Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv is an internet video on YouTube, that grew to be quite an urban legend on the World Wide Web. The video – which part of the legend claims it was made by Satan (seriously??) – shows the black and red static face of an adult male, in front of a red background, that after some time suddenly changes, with his face turning into a more diabolical monstrous feature, while the background slowly creeps with a sinister mesmerizing sound, with sudden and very quick changes in the front and background images. And that’s all!! A boring, inconspicuous and dull video, with nothing more to offer you.

The internet urban legend surrounding Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv says that the video is a horrific manifestation of evil, and if you see, you will panic ominously in horror, and will grab and took it off your own eyes, as a result, then sent by mail to YouTube. According to the legend, the very first person who watched the video screamed in horror, gouged out his own eyes in panic, and soon afterwards sent them by mail to the YouTube headquarters. After a few more people have done this, YouTube decided to stream a softer version of the video – where literally anything relevant happens –, in order to satisfy the curiosity of individuals searching for Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv, hoping these people will not feel the need to search for the original video. Apparently, this hasn’t solved the problem, and as the video went viral, all individuals who subsequently saw it continued the ritual to panic, scream in horrifying agony, and gouge out their own eyes soon after seeing it, sending both eyes by mail to YouTube afterwards. In a few months, YouTube received approximately two hundred pairs of eyes, and had to deal with a major operation in order to cover up what was really going on. A search operation was done in order to track the individual who supposedly downloaded the video on YouTube, to no avail. Sometime later, someone discovered the man on which the face on the video was based, but to this date his name remains unknown.  

Well, this is certainly the most funny and hilarious internet urban legend of all times, to say the least. Thinking about it, it makes me want to laugh so badly. Who created this joke? And more important, who took it seriously? If there is any horror in the video, it is subjective, and psychologically induced by the very own premise that you will gouge out your own eyes. As a matter of fact, all that you have is a boring video, dull and monotonous, and you will forget about it just a few minutes after seeing it. The legend it is way more entertaining than the video itself.  

Nevertheless, Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv is a great example of the power of the internet. You can do yourself a mediocre and dull video, but if you create a powerful, compelling and appealing story behind it, and spread it like dark, insane, and mysterious creepypasta, based – first and foremost – on a “true story”, you will always find a lot of people predisposed to believe. The world is full of easily impressionable individuals, with a lot of imagination, so it is not as hard as you might think to spread ahead this kind of rumor, especially in the World Wide Web, a fertile ground for this kind of thing. 

Well, below, there is the video for you to see, and stood to your own conclusions. But be cool, nothing will happen to you. I seriously doubt that you will find the video so horrifying, to the point of took it off your own eyes. I really don’t think that any time soon YouTube staff will open up a package with your eyes on it. 


​Wagner

Muck is a 2015 American horror movie and the directorial debut of filmmaker Steve Wolsh. The movie concerns a group of young adults that are eager to escape a hidden and insufferable horror, just to discover that they might be going towards something even more obscure, hellish and harmful, to their fear and desperation.   

The movie already begins in the midst of a dark and terrible situation: anxious and desperate to escape from zombie-like creatures that are following them in the middle of a swamp, a group of friends find shelter in a seemingly abandoned house, while trying to discover and figure it out what better options they have, to possibly escape alive and well. 

Although heavily panned by critics, the movie is exceedingly good, beautifully done, and well produced, despite its low budget. Following an underground, but very realistic old school style of horror, stylistically similar to 80’s horror, Muck is a new fresh air to the genre, so faithful to its traditions, but without limiting itself to be just another copy, that you will think certainly that beginner Steve Wolsh learned very well how to assimilate properly the textures and foundations of the genre, and how to develop a good and consistent story, turning it into an evolving plot, confident of its structure, objectives and characteristics, unfolding to the genre a new whole category of possibilities, without being alienated or incomprehensive.    

Despite some dull flip flop dialogue between the characters in certain moments, Muck can certainly carry on the distinction of being the best of it’s kind. For fans of 80’s horror, there will be no disappointments. Filmmaker Steve Wolsh has started well a promising career, recently announcing that a sequel and a prequel to Muck are in development. 

