The Smashing Machine

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

 

As the title says, at 9:00 pm (to 11 pm) tonight Spike TV will be airing The Smashing Machine. It's a documentary following Mark Kerr, an American amateur wrestler (has beaten Kurt Angle) turned Ultimate Fighter. Mark Kerr was an extraordinary athlete who had all the tools to be the top fighter in the sport and was on his way to becoming one until his personal problems caught up with him. Kerr isn't a killer, he isn't a typical jock. He's intelligent and emotional, which makes it all the more real. What Mark went through, which is covered in-depth in the docu, is very similar to what many pro wrestlers have gone through, so this should interest more than just fight-fans.

 

The B story follows Mark "The Hammer" Coleman, who was on the opposite path of Kerr. Where Kerr was going up, Coleman was down. The climax of the film is the 2000 PRIDE Grand Prix, which Coleman and Kerr both competed in. You get some really good backstage shots of various fighters during the PRIDE, and you get to go inside the mind of Kerr as he explains what it was like to be in his first cage fight.

 

The praise for this documentary has been tremendous, and I couldn't recommend it more. Make time for it.

[razazteca 0]

Too bad Kerr could not control his personal demons which had him on various drugs ranging from steroids to pain killers. His girlfriend did not help either since she was a bad influence on him....Kerr should of listened to El Guapo and dumped her.

 

On the DVD the extras feature deleted scenes, a feature on Renzo Grazie, and a Ricco Rodriguez fight from King of the Cage.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I almost loved the Renzo feature more than the Kerr documentary.

[Guest DVD Spree]

The Smashing Machine is a great doc, but sadly I don't think it really matches Beyond The Mat in any respect – while it DOES give a pure insight into the MMA world and goes some way to legitimise it in the same way BTM does for wrestling, as an overall look into the workings of the business and even as a story of a man whose life is a mess thanks to the trappings of his success, it falls a little short of Blaustein's masterpiece.

 

Still a superb film though – gotta recommend the DVD too.

[nl5xsk1 0]

Is this the same documentary that was on HBO a few years ago?

 

If so, it was pretty entertaining.

 

If not, then I've got nothing.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

It is the same documentary.

 

I have to say that I didn't like Beyond the Mat that much, it didn't give me much insight into the world of Pro Wrestling that we didn't know before. I don't think anyone knew about Mark Kerr and his personal demons before this came out. I mean, while he was a star, of all the guys to make a documentary on, he didn't really cross my mind. That alone shows that there was a lot that we didn't know, since after you see this it's clear why they show him.

 

Beyond The Mat featured wrestlers in ways I was already familiar; drugged up, broken down, messed up backgrounds, etc. Mark Kerr is the opposite of what most assume to be a fighter, since he's articulate and intelligent.

 

I heard that there's hundreds of hours of footage that they cut out for the film, I wonder how that turned out? Side note: Has anyone else seen the extras? I've only seen Bas Rutten knocking out Ricco, that was pretty funny.

[Jingus 0]

I liked Smashing Machine a lot, and give it mucho credit for one scene in particular: they actually showed the fighter shooting up with steroids. I've never seen any sports documentary in history that actually showed and discussed steroid use; even Beyond the Mat didn't do that.

[AboveAverage484 0]

I think he was more into painkillers than anything, that's how he could take knees to the face and headbutt the shit out of people in Vale Tudo and some other crazy shit.

[AnonymousBroccoli 0]

The listings are showing VIP and CSI during this block, which I guess means someone else in Canada owns the rights.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Untold - "The Smashing Machine"

SPIKEC, Sun Jan 16 09:00am EST

 

• Untold - "The Smashing Machine"

SPIKEC, Mon Jan 17 12:00am EST

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

So for Canadians, we will have to watch at 9 in the morning, come Sunday?

[Guest The Shadow Behind You]

Interestingly enough; I watched this last night.

[Nevermortal 0]

This is a really interesting documentary.

 

Makes me love Kazuyuki Fujita even more than I already did.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

This is a really interesting documentary.

 

Makes me love Kazuyuki Fujita even more than I already did.

I don't remember, but they don't talk about him much do they? They just showcase the fact that he beat Mark Kerr, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Also, I heard that the Japanese fans were booing Mark in his match with Igor, and I saw it in a match with Heath, but I wonder why. There was a constant battle for positioning, and some submissions were attempted, and I've seen more boring ground fights not get booed in Japan. Add that to the fact that I thought all three fighters were popular in Japan and I'm confused.

[Jingus 0]

Well, it was the last fight of the night, in a three-round tournament, on the same night that Royce Gracie and Kazushi Sakuraba went almost two hours, so the crowd was probably more than ready to go by then. Going on right after Ken Shamrock couldn't have helped either, considering how popular he used to be in Japan.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Well, it was the last fight of the night, in a three-round tournament, on the same night that Royce Gracie and Kazushi Sakuraba went almost two hours, so the crowd was probably more than ready to go by then. Going on right after Ken Shamrock couldn't have helped either, considering how popular he used to be in Japan.

Neither of the fights were on that card. Kerr lost to Fujita, and the finals was Igor and Coleman, which actually got a pretty good crowd reaction from what I remember. The Kerr fights with Igor and Herring were on PRIDE 15 and I think 12, maybe 11.

[the pinjockey 0]

Was Bas knocking out Ricco in the deleted scenes on the DVD or did I just miss it here?

 

And Igor/Kerr was Pride 12, but it was not shown on the telecast, so that will probably be a good hint to the quality. All I remember from the Herring fight is Kerr laying on top of Herring forever and finally a standup when Herring took over.

[AboveAverage484 0]

Well, it was the last fight of the night, in a three-round tournament, on the same night that Royce Gracie and Kazushi Sakuraba went almost two hours, so the crowd was probably more than ready to go by then. Going on right after Ken Shamrock couldn't have helped either, considering how popular he used to be in Japan.

Kerr's match was fourth on the card and I don't recall any booing, now his match against Igor at Pride 12 and his match against Herring at Pride 15 were both pretty lackluster, save for brief flurries of action.

 

Kerr has always been unaggressive on the ground and I think it's been mentioned before that he was being TOO careful, trying too hard not to do anything that might endanger him and cause him to lose, hence his hesitancy to engage on the ground.

 

When he was in Brazil and UFC and had things to prove, he went balls out and was fuckin' scary in the ring, but in Pride he was a big star and didn't want to jeapordize his position in the company by losing.

[Jingus 0]

D'oh. Been too long since I watched my PRIDE tapes, nevermind.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Igor and Heath are better fighters then RIP fighter Ranger Stott.

 

But you are right, he was a monster in UFC and in IVC. He retired, and I think he could have been a champion. You'd be hard pressed to find someone that can stop his takedown, and the fact that he won two ADCC world championships, most wins by decision admittedly, meant that he was hard to submit. With his aggressive strikes and fighting style, it would be hard to beat him.