By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

RADICAN’S KAYFABE COMMENTARIES REVIEW SERIES
YOUSHOOT: ICP
RELEASED BY KC IN 2014

YouShoot with ICP is a fascinating look into the music and wrestling career of ICP. The changes Kayfabe Commentaries have made in their production shine once again, as they have a professional looking set and once again they make use of the green screen to change things up throughout the interview. The success and failure of YouShoot is based on the quality of videos and questions sent in for the guest to answer, although host Sean Oliver does a good job of asking follow up questions throughout the interview.

ICP has a background in wrestling going back to their childhoods watching as fans and eventually starting their own backyard fed, which Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope claim was run at a higher level than most feds of that variety were complete with a ring and a chair. Eventually began doing independents across the mid-west before music became their main priority.

Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J have appeared in every major wrestling federation fed including WWE, WCW, ECW, TNA, and ROH. It’s really interesting to hear Shaggy and J talk about their time in WWE compared to their time in other feds.

They weren’t well-liked by the wrestlers backstage in WWE and they discuss how they had to pay their dues. In one match, The Headbangers were upset that ICP were supposed to get in some offense and ended up laying in some stiff shots. "They beat the s--- out of us," says J. Their experiences in WWE were different than they were in places like WCW and TNA. Shaggy and J talk about how they were treated much better and got along with the wrestlers in WCW and TNA for the most part.

Of course, there are a lot of people that wrote in questions that weren’t very complementary to ICP or Kayfabe Commentaries for having them on. In a hilarious moment, Oliver reads once question saying that they shouldn’t be doing the interview while putting down ICP and Oliver pretends to shut down the production and ICP act like they’re getting up to leave because someone thinks that they suck.

An interesting topic comes up one when a question is asked about Earthquake saying that ICP were primadonnas when they were in WWE in an interview. A lot of questions about wrestlers saying bad things about ICP and their wrestling company JCW come up throughout the shoot and Shaggy and J handle the questions well and come across as likeable people. J says they had no heat with Earthquake and can’t believe that he said that about him. J elaborates and said they had a lot of concerns about their music career when they wrestled in WWE. He elaborates further and says a promotional spot for them was supposed to air during a commercial break during Raw and they kept coming back each week and the commercial still hadn’t aired. "We had other concerns. We had a music career to worry about,” said Violent J about why they ended up just walking out on WWE after 12 weeks had gone by without a commercial airing.

Shaggy and J tell a lot of interesting backstage stories from their time in ECW, WWE, WCW, and TNA. One of the best stories comes when Oliver plays the What’s In The Bag game and pulls out the usual assortment of gimmicks for a name association game, but when they get to the pile of feces, J mentions Goldust and tells a story about how weird he was when they were in WWE and one day when he was walking by him, Goldust told him that he eats human feces.

ICP cover a ton of topics from their wrestling and music career. A lot of the stories I had heard before from following their career for a long period of time and interviewing Violent J several times in the past, but I did enjoy when one person asked Shaggy what he thought of the character that looked just like him in Grand Theft Auto V. Shaggy and J do a good job of taking the high road throughout the interview when it comes to discussing conflicts with other artists and wrestlers, but he does admit that he wishes that character wasn’t such a b---- in the game.

A lot of the games that Oliver uses in YouShoot play to ICP’s strengths, which is to either react to something they’re reading or watching with a quick hilarious one-liner. If you’ve seen their StrangleMania DVD, you know what I’m talking about. Shaggy gets off the best one-liner of the entire interview when they’re playing the Ho Bag game and Stephanie McMahon’s name comes up and he says, "She looked alright for a minute and then she looked like Vince McMahon with titties."

Although, Shaggy’s one-liner in regards to Stephanie McMahon was hilarious, J’s reaction to a question about Pat Patterson’s “Cream Team” is equal to if not more hilarious than Shaggy’s one-liner. J begs Oliver not to tell him what it is, but he can’t help himself and J’s screams of pure agony can still be heard ringing across America after Oliver told him what the “Cream Team” was.

Overall thoughts: (8.0) – I really enjoyed this edition of YouShoot. Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J come across as two likeable guys and huge wrestling fans. Even if you’re not a fan of ICP or JCW, you might come out of this interview with a different opinion of them than you had before.

There’s plenty of wrestling and music talk during this release and for the most part, the fans did a good job of submitting questions, although the ridiculous YouTube video submissions have become tiresome over time.

Shaggy and J have come across many big name talents while working in all of the major companies during their careers. They tell some great stories about wrestlers like Goldberg, The Original Sheik, Sabu, and if you wait for it at the end of the interview, there are a couple of hilarious stories involving Sting, including one involving him discussing ICP’s use of black and white face paint.

It’s clear that ICP are huge wrestling fans and it’s awesome to listen to J talk about being a fan since he was a kid. At the end of the interview, he said everything he wondered about as a kid he's tried to find out the answers during his adult life. J said it was a letdown when the guys gave them a hard time in the dressing room and hearing the truth about how little some of the guys cared about things that he cared about. ICP’s stories are well-worth checking out.

You can purchase “YouShoot:ICP” on DVD by clicking HERE or by visiting KayfabeCommentaries.com You can also purchase this release on VOD at WWNLive.com.

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