Concept: Rosemary is continuing her attempts to steal John E Bravo away from her former tag partner and current rival, Taya Valkyrie. When Taya crashes their date, Rosemary pulls a demonic trick and brings several other wrestlers into the house with them. The wrestlers are unable to leave, as Taya soon discovers the doors all lead to purgatory. It’s revealed that the crew is in a house belonging to Tommy Dreamer, who declares himself the host of this reality show. Chaos quickly ensues as the wrestlers try to manage sharing a space together.
Highlights: Since its premier, WrestleHouse has been a good source of unadulterated nonsense and laughs. Most of these come from the stooge room segments, which have excellent comedic timing and are random enough to catch you off guard, but not so outlandish that they make you cringe. Kylie Rae, to me, is a real standout star. She always lights up the room, and seeing her trying to keep a crowd of disgruntled wrestlers happy and peaceful is greatly amusing. Taya Valkyrie continues to ooze charisma with her presence alone. Her wittiness and ad-libs are another highlight of the segment, and actually made me pause and rewind a few times. Crazzy Steve plays a great role too. His in-ring skills are great, but I’d take any chance I can get to see Steve outside of the ring, as his character is so intriguing, amusing, a little concerning, and greatly entertaining to watch. A really great moment for him was the line he delivered to Johnny Swingman, “they call me crazy, not desperate.”
Lowlights: My only real critique of WrestleHouse is that I wish the segments had more of a plot then “two wrestlers disagree, then have a match, then the argument is resolved.” I think more long term storylines would be great, and they are being hinted at already (Susie and Cousin Jake’s relationship, Rosemary’s manipulation of John E Bravo), but I think it would be nice if they got more focus. I’m very optimistic that these plotlines will get more attention in upcoming segments.
Overall Thoughts: When I’d heard about WrestleHouse, I was initially confused and a little skeptical about the concept. But a few minutes into the segment had me completely won over. In my opinion, more companies should be doing creative segments like this, especially when crowds are gone from shows.
Seeing wrestlers interact in goofy environments where wrestlers aren’t expected is fun to see, and it enriches characterization and makes the audience more fond of the wrestlers as people. WrestleHouse in particular is a joy to watch because it’s clear that all involved had a lot of fun making it, and if the world could use anything right now, it’s good lighthearted fun. WrestleHouse is definitely worth a watch!
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