| Bloodstained Memoirs | |
|---|---|
Promotional Poster for Bloodstained Memoirs |
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| Produced by | David Sinnott |
| Starring | Chris Jericho Rob Van Dam Mick Foley Roddy Piper Keiji Mutoh Jimmy Snuka Último Dragón Molly Holly Christian |
| Music by | Tigers and Monkeys |
| Release date(s) | November 23, 2009 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Bloodstained Memoirs is a professional wrestling documentary released online via an official stream in 2009. It is compiled by interviews featuring wrestlers synonymous with different eras in wrestling ('70s, '80s, '90s, and '00s) and different wrestling regions (USA, Canada, Japan, and Mexico). Production was filmed in the UK, USA, France, Japan, and Italy. When interviewed for Fighting Spirit magazine, director David Sinnott stated, "I don't intend this film to be negative. It's too easy to sell people bad news."[1]
In October 2011, the documentary was made available on DVD.
Contents |
It is said that the original concept was to be a mixture of a work and a shoot, with one fictional, “dramatic” scene already filmed with ex-WWE wrestler, and ITV Celebrity Wrestling Coach, Joe Legend.[2]
The interview based documentary revolves around nine internationally recognised and critically acclaimed wrestlers; Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam, Mick Foley, Keiji Mutoh, Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, Último Dragón, Christian and Molly Holly.[3][4][5][6][7] Al Snow hosts the production.[8] The film shows Rob Van Dam's first third-party interview after leaving World Wrestling Entertainment.
In March 2007, footage featuring four minutes of interviews with Roddy Piper and Molly Holly appeared on YouTube, claiming that it was hacked footage from the former official website. It is debated whether this was the true case or whether the video was put up for publicity. Over 160,000 people watched the video, and the news story was picked up by a number of publications, including Power Slam magazine which adds cause to the debate that it was in fact a planted video. In time the video even made its way to the official website.[9] Several topics were discussed in the video, including the death of Bruiser Brody.[10]
David Sinnott, executive producer of Bloodstained Memoirs, released a statement on July 30, 2008 through the official Bloodstained Memoirs MySpace page stating that documentary was facing a delay because post production services delivered to the documentary had been below standard. The company responsible for the post production services, Online Post Production LTD were taken to court as a result of this.
The company was owned by Hilary Lawson, Vice Chair of the Forum for European Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author of Closure.[11][12]
On October 24, it was revealed that the producers of Bloodstained Memoirs won the case in court for an undisclosed financial sum, and that they would be moving on to another post production facility, stating that a release date would not be far away.[13]
In May 2009, it was revealed that production had finalized. In addition, it was revealed that Total Nonstop Action Wrestling president Dixie Carter had given the producers footage to use from TNA's video library.
Following several more trailers, Bloodstained Memoirs became available to stream on November 23, 2009, via a subscription on the official website.[14][15]
Bloodstained Memoirs was met by largely positive reviews from critics. Amongst the reviews, Empire magazine called it an “undertaking which paid off handsomely.” [16] The Fight Network and Wrestle Hustle labelled it as “something very, very special” and “brilliant” respectively. Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine gave it a review of 4.5/5 stating it, “delivers big.” [17][18] Future Publishing's DVD and Blu-ray Review magazine scored the production 4/5. MNM Radio asserted that the production featured "great stories" whilst Bill Apter's, 1 Wrestling stated the production delivered "a great piece of oral history and a fresh insight into modern wrestling." [19] The Sun remarked that it was "excellent." [20]
Several wrestling personalities who were not associated with the production also spoke out publicly to compliment it, such as Paul Bearer, Sonjay Dutt, Missy Hyatt and Lanny Poffo. Something which in itself was noted by sources such as The Miami Herald.[21]
The film, however, has not escaped criticism. Fighting Spirit magazine called it, “Something of a missed opportunity.” Style Weekly proclaimed, “interviews tend to jump into nitty-gritty wrestling knowledge without setting up scenarios so that casual fans will get lost in the details.” [22]
Following the success of the documentary, an iPhone application was released in September 2011 featuring unreleased footage of the documentary. [23]
In early October 2011 a new trailer was put online with the news that Bloodstained Memoirs was being released for the first time ever on DVD. The DVD was released on October 17th 2011, reaching the top 10 of the Amazon sports chart. [24]
