to the ref so they don't catch that little thing. But there is an actual bell next to the ring, next to the announcers. While it's very entertaining, I would have to give this a pretty low score, a five. I'm actually amazed at the fact that this is very, very accurate. Every move is pretty much spot on. And I guess it would be considering you have Hulk Hogan giving the moves one of the biggest names in pro wrestling history. The only thing that I would say wouldn't happen is the girls on the apron while the match is going on because that's a safety hazard. We don't actually use chairs like that. We actually use just steel chairs. Wood tends to splinter. It's dangerous, you get cut. We just don't use it. I would not allow that in a match. You would not hit someone with an open chair. That is a huge no-no. Too many bad things can happen there. Could have based a little better, get a little more height on that hip toss. Stallone could have positioned himself to get thrown higher. He muscled him over. There is an art to taking a beating. Wow, so stop. If you look right here, that is a example of what we call posting. See where his hands are? He's posting, he's helping him pick him up. That hand in the back helps him control him and move around. It looks like a small thing, but it's a huge thing. He's definitely holding all of that weight, but it's easier because he has three points of carrying the weight, which makes everything easier for everyone. It helps everyone and it's actually safer. He took the safest bump out of the ring that you could possibly take. And bump just means when he falls. Kind of hooked the top rope to kill the momentum and just kind of spun out of it. From a beginner standpoint, this is all very, very good. It was definitely a more 80s style. Maybe even 70s, again, because you have the fans so close to the ring. But between the moves, the execution, the selling, the posting, everything about this to me is real. This is a 10 out of 10 for me. You're going nowhere. I got you for three minutes. So, this is awesome. The cage itself, those bars look pretty thick and pretty flimsy. It felt more like Thunderdome than a cage match. Typically, we use a cage match for bigger stories. It's kind of like the last big battle, a long rivalry between two talents. So, that's a pretty big deal. And usually, it wouldn't be your first match. And three minutes for pro wrestling, you put a cage down and you only go three minutes, yeah, you might have a riot from the crowd. The actual length of a cage match would vary. I would say no less than 15 minutes, just because it's usually the main event of whatever event it is. If you had asked me this, maybe when this movie was made, I would say Spider-Man moves are pretty unrealistic. But then I have to point out guys like Ricochet, who can literally do anything that you've seen in this clip. This day and age, I can't say they're unrealistic. He knows how to get the chair shot. In this clip, Macho Man plays Bonesaw. Macho Man, Randy Savage, is one of the greatest professional wrestlers slash sports entertainers of all time. During the 80s and early 90s, there was no one bigger. This is great work for Macho Man. What we don't do is we don't take objects from the crowd to hit each other with. That's a big no-no. If you start passing stuff into the ring, well, you're probably gonna get ejected. If it were a manager or valet or partner, that's a completely different story. But generally, we're not just gonna take a random object from the crowd. I have seen guys take food from the crowd, though. Like, if you got a bag of popcorn or a drink, I've seen guys grab that and throw it in each other's face. I'm gonna give this one an eight. Kia, fans know her as Awesome Kong. She's actually a very, very, very famous pro wrestler. She had a small stint in WWE. In Japan, she's a legend. But you can totally see she knows pro wrestling. They're doing a great job. They're really taking their time and doing actual wrestling moves. So, move-wise, yes, they are spot-on with the moves. They're definitely slowing down for the actresses because a lot of those moves, it happens a lot faster. I don't have a problem with that because, again, they're doing a show. We get to the actual wrestling. I actually think, compared to the actual GLOW that I watched as a kid, they're pretty toned down, in my opinion, because GLOW was wild. I like this. Character work in between moves and showmanship, these are all things that pro wrestlers actually do. I feel like there's an art to catchphrase. The Undertaker had rest in peace. It's a way to connect with the fans. And the best thing is when they start doing it back at you, there's nothing better. You know you're doing the right thing when the fans start mimicking you. The ring looks real. The moves look real. The character work is great. Everything about this really does remind me