For experienced fans of the underground, this choice will bring you no harm: Muck, certainly the best horror movie of the year, will blow your mind in old style – a lot of teens and young adults in horror and desperation in an old school genre of slasher, that will remind you of Jason Vorhees, and the first movies from the Friday the 13th horror franchise. The only weak point of the movie is the sometimes superfluous and tedious dialogue, although even this could be considered a true-to-life point, since teenagers rarely speaks smart talks. The cinematography is also another of its strongest values, incorporating in it all the crude realistic imagery typical of the 80’s, and for that, Muck is a movie that deserves a score of four and a half stars, undoubtedly.  


​Wagner

The Inhabitants is a 2015 American horror film, written and directed by the Rasmussen brothers, starring Elise Couture and Michael Reed. The story concerns a young couple that moves to a very old house somewhere in New England, only to discover that the place hides a dark and mysterious past.

Although the plot is simple, and the story initially could be seen to inattentive viewers as just another haunted house movie, the final result turned out to be very good, especially when it comes as a product of the Rasmussen brothers, usually more associated to cheap and horrible productions. Being told in a calm and decent manner, with a well-paced, cohesive storytelling, in a profusely dark atmosphere and a very coherent and realistic point of view, the movie comes as a surprisingly good result, showing a decent degree of seriousness and professionalism, as well as an impressive increase in their artistic optics of making movies. 

The movie tells us the story of a young couple, that buys and ancient house in a distant New England place. When the husband suddenly has to go on a business trip for a few days, when he returns, he finds his wife has adopted a strange and incomprehensible behavior, being increasingly frigid, distant and indifferent to him. With a strong desire to find what’s going on, he discovers mysterious things about the house they now live in, and unfolds a horrible way to the truth in the previous owner of the place, an old lady gone insane, that now lives in a mental institution. As he discovers the horrible truth about the house, he finds himself and his wife to be in great danger, although it is possible that it is too late for him to save his wife from the house’s dark influences.

After their previous movie, Dark Feed, turned out to be disastrous, The Inhabitants proves itself to be a great degree of experience for the Rasmussen brothers, that seems to be leaving a mediocre and amateur category of filmmaking, to step high into a semi-professional degree of excellence in the movie industry, showing a great pace of evolution in the process, especially when it comes to focus, and the way they told the story. The actors in this movie are also way more skilled, to the point they do not disappoint the audience, in any moment.  Technically, there are several improvements as well, especially when it comes to camera motion techniques, and the cinematography, stylistically realistic, compelling to high standards and convincing. 

Do not misunderstand me: this movie will not blow you away; it is not very different from a lot of things that you have seen before. But, if you were familiar with the work of the Rasmussen brothers, you will get impressed with the jump of quality their work had done here: from a mediocre path of low budget horror flicks, they now seem to have evolved and learned how to do decently good horror movies – also with a low budget (the inherent curse of the horror genre) – apparently assimilating and improving their skills to achieve good results through professional techniques, and a desire to evolve, develop and learn, continually. 

The final result of The Inhabitants movie turned out to be very satisfactory! It came out as a very good conventional horror movie. A good, compelling story, no excesses, good acting, attention to details and a great development of the technical devices. Who knows? From mediocre filmmakers, the Rasmussen brothers have now greatly improved their work standards, and they might impress us all with very good movies, in the near future. To their more recent effort, The Inhabitants, they certainly deserve three and a half stars, out of five. For a team of filmmakers that until recently could hardly have one, this is quite an accomplishment! That they certainly deserve.


​Wagner 

Eaters is as 2015 American horror film, written and directed by Johnny Tabor, starring Tristan Parrish Moore, Hannah Risinger and Jonathan Haltiwanger. The movie concerns a group of young adults in a desperate search for a friend that went missing after a brief stint in a rest stop. Suspecting a group of outlaw bikers to be behind the kidnapping, they go after them, in a personal rescue mission. Soon, they see themselves in what appears to be an abandoned city in a New Mexico desert, ignoring the fact that, within the apparently abandoned town, hides a dark danger, far more horrifying than what they could possibly have imagined. 

