Tag: Critically Acclaimed

SPLIT AND RUN: The Five Most Emotional Breakups in Schmoedown History!

SPLIT AND RUN: The Five Most Emotional Breakups in Schmoedown History!

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 As some of these are almost a year old, some of them are somewhat outdated and may have proved to be completely off the mark.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 23/7/2019

The tale as old as time took a shock turn recently, with the news that “The Beauty” Witney Seibold had left William “The Beast” Bibbiani and brought an end to Critically Acclaimed as a team. Seibold – who lost his Singles debut to David Del Rio – had not taken well to Bibbiani putting his efforts into helping “The Kid” Brendan Meyer so chose to leave Critically Acclaimed and go back to his Anarchy partner Marc Edward Heuck, while Bibbiani has now promoted Meyer from apprentice to partner.

Critically acclaimed were a well-loved team, and as such their split has broken the hearts of many fans. But it is not the first time that we have had to go through the agony of an emotional breakup. Today I will be looking back over the top five emotional breakups that we have had to face. Tissues at the ready? Let’s go!

Before getting into my Top 5, I wanted to give honourable mentions to two teams whose breakups may not have been emotional moments but still provoked a large reaction from the fan base. Having gone on a crazy run of nine consecutive wins (including a title victory and six successful defences), and as some of the biggest heels in the league at the time, the Patriots had a sizeable group of fans. Following their title loss to Above The Line and their loss in their Iron Man rematch at Collision, Jeff Sneider walked away from The Lion’s Den after finding out Tom Dagnino was planning to trade him, but JTE stuck with his manager, bringing an end to a team that is surely destined for the Schmoedown Hall of Fame.

Above The Line’s breakup didn’t even happen on camera, however, as Samm Levine announced in a post-Collision special that he was retiring from competition and vacating both the Singles and Teams Titles in the process. Above The Line were a well-loved team despite not even being active in the league for a full year, while Drew McWeeny and Samm Levine clearly improved each other during their partnership, so many fans mourned the potential this team had to break all the records.

5. Six Degrees

As two of the original leading ladies within the league and with fun theatrical entrances always guaranteed, Brianne Chandler and Stacy Howard quickly became fan favourites. Even with their turn to the dark side under Jay Washington, they were still a team that you couldn’t help root for. After DC Movie News knocked them out of the 2017 Ultimate Schmoedown Teams Tournament and Mike Kalinowski defeated Brianne in the Singles tournament, “Miss Movies” announced that she would be taking a break from competing.

Brianne failed to turn up to support Jay Washington in the Manager Bowl, but appeared to him and Stacy after he lost to announce that she had made a decision and that Jay was dismissed. She asked Stacy to come with her, but Stacy chose to remain loyal to Jay, bringing an end to Six Degrees and transitioning the Missfits into the Viper Sqaud, while Brianne walked away to jump in a car with none other than her former rival Mike Kalinowski.

4. Top 10

One of the original teams from Season 2, “The Outlaw” John Rocha and “Mighty” Matt Knost became the second ever Team Champions but lost to the Patriots on their first defence. For over a year they continued to face whoever they had to in order to win back their titles, only for bad luck and questionable calls to see them lose to the Patriots two more times and leave each of them questioning if they wanted to continue.

With the formation of the Horsemen, it looked like the team would have new life, until Anarchy broke them up, putting Knost with William Bibbiani and Rocha with new Horseman “Dangerous” Dan Murrell. Despite neither of their Anarchy teams making it beyond the quarterfinals, Knost clearly felt that Murrell was the perfect person to replace him as Rocha’s partner, so at Spectacular he made the announcement that Top 10 would not be reforming as he would be stepping away from the league.

The continuation of the Founding Fathers meant that this was not as emotional a break-up as it could have been, but as Knost exited with one last dance, we were still left feeling that this was the end of an era.

3. Nerd’s Watch

The team that brought Rachel “The Crusher” Cushing into the league, her and “The Pitboss” Ken Napzok were a force for good in the league at a time when the Lion’s Den were running amok. A loss to Above The Line in the opening round of the 2017 Ultimate Schmoedown left the future of the team in the balance as Ken deliberated whether he wanted to continue competing in the division, while The Missfits were doing everything they could to entice Rachel into their faction.

Rachel chose to turn down the Missfits and wait for Ken, and she was as shocked as anyone to see him revealed as the newest member of the Lion’s Den as the season built towards Spectacular. Appealing to Ken’s good side, she convinced him to come back and take on the Den’s 2nd team Blofeld’s Cat, but he failed to turn up for the match and Rachel was forced to take them on in a 2v1 handicap match. Though she fought hard, she eventually fell to a TKO loss, only for Ken to arrive as the winners were announced… or as he put it as he walked over to the gloating Lion’s Den members: “to congratulate these guys.”