of GLOW that I used to watch as a kid. I would sit up and watch GLOW every Saturday night. I'm giving it a 10 out of 10. They didn't turn out the way that I had envisioned. I'm getting more of a chicken vibe. So we're bird men, we're birds of war. On the amateur level, yeah, people definitely decide what their characters are, what their attire is, what their shtick is. We call it ring gear. On any given night, I've always picked my own ring gear. You think you're so tough, I'm throwing sand! This is how you get comfortable. You're just gonna throw sand in my eyes, so I'm gonna run away. It's very over the top. The setting of this is definitely of a small indie company. You might be prone to see guys who are less experienced on indie scenes. I've seen it where guys are just way too into their characters and go way over the top, and they basically take off the other performers to some of them just refuse to work with them. I mean, you will see just like the one guy. I think if I get in the ring, he's gonna throw salt in my face, so I'm just gonna leave. So, I mean, guys have walked out on matches before. As funny as this is, there's a lot of accuracy in it. I'm gonna say a six. Is that pro wrestling? Jeez. That looked more like Bane breaking Batman's back. Some Dark Knight stuff. That backbreaker she did, that's definitely not a pro wrestling style backbreaker. The difference is there's no way to protect the guy from that. She dropped him right on her knee in the small of his back. If it were done, you actually would break someone's back. So when I bring a guy down, I don't wanna bring him down on the small of your back because I don't want you to bend. What I wanna do is maneuver you closer to across your shoulders, between the shoulder blades, so there's no pressure on your back. The way she came, I would even call it a torpedo dropkick because it looked like she jumped off of something and just plowed. The crazy thing is that is exactly what it feels like when someone gives you a dropkick, particularly off the top rope. I've seen guys running and do it, not with that kind of velocity, but you really are getting basically kicked in the chest and there is no way to take that. Now, my professional opinion, okay, I would say sell it more. You're right back up. Man, what are you, Superman? But the actual dropkick itself, that looked really legit. I would give the backbreaker a three and I would give the dropkick a 10. This is drilling. This is basic drilling. I was a collegiate wrestler. There are little things that I can tell as an actor, they don't know. Little things like once you can get into a guy's leg, you know, popping your head up so that you can go around them because if you're looking down, you're easier to take down. It's like the body follows the head, so I don't keep my head down. Every amateur wrestler knows this and it makes it easier to go around. Just little things. I feel like I would defend them rather easily because his head keeps going down, but it looks very accurate. With WWE, when we lock up, we don't put our heads down because again, we're performing. If we lock up, if we both put our head down, well, we can't see each other. In a lot of cases, you get accidental headbutts. This is sparring. They did a great job of depicting how Schultz moved, his mannerisms, the intensity, having hand fights. Your hands are your defense. Some people might say first line of defense, some people might say second line. It kind of varies with who I'm wrestling. They're actually doing a very good job of depicting the style Schultz would wrestle because if you're watching his tapes, his arms are always kind of like T-Rex-y. When I wrestled, my hands were forward because I wanted to catch everything. I feel like what they're doing is kind of a Russian style because it looks very relaxed. One of my teammates was a Russian. He actually fought in UFC a few times. Vladimir Marioschenko. And when he would wrestle me, he had the same T-Rex-y style arms. Like some people you grab and they get stiff and everything, but Vladimir, when I would grab him, he would stay relaxed. And that messed with me because my thinking is if someone grabs you, your first reaction is to pull away. But he did nothing. And it was kind of like, okay, what do you do with this? So I think they're depicting what Dave Schultz does, not necessarily what an amateur wrestler does or your typical amateur wrestler would do. Wow. He did a little spin move that I've only ever seen one person do in college. And that guy was me. I've never ever seen anyone do the standing spin drop into a double leg. I'm the only guy that I knew ever did that. I think every amateur wrestler should watch this movie. This is definitely a 10. Favorite wrestling movie? I'll be honest, I'm kind of a fan of Nacho Libre. I like the silliness. The Tombstone. It looked really convincing, yet really safe.