Scripps-Howard News Service Covers 101 Reasons Not To Be A Pro Wrestler

Michael Moody is a pro wrestling fan, although you might not realize it from the title of a newly released DVD.

"101 Reasons Not to be a Pro Wrestler" is a three-hour documentary featuring behind-the-scenes interviews with some of the industry's top independent performers.

Moody, who produced and directed the project, said his original intention was to focus largely upon the industry's drug issues and the lack of unionization. But while those issues are extensively addressed, the documentary turned into much more than Moody originally anticipated.

Wrestlers come across as personally troubled (Joanie "Chyna" Laurer and Jerome "New Jack" Young), clueless (Sean O'Haire and Tylene "Major Gunns" Buck), guarded (Rikishi and Diamond Dallas Page) and brutally honest (Vampiro and Konnan) when addressing topics such as backstage politics and the impact of the Internet on the industry.

"This is not an anti-wrestling documentary," Moody said. "I thought of the title editing one day and just listening to everybody saying all the negative stuff about the business. The majority of the documentary is negative, so I ran with it."

Moody, 25, said the majority of interviews were conducted in September 2004, with some performers paid to appear and others speaking gratis. More than two-dozen subjects are broached and feature a wide array of responses combined with other adult-themed footage, like Laurer appearing heavily inebriated and Young working a disturbingly violent hardcore match against someone who looks like a senior citizen.

"This gives insight into the business where people can see what wrestlers deal with and the struggles they go through," said Moody, who lives in Arcadia, Calif. "They get into a lot of information that you're not going to see watching television or a Vince McMahon documentary. You're going to learn how drugs influence the business, how wrestlers can't get unionized and how the industry has crumbled when there is only one place to work (i.e. World Wrestling Entertainment)."

The documentary already hasn't gone over well with one on-camera participant. Moody has posted handheld footage on his Web site of himself being slugged last weekend by Tony "Babi Slymm" Drake backstage at an independent show in California. Moody, who admits he "survived the punch and ran like a little girl," said he is contemplating whether to pursue legal action against Drake.

"I think he just didn't like being associated with people talking badly about the business," Moody said.