We sat there in shock watching on as Rachel had to deal with losing not just the match, but also her partner and suddenly the world looked a little bit darker.

2. Team Action

Another team whose end began with Anarchy, Ben “The Boss” Bateman and “Dastardly” Andrew Ghai were the bad boys of the league, with Andrew already getting served a ban for tackling John Rocha at Spectacular. Anarchy saw the pair broke up, with Ben being paired with Mark “Yodi” Reilly, but Drew sat out the tournament after refusing to work under Jay Washington.

As part of Who’s The Boss, Ben won the Anarchy Tournament but he and Reilly fell just short against the Shirewolves at Spectacular. Following the match, Ben and Drew discussed the idea of Who’s The Boss staying together, something that Drew agreed to, suggesting the pair stat their own faction with Reilly. Members of the Action Army began to get excited at the thought of their boys leading their own faction, then found themselves watching on in horror as Drew tackled Ben through a coffee table.

Ghai went on to tell Bateman that he was nothing without him, before spitting on him and walking off to begin finding support for the upcoming Action Civil War. The shock of Ghai’s actions and seeing the best of friends become fierce enemies in a matter of seconds, not to mention the impact it has had on this season gets this one high on the list.

1. DC Movie News

Action’s breakup wasn’t the only one to impact the way the last year went, as by that point the league had already been shaken by my number 1 pick: Mike Kalinowski walking away from DC Movie News and The League to create KOrruption and take control of the league. Kalinowski did not feel that he was getting the support he needed from his faction in early 2018 and things reached a head when DC Movie News took on Team Action. Following an agonising loss, he was clearly simmering throughout the post-match interview and eventually broke, going on a tirade against Roxy Striar, Jonny Loquasto and teammate Adam Gertler before announcing that he was done with the faction and walking out of the interview. The silence was deafening as nobody could believe what they were seeing, and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for Gertler as his response to what happened was a confused “I feel like I just broke Mike Kalinowski” before having to be led away in tears. It was so emotional, even Team Action were in tears watching… though admittedly theirs were from laughing so hard at their opponents’ misfortune.

Did I miss any? Let me know what you think the most emotional breakup has been.

DECENT PROPOSALS: Six Schmoedown Stipulation Matches We Want Next!

DECENT PROPOSALS: Six Schmoedown Stipulation Matches We Want Next!

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 12/4/2019

With rankings on the line and only a couple of wins required to earn a #1 Contender Match, there is plenty of excitement surrounding every Schmoedown match already. But do you know what can make a match even more exciting?

Stipulations! An agreement between two competitors that makes the result of a match even more important. Stipulations have been used many times already in the Schmoedown, from the rematch between Team Action and Top 10 that would have forced Top 10 to break up for a year, to Bateman vs. Mantz for the right to put their face on Movie Release Dates slice.

Most recently, this week treated us to a match between JTE and Jonathan Harris. A JTE win would see the return of the Evil Geniuses with Jonathan Harris their manager, a Harris win would see the Harris Brothers continue and Jonathan picking JTE’s new partner.

And this got me thinking: what other possible stipulation matches could we see in the Schmoedown?

Battle for Boston

Sometimes you don’t know how much you’ve missed something until you see/hear it again. I’m sure I wasn’t the only person who realised that was the case as “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” started to play at the Free 4 All to announce the return of JTE. With the end of the Patriots and JTE’s injury, this entrance music has been sorely missing since Collision and it was great to hear it again.

However, our chances have been limited. One of JTE’s first acts back in the league was to tell his former partner that this was his music and only he could use it. Will Sneider be OK with that or will he want the song back?

Sneider could set up a match with JTE and – as if these two former friends going against each other isn’t exciting enough – challenge him to put “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” on the line. A win for “Little Evil” lets him keep the song for his entrance music, a win for Sneider would see JTE have to stop using the song and allow “The Insneider” permanent rights to the song.

Space in the Stable

One of the ongoing stories of Season 6 has been the rebuilding of the Horsemen, now that Matt Knost has retired and Jason Inman took a leave of absence. With the success of his new team Who’s The Boss, Reilly has suggested to Rocha that Ben Bateman come in as one of the new Horsemen, an idea that Dan Murrell seemed amenable to but Rocha – who has history with “The Boss” – was not so happy about.