At first, the movie seems intriguing: interesting characters in a potentially dangerous situation, goes after the missing girlfriend of one of them. After she is not seen in the bathroom of a roadside rest stop, which all of them went for a break, and are nowhere to be seen, the four friends go after a group of deranged motorcyclists, which have been earlier in the same place, suspecting them to be behind the kidnaping. After intimidating the gang of four outlaws with weapons, they became disappointed after discovering their friend was not with the bikers. Ordering them to go out in the desert, one member of the group cuts the fuel of the motorcycles and the van that belongs to the gang, in an attempt to prevent them from being persecuted by the dangerous outlaws. Following a trace that leads them to a supposedly abandoned city in the middle of the desert, they continue their search for their missing friend, but aren’t able to find her.

Rapidly, they split to cover the area in their search. Soon, one of them is caught by a mysteriously hooded figure, and the unity of the group starts to disintegrate. It becomes apparent that something very wrong hides behind this apparent ghostly town, where nothing is what it seems. Meanwhile, the bikers are back on the road, after the group, seeking revenge.  

Despite the intriguing premise, the movie is boring, and after a few minutes, it becomes so still that appears to be frozen. When the most dangerous and tense part of the movie starts, absolutely nothing interesting happens, with some scenes being way longer than what should be. All that goes from this point onwards is monotonous cliché, and nothing relevant happens, whatsoever. Eventually, you realize that all villagers use hoods in their heads, so their faces can never be seen. Afterwards, when a body is being chopped up, you understand this people are cannibals. Wow… how original!            

With a story set in the seventies, the movie tries to capture an atmosphere in the style of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, being apparent the influence of this movie, given some similarities in the plot. Eaters, though, being a generic derivative, hardly matches their predecessor.

A little plagued by bad acting – one of the “dangerous” bikers was more like a drunk rock star than a criminal, with his long hair being obviously a wig – in the end the question “why in the world had I waste my time seeing this” will inevitably come up to your mind.

In the end, Eaters is a boring and dull movie. The sad part is that its cohesive beginning and interesting premise, as well as characters that appears potentially convincing at first, can fool you, to see this waste to the end. Unfortunately, this happens to be just another low budget horror flick, that doesn’t deserve your time. One star is all that I can give to this movie.     



​Wagner

Spotlight is a 2015 American biographical drama film, directed by Tom McCarthy, starring Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Brian d’Arcy James, Liev Schreiber and Stanley Tucci. The story follows the Spotlight, a team of The Boston Globe’s journalists that starts a deep and disturbing investigation of child molestation cases committed by catholic priests that are always successful to avoid the judicial system, and never stand trial for the sexual offenses they perpetrate. 

Michael Rezendes (Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (McAdams) and Matt Carroll (d’Arcy James), together with their editor, Walter Robinson (Keaton), form the spotlight team, a small investigative group of journalists of The Boston Globe that handles complicate and intricate cases. When the newspaper hires a new general editor, Marty Baron (Schreiber), he demands the spotlight team to investigate a disturbing case of child molestation committed by a catholic priest. Soon, they uncover the fact that sexual abuses are occurring regularly, being widespread inside the church. Apparently, the headmaster of the catholic archdiocese of Boston is aware of those crimes, but is doing his best to protect the predatory clergy and cover up the sexual offenses, moving the pedophile priests to other archdioceses throughout the country. When accused priests are indicted, the church always manages to have them released. Successfully avoiding the law and criminal prosecution, the pedophile priests never faces trial or pay for the crimes they have committed. Since the story is being poorly covered by the media, The Boston Globe editors Baron and Robinson are eager to discover what is really going on behind the scenes, and the spotlight team employs their best efforts to uncover the entire story.

