Friday, March 17, 2017

On The Air: Southpaw Regional Wrestling (2017)

Those of us who've followed WWE over the years know that CEO/Chairman Vince McMahon has made no secret of his dislike of the south, which would explain the repeated humiliations visited upon Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross, among other things. The fact that McMahon, 71, has refused to retire from the only business that he's ever been successful with leads many of us to question his sanity, considering a lot of the recycled angles that keep returning like bad houseguests.

Well, it seems that someone's found a way to tickle even his funny bone with a web series that satirizes the southern territories that McMahon would ultimately plow under in the course of national and global expansion in the 80's & 90's.

Southpaw Regional Wrestling, a parody of wrestling hotbeds of yore such as Memphis, went live today with 4 short episodes, each running approximately 7-8 minutes. You have John Cena wearing a bad wig and attempting a monotone a la Lance Russell or Gordon Solie, as an announcer. You have Rusev, who actually lives in Nashville these days with wife/valet Lana (CJ Perry), as an immigrant farmer. Watch for Chris Jericho, under an even worse wig, as a backstage reporter, Luke Gallows as Tex Ferguson, and more. Oh, by the way, the "Ric Flair impersonator" doing voice-over ads for KFC? It's actually the real thing.

Scope the opener.



Cena's wig looks like that was bought from Steve Austin, dating back to Austin's infamous parody of Eric Bischoff during his brief tour with ECW in 1995-6. Shoot, where was Austin, who could have made this even more hysterical, when you really needed him?

Let's see them shoehorn this onto Raw or Smackdown. Heck, the Surf Dudes With Attitudes (The Ascension) could actually be brought to the ring later this year (Konnor & Viktor need a gimmick change, badly).

Rating: A.

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