But what if Ben’s potential future came down to a 1v1 match between Reilly and Rocha? A win for Reilly sees his partner become a Horsemen, a win for the Outlaw will see them move on from Ben as an option and look elsewhere for new recruits.

A Grand (?) Entrance

William “The Beast” Bibbiani and Witney “The Beauty” Seibold are not just a very knowledgeable team, they are also one of the teams who will go all-out on their entrances. We all love them and look forward to what they’ll do next. But you know who may not feel the same? The poor editors who have an increased workload.

So far, the crew have done a great job of allowing the pair to run wild with their ideas, but former Commissioner Thadd Williams may decide that enough is enough and, along with his teammate Aaron Wilhelm, take on Critically Acclaimed in a Teams match with a twist: a win for Deep Cuts would see Bibbiani and Seibold have to tone down their entrances to just walking out in cosplay to different music for a specified amount of time.

The Battle of Champions

Who wouldn’t want to see a match between “Dangerous” Dan Murrell and Rachel “The Crusher” Cushing?! The Singles Champion and Innergeekdom Champion have yet to face each other in competition and there is a good chance that if they ever do, it could be one of the greatest matches ever.

While Murrell does have a title shot to use whenever he wants, following his Free 4 All victory, he has been quick to say that he does not see himself entering the Innergeekdom anytime soon. Likewise, Cushing has taken a similar stance towards competing in the Singles Division while she is Teams and Innergeekdom Champion. There is one stipulation that could make a match between the pair be too good for either to resist however: Winner Takes All!

Murrell puts the Singles belt on the line and Cushing the Innergeekdom belt in a 5-round singles match that includes your usual Singles categories but also a couple of categories you would usually only find in Innergeekdom. While Cushing would keep the Teams belt regardless of the result, the winner would become Singles and Innergeekdom Champion.

School’s Out?

We’ve already seen “The Professor” Lon Harris trying (and failing) to teach Eliot Dewberry the finer side of cinema, a lesson from which Josh Macuga managed to successfully play truant. Perhaps it’s time for Professor Harris to try a new tactic.

The Professor could challenge Macuga to a Singles match with a twist: a win for Harris would see the Wildberries (including manager Ricky Hayberg) have to attend a mandatory series of classes led by the Professor and his esteemed colleague Jonathan Harris. A win for Macuga would see the Harris Brothers have to join the Wildberries for a wild party. Who else wants to see the Professor doing a keg stand?

What’s in a Name?

Tim “The Tank” Franco made his Schmoedown debut with a TKO victory over Matt Atchity in Season 4 but has unfortunately not competed since. Now, his nickname of “The Tank” appears at risk: fans of the Schmoedown Rundown have heard Frank Janisch trying to make that name his own.

Could this be what it takes to draw Tim Franco back into competition, with Janisch making his competitive debut? The prize: the rights to the nickname “The Tank”. Will Frank Janisch be able to get rid of that “Jenga” nickname? For a bonus, let’s get Frank’s fellow Rundown host Brad Gilmore on the desk and see who he cheers for.

What other stipulation matches would you love to see? Sound off in the comments!

KNOCKOUT KINGS: The Unlikely History of Critically Acclaimed!

KNOCKOUT KINGS: The Unlikely History of Critically Acclaimed!

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 12/2/2019

The Shirewolves’ next opponents have been found: Critically Acclaimed! The dashing pair of William “The Beast” Bibbiani and Witney “The Beauty” Seibold just took down the second place finalists of the Anarchy tournament, The Harris Brothers, to set up a title match with Clarke Wolfe and Rachel Cushing.

Newer viewers of the Schmoedown can be forgiven for not knowing who this team is, since this was their first match together since June 2018! So it’s time to take a trip back through the history of the Schmoedown, with a story that begins way back in late 2016…

Faction Wars

William Bibbiani announced himself on the Schmoedown scene towards the end of Season 3 with a match against fellow debutant Marc Andreyko. In a fantastic show of movie trivia knowledge, Bibbiani managed a to answer all of his questions correct on his way to a victory over “The Android,” breaking the points record for the Singles Division in the process. Following the match, John Rocha invited him to become the 3rd member of his faction, with Robert Meyer Burnett joining a just few weeks later to complete the Four Horsemen.

His time in the Horsemen was not a good one though. While he beat Eliot Dewberry via TKO, he opened Season 4 with a loss to JTE (who had not won a Singles match since Season 1) and he also fell to Kristian Harloff during the Chairman’s revenge tour. Meanwhile, his relationship with John Rocha soured. As the months went on, Bibbiani had his head turned by Ricky Hayberg and famously left the Four Horsemen at Collision, announcing that he was creating a new faction with Ricky – The Growling Commandos – and bringing in his podcast co-host Witney Seibold to become his new teammate, thus creating the team of Critically Acclaimed.