After a few months of hard investigation, the three journalists discover a lot of disturbing facts. Initially following only one case, that soon grew to be a potential scandal, they eventually discover that the number of sexual offenders inside the Catholic Church is way higher than what they have initially supposed to be, and the number of cases being covered up is also disturbing. Soon, they discover even more distressing facts, and the truth inevitably comes out. The influence of the Catholic Church can’t be suppressed or overlooked at all, and they have the best lawyers working at their service, always seeking the best possible means for the pedophile priests to avoid justice, even to the point of intimidating the families of molested children, to never press formal accusations. In the meantime, the spotlight team – specially Sacha – investigates and conducts interviews with individuals that were molested by catholic priests during childhood, and the hard traumas and deep scars left by the horrible experiences those people have endured eventually resurfaces as a dark and dreadful legacy left by the church as an institution.

Eventually, the truth comes out, and the church can’t avoid a nationwide scandal. Nevertheless, the abusive behavior can be seen as a worldwide phenomenon, and what happened in the United States is only a small fragment of the problem, in its entirety. 

A remarkable movie, with a great cast of actors, Spotlight is a great motion picture, absolutely interesting from the very beginning to the eventful ending. With great performances, an amazing plot, and an incisive way to unfold the truth, Spotlight will lead you to the core of religious hypocrisy and corruption, revealing a web of lies, despicable interests, judicial bureaucracy and painful personal traumas, that only a movie of this category could be able to realize.

With A list stars doing their best performances to date, Rachel McAdams as Sacha Pfeiffer and Mark Ruffalo as Michael Rezendes are remarkably great as two journalists deeply committed to find the truth, involving themselves personally into the story, working hard to push back the boundaries and obstacles that constantly stands against them, all the way through, without ever giving up. Michael Keaton and Liev Schreiber, as senior editor Walter Robinson, and general editor Marty Baron, respectively, also gives solid and astounding performances as two men decidedly committed to reveal the truth, although each one on their own terms and merits. Actor Stanley Tucci also gives a minor, but relentlessly outstanding performance as Armenian-American attorney Mitchell Garabedian, a cynical, but very competent law professional who already knew what was really going on behind the curtains, doing his best to protect the interests of the pedophile victims, knowing beforehand that fighting against the church was no small task.

With great timing, incisive performances, a solid and well written storyline, impressive dialogues, a great outline of journalistic objectivity and passion, and a great outlook of the wrongdoings of religion on society and its implications on a personal and social level, Spotlight manages to be a great movie, that will make your eyes stick into the screen for two hours, without blinking a single moment. A remarkable and very interesting movie in all aspects, technical to personal, Spotlight deserves a five stars rating. A great movie, with a perfect cast, a dramatic and well driven story, an amazing respect for the audience, and an incisive manner to drastically reveal a sordid truth, Spotlight will certainly make the lines for years to come.        


​Wagner

Those Darkest Eyes

I wonder if I could see
Those darkest eyes
All by myself
Without it
Nothing in this world could be
When the advantageous sickness
From those terrible destructible 
Moonlight melancholic eyes
Bleeds throughout oceans 
of hazardous misery
I wonder if I could see 
The sunlight building unbreakable laws 
where everything is already gray
I wonder if I could see
Somehow you still looking vulnerable,
From miles away lost in the darkness
 Far away from me
I wonder if I could see

I wonder if I could see
Oceans of countless bodies
wandering lost
Fearful and groundless
Through the plain vastness of despair

Nothing escapes
From those malicious eyes
And I woke up imprisoned in a gray world of ambivalent shadows
And I still wonder if I could see
The endless sky 
Above the ground and above me    


Wagner

White Settlers is a 2014 British horror film, about a couple that moves to the Scottish Highlands, in the hopes of leaving behind them their busy and stressful lives, exchanging London for a more idyllic life in the countryside. What they don’t know is that they are not welcomed by their neighbors, and all efforts will be made to drive them out of their new place. 

Although there is nothing new in the plot, the movie is exceedingly good! While, initially, there is an unexpected lack of violence – which, after all, helps the movie in the seriousness in which it is compromised – tension is everywhere, especially in the ongoing scenes in the dead of night, where you can see little, but there is enough evidence that clearly points out that something very wrong is going on.

