Vision Quest

I finally got to watch Takedowns and Falls last night. Pretty cool. I was glad to see I was way wrong, but I thought for sure that coach was gonna pass on at the end of it. Man, how nice would it be to have the set up that the Peppelmans had in their back yard-the "barn"? They seemed like two great kids who obviously had great parenting.
 
Warrior152 said:
I finally got to watch Takedowns and Falls last night. Pretty cool. I was glad to see I was way wrong, but I thought for sure that coach was gonna pass on at the end of it. Man, how nice would it be to have the set up that the Peppelmans had in their back yard-the "barn"? They seemed like two great kids who obviously had great parenting.
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Yea I agree. If you noticed that all the better kids all had mats and weights in their basement. It was a lifestyle for them!!
 
Going back and reading this thread brought up one my worst memories. When I was a kid there was a tournament every year at Bexley that was the precursor to what became the ToC. They brought in a couple celebrities every year to sign autographs and such (I remember one year they had the kid from Alf). There was a year where they had the actor who played Shute. We all couldn't wait to see him and get picture with him. He shows up and looks nothing like the character. The guy wasn't nearly as muscular, had long greasy hair hanging over one eye and looked every bit the part of the stereotypical skater/surfer/slacker.

This wasn't Shute.

I was crushed.
 
rr23724 said:
Going back and reading this thread brought up one my worst memories. When I was a kid there was a tournament every year at Bexley that was the precursor to what became the ToC. They brought in a couple celebrities every year to sign autographs and such (I remember one year they had the kid from Alf). There was a year where they had the actor who played Shute. We all couldn't wait to see him and get picture with him. He shows up and looks nothing like the character. The guy wasn't nearly as muscular, had long greasy hair hanging over one eye and looked every bit the part of the stereotypical skater/surfer/slacker.

This wasn't Shute.

I was crushed.
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I should hit Frank Jasper up on FB and point him to this thread. ?
 
WGTJ said:
I should hit Frank Jasper up on FB and point him to this thread. ?
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I have no problem with the man but as a 13 year old kid I had only ever pictured him as the monster from my nightmares. Seeing him any other way was just a let down.
 
rr23724 said:
Going back and reading this thread brought up one my worst memories. When I was a kid there was a tournament every year at Bexley that was the precursor to what became the ToC. They brought in a couple celebrities every year to sign autographs and such (I remember one year they had the kid from Alf). There was a year where they had the actor who played Shute. We all couldn't wait to see him and get picture with him. He shows up and looks nothing like the character. The guy wasn't nearly as muscular, had long greasy hair hanging over one eye and looked every bit the part of the stereotypical skater/surfer/slacker.

This wasn't Shute.

I was crushed.
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The Ohio Super Tournament.
 
Here's a link to Takedowns and Falls that I just found for free streaming. Never heard of it until I read through this thread.

Plex

app.plex.tv app.plex.tv

At about 8 minutes in, there is a quick appearance by Kenny Courts, Sr. and later again as the assistant coach at Central Dauphin. That would have been before his son reached high school since the film was made in 2005/2006.
 
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Found another wrestling "movie/documentary" while doing a search on Prime Video. It's called "Junkyard Dogs" and is about an elite academic school in California (Harvard Westlake) with a crummy wrestling room and a great coach who came into the program and carried a video camera around with him all the time. Follows 4 years of his coaching and a chubby 14 year old freshman (Kenji Porter) who was wrestling at 215. Was wrestling underweight at 205 the entire year and losing most of his matches, but got inspired with every win. By his senior year, he was wrestling 189 and finished 5th in California. Ended up wrestling at Columbia and was team captain his senior year there. He lost in the semis to some guy named Jake Varner (this was in 2005) Good documentary with actual wrestling, puking at practice, puking at meets, and kids always injured or sick and other excuses. Coach wrestled collegiately at Arizona State (Gary Bairos) and figure out how to get the most out of the kids that came out to wrestle. Good flick for young kids to watch and see how they can grow just by working hard and staying with it.
 
OC: Great find. I finally watched "Junkyard Dogs" and thought it was great movie. It was comical at times. Luckily, his AD had a good sense of humor. Coach Bairos must've seen something in his wrestlers, particularly, Kenji Porter as a Freshman and the video proves it. That wrestling room though- Sheesh! Made me feel spoiled having practiced years ago in a cafeteria with the occasional tater tot with ketchup stuck on a mat. I agree. Coach Bairos worked with the 9 or so wrestlers he started with and being the great coach that he is/was, he showed what can happen when at least a few kids buy into the program and don't give up fighting. The "F" bomb and similar language is sprinkled through the movie, so be aware in case you have youngsters watching.
P.S. I think Jake Varner is the reason the figure 4 of the head became illegal in high school.
 
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innoshape said:
P.S. I think Jake Varner is the reason the figure 4 of the head became illegal in high school.
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I forgot about that in the movie. Did you notice "Crazy Glue" was trying to "tap out"? He was about to go unconscious. Saw a number of times where kids were getting their air cut off in this particular documentary. Refs and coaches on the sidelines are usually quick to catch it now.

I saw a tournament a couple years ago where a kid was accidentally cutting off the air from the kid he was wrestling (about a 112lb match). The ref didn't see it - but a coach on the sideline sprinted out onto the mat and pulled his wrestler off. The other kid had already passed out by then. It was a little scary at the time because I did not know how long he had been without air. Doubted it was long enough for strangulation, but when you see a kid who is limp on the mat, with his eyes wide open and not responding for a time - it's scary.
 
OC: Yep. If I recall, the ref was on one side looking for the fall and poor Crazy Glue was tapping Varner's ribs with his right hand on the other.
It's a good example, like yours, that a ref cannot see everything. Then again, maybe the ref for Crazy Clue did see the tapping or heard a scream, but put him out of his misery a second or two later.
 
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