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RADICAN'S DVD REVIEW SERIES: Ring Roasts 2: Terry Funk - Missy Hyatt delivers hilarious roast, Dennis Stamp provides a great moment, New Jack tries to ruin a set
Nov 28, 2009 - 1:51:37 PM
RADICAN'S TORCH DVD REVIEW SERIES
RING ROASTS 2: TERRY FUNK
RELEASED BY KAYFABECOMMENTARIES.COM
NOVEMBER 2009
BY SEAN RADICAN, TORCH COLUMNIST
Ring Roasts quickly established itself as one of the premier independent wrestling DVD releases when Kayfabecommentaries.com launched it last year with the Iron Sheik. Although that DVD had its fair share of controversy, I felt it was one of the best independent wrestling-related releases of 2008.
This year Terry Funk was announced as the honoree at Ring Roasts 2 and I was immediately excited since Funk has been entertaining on many shoot releases in the past. What puts Ring Roast 2 ahead of last years edition featuring the Iron Sheik is the strength of the dais headlined by Mick Foley and Superstar Billy Graham.
I thought the presentation of the show was fantastic. All of the members of the dais were walked up to the front of the room to take their seats by models. Kevin Von Erich was escorted to his seat by his niece, Lacey, who now appears in TNA as a member of the Beautiful People. As was the case last year, Sean Oliver introduced the show before handing the mic to Bill Apter, who hosted the rest of the show.
The graphics for all of the wrestlers looked professional and the setup for the room looked fantastic. The only setback on Ring Roasts 2 was the sound quality wasn't fantastic and the picture from certain camera angles wasn't as sharp as it was last year. The glare from the light on the black Ring Roasts banner behind the presenters and the black Ring Roasts sign on the front of the podium is also distracting at times, but let me assure that it doesn't in any way come off as a "cheap" production.
Although this was a roast, nobody had a bad thing to say about Terry Funk. I found most of the tributes to Funk to be very touching. You could tell that most of the people on dais thought very highly of Funk, but perhaps the high point of the evening came when Dennis Stamp got up and spoke about Funk working with several dying children that Stamp had brought to see him. Stamp's speech had several people in the room in tears and it really touched me to hear about the great character that Funk possesses.
One of the things I'd like to see in the future is the members of the dais memorize their lines instead of reading them off of their notes, especially the comedians who should be able to remember their own material.
I thought most of the comedians on the dais were hit-and-miss, but Matt Bridgestone won me over when he refused to give in to New Jack heckling him like Ryan Maher had earlier in the show. I thought New Jack came off like a real prick at times during the show, but it was great to see Bridgestone put him in his place and rip him to shreds with some sharp barbs.
Next to Dennis Stamp, the other highlight of the night was Missy Hyatt who tore down the house after taking a lot of abuse from the other members of the dais throughout the night. I loved how she put Mike Graham in his place for his insane commentary on the Rise and Fall of WCW DVD. Graham wasn't the only one Hyatt ripped to shreds as she hilariously ripped Foley apart for TNA's ratings and said Stamp had more people watching him on AWA reruns on ESPN.
Mick Foley was a great choice to headline the event as the last speaker on the dais and he did a really good job of telling some funny stories. The highlight of Foley's speech was his story about working with Funk and getting injured because of Funk's insistence that both of them would be fine after encountering a dangerous situation in a Death match stunt while wrestling in Japan.
Overall recommendation: I strongly recommend buying this DVD. I liked it just as much as Guest Booker with Jim Cornette. In fact, I give Ring Roasts 2 a nod in front of the Cornette DVD just for Hyatt's roast of Funk, which had everyone in the room laughing while I was watching it. Kayfabecommentaries has done a great job of putting out some fantastic releases in 2009 and have clearly left the competition in their wake.
Contact Sean at PWTorchSean@Gmail.com Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