The overall movie plot is very similar to the French-Romanian 2006 movie Them, as well as the 2011 film You’re Next, and the 2008 British thriller Eden Lake, but, interestingly, it seems like an excellent mixture of the best parts of their plots, and not just another pale movie in the same category, having, though, with all merits, a life of its own. Of course, there is no innovations here, so if you’re looking for something new – which is difficult to find in an overly saturated genre as horror, even if you look into all of its subgenres – you will not find it here, but if you’re looking for a good movie in an old-fashioned style, with no overall flaws, good acting, well dosed pace, a cohesive, well-defined and coherent plot, no boredom, and a lot of fear, you will get your 80 minutes fun, without a doubt!

Like the aforementioned Eden Lake – and most British horror movies – the overall structure of the film is simple, made entirely on a low budget, and the plot line, being close to real as it could be, its true to its kind, and the final result, although being somewhat predictable, ends up being very satisfactory, and such a good result cannot disappoint the fans of the genre.

In another words, don’t expect anything that will blow up your mind, but, being true to the subject, honest to the genre, and faithful to the situations which portrays, you will find the results interesting. If you’re a fan of the genre, you will certainly not regret! It deserves four stars, out of five, that is for sure!        

Knight of Cups is a 2015 American drama experimental film, written and directed by Terrence Malick. The film stars Christian Bale as Rick, a screenwriter perpetually lost in an unhappy and empty world of Hollywood excesses, doomed to live a meaningless existence, unable to find a more concrete and solid path for his life.

Rick is a very talented and successful, but unhappy Hollywood screenwriter, lost in the drain of a lethargic existence, constantly sliding in an endless cycle of infinite parties, alcohol abuse and different women. With a great pain inside, that even himself is unable to identify properly what it is, Rick vehemently anesthetizes himself in an indefinite set of partying, drugs and lethargy, loosing completely the track of his own life in the process, even forgetting who he really is. His relationship with his wife rapidly deteriorates, as he involves himself with other women, and his difficult relationship with his brother and his father also suffers from his lack of motivation. As everything in his life falls apart, Rick feels lost, and endures a sense of emptiness that renders him unable to change the self-destructive path on which his life is heading to.

Even for Terrence Malick, Knight of Cups can be considered a very different picture. Some innovative and modernist film techniques can be seen all the way through, although the notorious director is already well known for following unorthodox approaches for his movies. Unfortunately, what we have here is a very sad result. Despite the great cast of actors and actresses, that includes Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Antonio Banderas, Brian Dennehy, Wes Bentley and Teresa Palmer, the movie is dull and boring. With a weak script and an inexistent storyline, Knight of Cups manages to be a loose set of sequences two hours long, about a very lethargic and anesthetized character, that simply doesn’t know what to do with his life, going randomly at pool parties, night clubs and expensive restaurants, because he is a bored individual full of money, with a total absence of real problems, incapable of seriously undergoing a great change in his life, or take control of his destiny. Lost in the grey dust of his purposeless existence, and unable to confront his problems, Rick goes from one place to another, from one woman to the next, without ever being able to find himself. 

This movie is very awful, unfortunately. With a great cast that turns out to be a total waste of talents, Knight of Cups seems like an Hugo Boss TV Commercial two hours long. You don’t really have a solid storyline here, nor decent or profound characters. Forget about great dialogues or character interaction also. Although the sense of apathy and alienation of the main character seems real, and have a decent degree of authenticity and intensity all the way through – mainly because, let’s be reasonable here, Christian Bale is the greatest actor ever –, you get tired of so much alienation. The movie could have been improved if those scenes of alienation were intertwined with at least some lucid moments, showing Rick at work, writing, or interacting with executives of the movie industry. Unfortunately, what Terrence Malick presents us here is a total waste of time. If you dare to see this movie, you will lose two precious hours of your life. So, don’t do that to yourself.

