Back in 2018, I made a decision to expand my focus to include the Movie Trivia Schmoedown – a combination of movie trivia and WWE entertainment. As the brand grew, my writing on here came to an end in November 2018 as I was given the chance to write for their new website, TriviaSD.com along with a number of other Schmoedown bloggers. Recently it was announced that as the crew’s focus is needed elsewhere, it was announced that the site will be coming to an end. This means that the Schmoedown will be making a return to this site!
First of all, I want to give a big thank yous:
- To Schmoedown creator and Chairman of the league Kristian Harloff and TriviaSD.com Managing Editor William Bibbiani for giving me the chance to write for the site
- To the cast and crew, who continue to create an amazing product that is just going from strength to strength
- To the fans, who have helped to create such an amazing community
Over the space of a couple of weeks, I am posting my articles from the site onto here. As some of these are almost a year old, some of them are somewhat outdated and may have proved to be completely off the mark.
Posted to TriviaSD.com 1/5/2019
When you talk about the Schmoedown, it doesn’t take long for conversation to turn to “Dangerous” Dan Murrell. The reigning Singles Champion and Free 4 All Champion is the only person to have held the Singles Title on three separate occasions and his partnership with “The Outlaw” John Rocha is more than capable of challenging for the Teams title too.
But with six victories in title matches and plenty of other iconic events in his history, the question then becomes “What is the best Dan Murrell moment?” I’ve looked back through his time in the league to present my top ten.!
What would make your list?
10. Dan’s First Faction
Murrell had clearly been doing well enough on his own during Season 3 as he went 5-0 in the Singles Division, with 3 victories in title matches and 3 TKOs in that spell.
By this point, Murrell and Rocha were clear rivals and during his interview after defending his title at Spectacular against Mark Ellis, Murrell was firing some shots at his next opponent, who had lost the Teams Title to The Patriots earlier in the day.
His interview was soon interrupted by the arrival of the Lion’s Den, who invited him to join their faction with a number of promises, including free comic books from Marc Andreyko. With the strength of the Four Horsemen at the time, uniting the Singles and Teams Belts in one faction set up a huge rivalry between the two factions heading into Season 4.
9. Hitting a Promo
With the Schmoedown’s move to Collider and the changes that entailed, the league needed to entice people in. What better way to do in than with the incredible promos from Murrell and John Campea? With lines like “Champions do their talk in the ring” and “Nobody’s ever beat me when there’s a title on the line” as well as comparing the angry Canadian’s rants to a Pomeranian yapping, Murrell brought a quiet confidence to counter Campea’s bluster and set us up for a great season opener.
8. “It’s a New Murrell Order and I’m a Free Agent, Baby”
Murrell’s time with the Lion’s Den lasted a whole one match. In his interview following his title loss to John Rocha, he announced that he was leaving the Lion’s Den. As Murrell pointed out, he received no support from his stable mates and none of them joined him in his promo, entrance or post-match interview. And with a proclamation of “You just lost your alpha” his time in the Lion’s Den came to an end.
7. The Aftermath
It’s never nice to lose a game on a controversial moment, but that is what happened with the Founding Fathers’ Anarchy loss to KOrruption. In an emotional post-match interview, Murrell was so gracious in his loss and talked about how low a loss can make you feel and showed how much the Schmoedown meant to him. Talking about how Rocha had pulled him back following his loss to Andrew Ghai, Murrell clearly did the same in this moment with Rocha and pulled him back to prepare for his upcoming title match, while also reducing Jenn Sterger to tears. If I’m being honest, watching it back for this list got me pretty emotional too!
6. Free 4 All
In a recent article, I named XX5XX as my favourite moment from the first two Free 4 Alls. While a fantastic moment in itself, it also brought to an end a great performance from Dan Murrell. Dan Murrell’s 12 rounds lasted was the most of anyone in that event (1 more than John Humphrey) and correctly answered 47/60 questions over that spell (nobody else managed more than 28 points at the event). If his 5-1 Singles record was not already hint enough, this performance proved that the name “Dangerous” was an apt choice.
5. Dan’s First Title
TKO victories over John Campea and Scott Mantz earned Murrell a shot at Mark Reilly’s Singles Title. “Yodi” was 5-0 at this point, with a title victory over Josh Macuga and a successful defence against JTE to his name, but Murrell gave him the first loss of his Singles career with an 18-15 victory. I think the fact that Murrell’s first ever title victory shows just how great his career has been since then.
4. Free 4 All Victory
Having missed the second Free 4 All due to a personal tragedy, Murrell made his glorious return to the event in 2019. Coming out at number 31, he lasted 13 rounds and scored 42 points (only William Bibbiani could beat those numbers) to defeat MVP William Bibbiani and JTE in the second round of Sudden Death and win the event. It was a great performance and winning the event combined with being a Triple-Champion probably confirmed him as the GOAT to many fans.
3. The Five Horsemen
Andrew Ghai’s antics and his claims of beating Dan Murrell were always going to end up drawing the GOAT back to the league, and it happened at the second Los Angeles live event. With Ghai onstage making fun of a caricature of Murrell (Bateman dressed up as him and acted stupid), the music began to play and the lights went out, before turning back on to reveal four hooded figures. The new Four Horsemen revealed themselves one by one: Knost, Rocha, Inman, Reilly.
Everything went dark again and when the lights returned, a fifth figure had appeared onstage, who was revealed to be Murrell. The GOAT had put aside his rivalry with The Outlaw and they had joined together in a faction of current and former champions to take control of the lead. Murrell’s first action was to go over to Ghai and immediately challenge him to a match at Collision… I’ve never seen Ghai so scared, he was speechless!
The reveal was amazing and left me with goosebumps, and it was great to see Murrell return to the league and team up with his two greatest rivals from his original run in the league.
2. Two in a Row
After Mark Reilly won the Singles Title back from John Rocha, the next title match was arranged for the inaugural Collision: a Triple Threat between Reilly, Rocha and Murrell. In an amazing match, Murrell came away as the new champion, becoming the second two-time Champion.
He wasn’t given much time to celebrate though, as his post-match interview was interrupted by Samm Levine cashing in his Free 4 All victory and challenging Murrell for the title in the hopes that Murrell would be tired.
That logic didn’t work though, as he hit a perfect Round 1 (minus the bonus) on the way to a 26-23 victory.
Winning one match is good, winning two in a day is impressive, and winning two matches one right after another is GOAT material.
1. The Third Title
2018 was an up and down year for Murrell following his return to competition, but a win over Clarke Wolfe at Spectacular confirmed his as the next title contender. That contest would be against Ethan Erwin, live in New York. Erwin had been living up to his “Big Time” moniker and it was going to take something special to beat him, which is exactly what Dan Murrell gave us. A 100% accuracy match gave him a 25-23 victory over Erwin, and he was able to become the first 3-time Singles Champion and lift the belt to chants of “You deserve it” from the crowd.
Eyes on the Ball 