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YouShoot with Tony Atlas: CM Punk, John Cena, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Dusty Rhodes, Kevin Nash, Ric Flair, Steroids, Drug Use, Sex & More – DVD Review

By Geno McGahee

“The fake parts of wrestling are the friendships.” – Tony Atlas

I followed pro wrestling since I was a child and when the WWF/WWE was picking up steam in the mid 1980s, I was glued to the screen. One of my favorite wrestlers was “Mr. USA” Tony Atlas, a wrestler that would go on to win the tag team titles with Rocky Johnson, father of “The Rock,” Dwayne Johnson. They took the titles from the Wild Samoans, upsetting the intimidating team and becoming the first African American champions in the organization.

KayfabeCommentaries.Com has put together a series of interviews with pro wrestlers called “YouShoot,” where the gloves are off, stories are told, and you get all the behind the scenes dirt that you want to know as a wrestling fan. Atlas, being a star from the 1980s through the 1990s in WWF/WWE and WCW, it was going to be an interesting 2 ½ hours, and it was.

The likeable nature of Atlas is on full display and was the key to his success in the game of wrestling, and he talked at length about his foot fetish…a little too at length. YouShoot allows fans to chime in with questions, comments, and videos, including the infamous “2 Girls, 1 Cup” video, which they thoughtfully placed a red X over. As in the 1980s, it was equally ineffective…the only difference being that in the 1980s, they were only covering blood, not tight shots of women shitting.

The reaction from Atlas was almost worth the terrible visual. Although the idea of allowing others to ring in worked well with the email sort of questions, the videos that the fans made were very rough to make it through. There were countless idiots wearing wrestling masks, doing impersonations, and fixating on the fetishes of Atlas. I could care less about his foot fetish. This was a wrestling interview, but you can’t always control the morons that chime in…I grant them that.

Just about everything is spoken of here. The 1980s was huge for drugs in the world of wrestling and Atlas holds nothing back, including his own usage and the usage of other stars of the era. He speaks of how he was in the spot that Hulk Hogan landed before his drug usage became a liability to the company. He could have been the biggest thing in wrestling.

Atlas speaks of perceived racism in wrestling, reflecting on his time as “Samba Simba,” an African wrestler that danced all of the time, and how some see it as blatant racism. He speaks of Dick Murdoch’s involvement with the KKK and how that impacted their relationship and talks about how Dusty Rhodes nearly ruined pro wrestling.

For fans of the game now, there was an altercation between CM Punk and Atlas, where there were threats thrown back and forth. Atlas goes into detail, speaking of what sparked it and the aftermath when they sat down to discuss it. It was very interesting. All of the rumors are touched upon, and I found Atlas very amusing. He is still an entertainer.

I have to give a lot of credit to Kayfabe Commentaries for the efforts with these DVDs and interviews. They do not pull any punches and push for the true stories, bringing a much better “Shoot” interview then you will see anywhere else. I do wish that they screen the people chiming in a little better and leave the fetish discussion at a minimum with the grapplers, but even with that considered, this is a great watch for any wrestling fan. I found it incredibly interesting and fun and even at 2 ½ hours, it seemed short because it was that entertaining…minus the two girls and one cup.

I highly recommend this.


RSR Rating: 8.5/10.

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