The decent cinematography, the good direction, a handful of beautiful scenes, and the amazing cast redeem a little the movie, but only a little. There is not much to see in Knight of Cups, sadly. A great director and a formidable cast of actors work together to totally waste your time, just to tell you the story of a bored and alienated individual, that doesn’t go anywhere with his life, doesn’t matter from what perspective you decide to confront the situations presented in the movie. If you by any chance are a little curious about Knight of Cups, you can see the trailer. You will save your time, and will have the same amount of satisfaction. For the little qualities the movie have, here and there, I can give to it one star and a half, but that would be the greatest score Knight of Cups would ever be able to achieve from me. Which is a shame, of course. A great director, with a great ensemble cast of actors and actresses, working splendidly for a solid piece of nothingness. What a waste!  


​Wagner
    

What would you do if you were an American military officer involved in the US war on terror, and your superiors demanded that you target innocent civilians, for the sake of national safety? This is one of the many dilemmas that Major Thomas Egan (Ethan Hawke) has to endure, in the brilliant and marvelous Good Kill, directed by Andrew Niccol.   

Major Thomas Egan lives in Las Vegas, with his wife and children, in a well-designed suburban neighborhood for military personal. On duty, he goes to the Air Force Base, in the outskirts of Vegas, where he controls Airstrike drones, targeting and exploding terrorists in the Middle East, and occasionally, in Africa. He gets along well with his superiors and colleagues, with a competent and solid reputation that precedes him. Nonetheless, he is very dissatisfied with his life and career. Being a real pilot, he has urges for a real mission, with a real Falcon military airplane. Really upset with his current assignment, he sees himself as an impostor, as no real danger is present when he is safely inside his cabin, controlling a drone that is literally miles away distant, executing missions by remote control, never experiencing the risks and tensions of a real war. After his shift, he drives his car back to his home, to his boring obligations as a husband and a father, and this routine, day by day, takes a toll on him. Not being involved in a real war is an obvious major blow to his sense of purpose, and as a result, Egan began to drink heavily, as a measure to wash away his frustrations. 

In the Air Force Base, the situation gets worse when his superior, Lieutenant Colonel Jack Johns (Bruce Greenwood) tells his Airstrike team to obey CIA agents, that are eager to use their abilities to strike targets in Africa and Yemen. After a few missions, it became obvious that they are killing innocent civilians, that had nothing to do with the war on the terror. With the CIA agents only saying that this is “normal” collateral damage, to Thomas and his colleagues, it gets increasingly obvious that something very wrong is going on.

Unable to disobey the orders, Thomas begin to drink more and more, and his domestic life starts to fall apart. When his wife leave with their children, Thomas feels horribly distressed, and can    ‘t stand anymore at the hard ordeals of his life. Losing his grip on sanity, he starts to feel more and more unsettled, and free to break all the rules. In the end, one good act of generosity, towards a Muslim woman that was about to be raped, makes redemption seems a place not too far away from home.

Good Kill is an awesome movie. All things work well from the beginning! A great plot, and a decently developed story, continually evolving over its own controversial theme, breaks boundaries, and work really well, in a rhythm that involves the spectator from the very first second. Ethan Hawke is an amazing actor, that captures the very essence of an individual, militarized to his bones, that feels deeply disturbed for the lack of action in his life. With a military personality that follows strict rules and discipline, Major Thomas Egan is a man ready to give his own life for the sake of a real mission. The safety in operating drones, by itself, causes a great damage to his military objectives, and the lack of adrenaline makes boredom, and safe assignments feel like life is passing by him, with nothing fulfilling happening. His domestic life also can’t be a great source of happiness to him, as he feels empty, distant, and unsatisfied. 

With a great sense of humanity, and a very good look inside the misdemeanors and contingencies on the US war on terror, Good Kill is a perfect movie, in every possible aspect. With a plot that never take for granted the difficulties presented by the scenario conscience versus orders, the stress inflicted on a man constantly violating his own principles for the sake of ferocious blind obedience is perfectly aligned with the lack of personal fulfillment, when you really are able to do what you love the most in life, and at the same time, what they ask you to do in the job of your dreams aren’t exactly what you were expecting to achieve.