The Debut

Announcing that “We’re smarter than you!”, Critically Acclaimed moved quickly to prove it. Their first match was against Only Stupid Answers, and Round 1 saw them take a monumental lead with Bibbiani going 7/8 and Seibold getting a perfect round on his debut in the league, and hitting his bonus question. While Only Stupid Answers pulled it back slightly in Round 2, they were only able to hit their 2-point question in Round 3, handing Bibbiani and Seibold a 23-19 TKO victory.

Bracket Busters

Critically Acclaimed’s next match came in the opening round of the 2017 Ultimate Schmoedown against fans and reactors Late To The Party, who entered into the match with 0-1 record, following a loss to Team Action. This match saw Critically Acclaimed have their worst Round 1 performance as a team to date, finishing 10-7 up. Late To The Party got maximum points in Round 2 with a spin of Comedies, but on their spin of Hitchcock, Critically Acclaimed could only manage 8 points, while their opponents also managed to steal a point. Round 3 was a close affair but Late To The Party held on, winning by one point. It was the 2017 Upset of the Year, and it broke fans’ brackets around the world.

Back with a Vengeance

Bibbs and Witney returned in Season 5 with a match against Superhero News, with Hayberg quitting as their manager in the middle of the opening promo. Critically Acclaimed came out of Round 1 with a lead of 3 points, which had doubled by the end of Round 2. This lead proved unassailable as Superhero News could only answer their 2-pointer, resulting in a 25-21 TKO victory. They looked to quickly back this up with a match against M.O.D.O.K. and although both teams had identical entrances, their performances were vastly different, with Modok falling 4 points behind in Round 1. They pulled back 2 points in Round 2, but were unable to answer any of their questions in Round 3, giving Critically Acclaimed their second consecutive TKO victory, this time by a score of 19-17.

An Enforced Split

Critically Acclaimed were on a roll and looked set for a Number 1 Contender match in the near future, until it was announced that teams would be split up as part of the Ultimate Schmoedown Anarchy tournament. Bibbiani was given a new Anarchy partner in Matt Knost and under the management of Emma Fyffe they went 1-1 in the tournament as the Cinemaniacs, losing to eventual tournament winners Who’s The Boss. Witney was paired with Mark Edward Heuck as The Self-Righteous Brothers, with Jonny Loquasto managing. They lost to Take The Cannoli in the opening round, but the 35-31 score had Critically Acclaimed fans worried that Witney would chose to stick with his new partner.

While their new teams had limited success, Bibbiani also used this period to cash in his Free 4 All MVP award for a Number 1 contender match with former teams champion Jeff Sneider. He KO’d “The Insneider” and defeated Marc Andreyko to win the Singles title that had been vacated by Samm Levine’s retirement, although Bibbs lost the belt to his old rival John Rocha two months later.

Contenders

And so that brings us to 2019. Season 6’s first match in the Teams Division was a Number 1 Contender Match between Critically Acclaimed and The Harris Brothers. Though Lon Harris managed a perfect Round 1 and the bonus question, the score going into Round 2 was still tied at 12-12. Bibbs and Witney opened up a 4 point lead in Round 2 and when it came to Round 3, The Harris Brothers went 0/3 to give Critically Acclaimed the 24-20 TKO victory and setting up a Championship Match with the Shirewolves in March.

The Future of Critically Acclaimed

Who will win the Championship Match? The Shirewolves will likely be the favourites as they have the 5-0 record and the extra title match experience, but Critically Acclaimed are not to be underestimated. Though Witney is the only one to have managed a perfect Round 1 in this team, both he and Bibbs managed the feat during the Anarchy tournament.

Critically Acclaimed’s 4-1 record is also better than all current teams bar the Shirewolves and Who’s The Boss (4-1), but Bibbs and Whitney’s haul of 4 KOs/TKOs beats Who’s The Boss’ 1KO and the Shirewolves’ 2KOs.

One thing you can almost guarantee though: these are two of the premier teams when it comes to entrances, so we will probably get as much excitement from the entrances as we will from the match itself!

Beyond that, I’m sure Bibbs while be looking to get back in the hunt for the Singles Title, having not been involved in the 2018 Ultimate Schmoedown tournament, while Witney will be making his long-awaited Singles debut against David Del Rio on February 22nd!

Best of luck and a hearty “Growl Growl” to both of them!