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By: Chris Cash
9/9/2005 3:20:15 AM

I'll be honest with you. When I thought about doing reviews of various wrestling-related merchandise, I was expecting shoot interviews, DVDs of independent promotions, and regular books! I wasn't thinking clearly I guess because although I've received some of that as well, I've been getting some crazy stuff! However, I want everyone to know for future reference: I will not be reviewing anything from now on that is not being sold at Highspots.com or 1Wrestling.com's Shop. These three products were sent to be when I first made the announcement so I'm obligated to do these.

If you want me to review your products and they are available in the aforementioned places, shoot me an email at voiceofwrestling@aol.com

REVIEW: 1000 Wrestlers by Mike Scheef

This is a book where Mike Scheef has sketched a TON of drawings of professional wrestlers. He completed each of the drawings between April of 2003 and January of 2005. They're pretty good drawings and I'm no artist, but I really have no clue why non-artists would want this book.

All the pictures of simple headshots of the wrestlers and they are not in color, hence the term "sketch". Mike is clearly talented, but being critical here, I would say that he could use his abilities to make much more money in some other avenue rather than selling a few books. I checked out the drawings to do a review, but I really have no clue what I'd ever use this book for other than for that specific purpose.

Do I recommend people buy it? Not necessarily. Could someone find use for it? Probably. They are decent drawings, but why not do promotional banners for TNA and WWE to market them that way? Why would you put these in a book without some sort of story behind them that makes people want to turn that pages?

I hope I'm not being too critical (just check my other last review below), but Mike Scheef definitely has a gift for art that could be utilized in a more productive way I think. However, if you would like to check out the book or get a copy, visit www.1000Wrestlers.com

REVIEW: Submission Trivia Game

You definitely need someone to play with! I don't have a ton of wrestling buddies that I can sit around and order pay per views with, watch Raw or TNA, much less play wrestling games, but I kind of wish I did. The only way I can accurately review this game is to say that it has convinced me to want to play.

That being said, it looks extremely more complicated than it needs to be and I think it has inspired me to design and develop my own wrestling game! Be on the look out. Let's just say that you need to read the rules prior to playing Submission and that was the developers first mistake. We are men...specifically wrestling men. I would imagine that 99% of your buyers don't ask for directions when they're lost and they don't want to read a rulebook!

However, some of it looks fun. From what I gathered, you have category cards that have the topics you are to use. Some have added rules, but I don't like that part of it. I'm going to give you an example to try and explain the Chris Cash basic concept of this game:

"Names of...Male Managers" - you have a time limit (typically one minute) and you start writing down the names you can come up with. Once the timer is done, you start reading off your names. You are looking for "unique" names, which are those that no one else has. The person who has the most for that round gets a point (or a "pin"). You determine before the game starts how many pinfalls you are going to and voila, that's the game in a nutshell.

Now, there are like three ways you can play this game and that's the simplist, but I will say that they have "mini-games" which look REALLY fun! One of them I see here is called "A - Z" and the person using this card will select one opponent to play with. You put one minute on the timer and you write one wrestler's name for each letter of the alphabet. Once the timer is done, you tally up the points the same way and the person with the most points wins. I assume you could have a lot of ties here and I don't know how you settle that, but I don't see it explained either.

The game looks interesting and look at it this way: if Matt Hardy can endorse it, you can too! Do I think I would become addicted to this game? Probably not, but it has made me want a wrestling buddy! While I go find one, you can check out the game Submission at www.submissiongame.com.

REVIEW: Thanks For The Compliment book

I told all these people that I would be critical, yet they insisted on sending me their product. Great. I don't have a problem with that, but this guy who goes by Canadian Bulldog sent me a book which is cheaply made (it looks like a thick report you'd put together for your 6th grade English class) and is a compilations of prank-emails he has sent to various wrestlers, wrestling personalities, agents, webmasters, etc.

To be honest, I don't know how this guys hasn't been sued and I'm assuming it's only because no one knows about this book. I said I'd review it though and I am, but luckily I got it for free. Through all this criticism, I will say that the concept is pretty decent, but if you're going to take a spin off of "Punk'd", you better be up for the challenge.

The Canadian Bulldog emails everyone from CW Anderson, Blue Meanie, New Jack, and Shane Douglas to Kurt Angle's manager! I will admit that there are a couple of funny constants though...he misspells all of their names. That's rather comical to me. He also starts off practically every email with "Canadian Bulldog here (don't pretend like you don't know who I am!), but I think that's just a spoof too.

He typically asks these wrestling personalities to endorse a new product that is coming out. For example, he wanted "Shawn Douglas" to make a special appearance for the product launch of "The Franchise System", a car seatbelt that will not dissolve or break under water. Unfortunately, the emailer is still "awaiting reply..."

I'll be honest...some of these are clever, but the problem is there's not enough interaction. At least half of these emails he sent off (probably more than half) didn't even get a first response, much less a second or third. As fun and entertaining as pranks are in professional wrestling, it's equally as "not fun and entertaining" if the person you're pranking doesn't react to your joke.

There are a ton of emails in this book and it's simply a way for someone to take something he's put a lot of time into and try to make a little cash. Fair enough, I'm done with criticizing his efforts, but if you'd like to receive more information of the book with the possibility of buying it, you can do so by emailing the Canadian Bulldog at canadian_bulldog@hotmail.com.

Thanks to those that sent me their products. I will be reviewing more in the near future, including Hardcore Homecoming and Forever Hardcore, which by the way, were amazing DVD's! Look forward to that and email me at VOICEOFWRESTLING@AOL.COM if you'd like to inquire about having your wrestling-related product reviewed here on 1Wrestling.com.

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