Perfect plot, great acting, and a very challenging script, all set up in an extremely controversial theme, very hard to all patriot Americans. If you want to see Ethan Hawke in his best shape, you have to see Good Kill. You will not regret! It’s a marvelous and incredible movie. Deserves a five stars score, without a doubt! Great and wonderful masterpiece!            


Wagner

At the Telepathy, Lambs & Hungry Like Rakovitz gig (Antwerp Music City, read the review), Robbie Maddox invited me to this event. What's more, he invited me to take a bunch of Metal Decks with me, something I quickly agreed to. So, Joined by a few friends (Analoch Games' designer Bart and marketing wizard Wouter - titles not to be taken too seriously) I headed to the nice Eglantier venue to enjoy an afternoon of wrestling and rock 'n roll, courtesy of the Flemish Wrestling Force and Antwerp's own Interstellar Deathroll. 

Earlier this year, Wouter and I already went to a wrestling event, the WWE Wrestlemania Revenge tour in Brussels. Quite frankly, we were somewhat disappointed by that show. We wanted to see the Undertaker but apparently "The Deadman" is scared of terrorists. It was fun, but I doubt that we'll ever go to another WWE event. Not only because of the pussy, the Undertaker  but also because most WWE fans are morons who are only there to film the whole event on their iPad and get pissed off whenever someone decides to stand up and cheer for The Miz or AJ Styles (yeah, the back print on my t-shirt appeared on several of their videos).

The event kicked off with two matches for the Flemish Wrestling Cup 2016. Andrei Ivanov defeated Mark Benjamin to advance to the final against homeboy Robbie Maddox (photo left, without facepaint) who scored a rather quick pinfall on Gridlock (photo left, with facepaint). Of course, Maddox was cheered by the audience, who could have come in greater numbers to be honest.Gridlock couldn't take the loss and kicked Maddox down, making us all wonder how Maddox was going to survive the final...

Although there was only a handful of people in the audience, the atmosphere was great. I didn't know exactly what to expect from this event, but it did feel like going to see a gig in Antwerp Music City, days after watching some big band on Pukkelpop. No big event can ever top the fun of a small one in my opinion and this wrestling event was no different.

The main ingredients for a decent wrestling event are athleticism, cooperation and humor. I really enjoyed Ivanov, a giant from The Netherlands who was probably the most professional wrestler in the line-up, at least, he looked like he was the most professional. I also like the tag team of Money and Might (Adam Goodrich en Rex Rage) who eventually lost against the mixed tag-team of Emerald Fusion (Phil Boyd en Katey Harvey from Ireland - photo below). Their bout showed a lot of wrestling quality, show, intrigue, humor. 

Homeless Tom was the most entertaining wrestler. His backstory claims he comes from 'under a bridge in Tessenderlo'. He is the current FWF World Champion, a title he had to defend against Dynamite Kev. This was a great match, funny but at times quite intense and showing great athleticism. Kev threw everything he got at Homeless Tom but to no avail. The championship belt will still dangle from that bridge in Tessenderlo for now.

The main event was the cup final between Maddox and Ivanov, and this time, both wrestlers would steal the show. Maddox threw Ivanov into the bar, right in front of our table. For a second I feared that one of the wrestlers would end up on top of my Metal Decks and through the table but that didn't happen. In the end, Maddox was victorious, scoring a pinfall over the previous cup holder.

After a short break, it was time for Interstellar Deathroll who played inside the ring. It's too bad nobody made a video out of this. The combination was awesome. Rock and wrestling fit perfectly together. Interstellar Deathroll is a sleazy, blues driven sludge metal band with plenty of raw power and delicious guitar solos. On this event, they blasted and everyone seemed to enjoy the show. At the end, Peggy from Bliksem joined the band for a raunchy version of W.A.S.P.'s 'Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)'. This cover definitely topped off a great afternoon.

After the gig, the three of us started walking back home, pretty happy with what we've experienced. We sold some decks, talked to some wrestlers, solidified a merch stand an upcoming festival (Rodeo Winter Fest - 21 December) and thanked Robbie Maddox for the opportunity to be there. We are fans now...


​Serge