Right now, the WWE is in dire straits because of their poor shows and their fans are lashing out because of how bad WWE has become. And you had a 10 year old win the tag team title at WrestleMania. STILL won't forgive you for that. It seems the company has had some highs when it comes to being creative. Case in point, Southpaw Regional Wrestling.
SRW appeared on the WWE website and YouTube channel around February 2017 and it's a parody of the territorial days of the late 80s where the mullets reign and very bad gimmicks were the norm. There were four episodes around this time, which were promoting an event called "Lethal Leap Year". (SPOILER) They find out in a later episode that 1987 is not a leap year. The series ran an old school KFC ad with a "Ric Flair Impersonator". The joke about that is the "Impersonator" is the actual Ric Flair, even though he says that he is not Ric Flair. The episodes are shot in a VHS type way to give the series that old school feeling. The promos are a carbon copy of the old promos from the territorial days. In fact, just about everything is authentic down to the tee.
THE CHARACTERS
Lance Catamaran (John Cena) is the host of SRW. He is a cross between Ron Burgundy and Gordon Solie with his stoic delivery and often references about his old anchoring job in Utica, New York. This is John Cena in full actor mode.
Chett Chetterfield (Fandango) is Lance's co-host. Chett is a depressed mess of a person who longs for a woman named Susan.
Clint Bobski (Chris Jericho) is the flamboyant backstage interviewer who tends to be controversial with his words.
Tex Ferguson (Luke Gallows) is out for revenge against his former best friend, Chad 2 Badd. This is one of Gallows' characters on his Talking Shop podcasts, but the character is named Sex Ferguson.
Chad 2 Badd (Karl Anderson) betrayed Tex Ferguson and sent people out to injure him before Lethal Leap Year.
John Johnson (TJ Perkins) is the SRW Champion. He is known as charismatic, but is anything but.
Impressive Pelvis Wesley (Heath Slater) is the Elvis impersonator of Southpaw Regional Wrestling.
La Barba Grande (Luke Harper) is a wrestler from Mexico who was supposed to debut at Lethal Leap Year.
Big Bartholomew (Rusev) is a farmer whose farm is bought out by the evil banker. His unfortunate grasp of the English language is hilarious to watch.
Mr. Mackelroy (Tyler Breeze) is the evil banker who buys Big Bartholomew's farm and tricks him into facing his sea creature at Lethal Leap Year.
Christian Joy (Lana) is Bartholomew's cousin who is sent out on the streets with Bartholomew.
Surf Dudes With Attitude (The Ascension) are a tag team about to debut for Southpaw Regional Wrestling.
Sea Creature (Identity Unknown) is a monster working with Mr. Mackelroy against Bartholomew.
Chip Henderson (John Cone) is the referee.
(Also Carlos Cabrera is the announcer on the La Barba Grande promo.)
So I watched this, and watched this, and watched this. Over and over and over. My feeling of this is that WWE has the creative juices to make watchable content for the fans. This is proof of that. It's a series that is organic, funny and just flat out entertaining. Urban legends say that the wrestlers, themselves, came up with this concept and it shows during the series. This is one of WWE's most brilliant ideas they had in a while, and judging by the product now, they are a long way from being that brilliant again.
(Check out more content on our Facebook page and our website www.realsportsaz.com)