Who is behind the Schmoeminati?

If we only learned one thing during Schmoedown Spectacular V, it was this: the Schmoeminati are real. For months we watched Andrew Ghai’s descent into madness as he tried to warn us and prove their existence, and it proved costly for him, as he was kidnapped by unknown assailants led by a masked figure.

But now we know that the Schmoeminati are real, the questions turn to their identity and their motives. Ghai had the information but that’s lost to us now. The only thing we know is that Chairman Kristian Harloff – shadowy leader of the last coup – is not involved but that means that the rest of the league are still potential suspects.

Let me know who you think is behind the Schmoeminati, but my chief suspects are below:

Suspect #1: Brad Gilmore

The BOAT is an up-and-coming talent in the Schmoedown crew. As host of the Schmoedown Rundown and now also Coming Up Next, he has years of experience as a pundit and has also filled in occasionally in post-match interviews and on the desk, and Kristian Harloff has even mentioned the prospect of him being the heir to Harloff’s place on the deskin the long-term.

But does the BOAT want to wait for nature to take its course, or is he taking a leaf out of Harloff’s books and using subterfuge to take control of the league by steadily infiltrating the league and then brainwashing one of the league’s biggest faces? Speculation? Yes, but go back to the Rundown episode immediately following Spectacular (and Andrew Ghai’s capture – and a certain BOAT is mysteriously missing…

Suspect #2: Grace Hancock

I mentioned in my 5 takeaways from Spectacular to watch out for Grace’s revenge following Kate Mulligan’s decision to fire her, and with her being on bad terms with so many of the other managers (not to mention Chairman Kristian Harloff, who is scared of her), she may have decided that the Schmoeminati is the best way to entrench herself in the league so they can’t get rid of her.

You could argue that the Schmoeminati started before Grace was fired, but I have 2 words for you: CONTINGENCY PLAN. This isn’t the first time Grace has been dropped from a team and with the lack of success in the latter half of the season for The Den, she may have sensed that her role as an advisor was anything but a position of power, and made plans to cement herself in the league.

Let’s not forget that she took advantage of Dagnino locking Emma Fyffe in a closet in order to become the post-match interviewer for the inaugural Collision – never rule the Lioness out when it comes to something despicable.

Suspect #3: Mark Ellis

“Surely not Baby Carrots!” I hear you all cry out, but how better to avoid suspicion than to be one of the most jovial people in the league? Mark Ellis was one of the founders of the Schmoedown, and yet it is Kristian Harloff who gets the majority of the credit and gets to rule the league, while everybody’s favourite dog stepfather is left to give the rulings of all the challenges and bear the brunt of the competitors and managers who are unhappy with the decision.

It’s just a matter of time before someone would snap under that pressure and maybe that is what Ellis has done here, putting into action a plan that will see him oust his former teammate at the top of the league. Rumours that the Schmoeminati have taken control of all the Coors Light on the Wes Coast are still under investigation.

Suspect #4: Frank Janisch

First off, just look at the picture above. This guy is worshipping Kylo Ren so can’t be trusted! Let’s not forget that we never heard of the Schmoeminati until after Frankie Numbaz made the move from Chicago to the West Coast. As a longtime host of the Schmoedown Rundown, he has always had access to people and information behind the scenes in the league, but in recent months has seen his Rundown co-host Brad Gilmore getting a second show while he is even facing pressure in the stats department these days.

With his role as the stats guy onscreen now under threat, has West Coast Frank started making moves to grab more power within the Schmoedown and secure his name of “The Truth” once and for all…?

Suspect #5: ZaFlertinflouse

“The Trending Nightmare” is a mystery wrapped in an enigma and shrouded in conspiracy theories, the most recent of which is that he is behind the Schmoeminati. Did the mask worn by Andrew Ghai’s abductor look familiar? That’s because it has a blink and you’ll miss it appearance in the video for his hit single “Und Und Und”, worn by none other than the Flouse!

The current belief is that the Flouse is looking to take over the league to force the Schmoedown Pros to sing in the chorus for his upcoming album “Spin from the Peg”. Rumours that the planned first release “Sexy Buzzer” will be a duet with Brendan Meyer have been quashed.

Suspect #6: Sabrina Ramirez & Brandon Hanna

We’ve focused on individual suspects for now, but who says that an organisation like the Schmoeminati can only have 1 person at the head. Sabrina Ramirez warned us before Spectacular that she and Brandon Hanna were about to become the league’s new power couple, which is hard to believe when you look and Hanna’s soul-destroying, never-ending promos.

But what if those promos were to lull us into a false sense of security while the Schmoeminati quietly came in and grabbed hold of the league under the overall running of Ramirez, who had a quiet season after being picked up on the Free Agency deadline day with only 1 chance to compete. Ramirez is someone to watch out for in this league, and Hanna could be the perfect underrated sidekick/henchman.

Suspect #7: John Rocha & Finstock

As the resident mask-wearers in the league, of course Rocha and Finstock have to be suspects! It’s been a bad season for both Rocha and Finstock, with a Faction Championship that should have been theirs for the taking ending up falling away from them midway through the season. And yet despite this, the pair joined up to throw the GOAT Dan Murrell out of the faction at the end of the season – a move that boggles the mind!

Why else would they do this if they didn’t have some nefarious plan to take over the league, and with Dagnino’s mysterious contacts, it’s easy to see the Schmoeminati forming. Rumours that the Reel Rejects’ multi-mask entry against Cuckoo’s Mess was a rite of passage to join the Schmoeminati are being investigated.

Suspect #8: Jessica Sterger & PLD

And so we reach the final suspects, with the most interesting motives. PLD is the third leg of Action Industries and has never fully got over the break-up of Team Action, while Jessica Sterger (Jenn’s Action-loving identical twin) has been mooted as the perfect manager for and Action reunion.

There’s just been one problem: both Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai had moved on from Action and become more respectful of the game and their opponents, with Ghai even going so far as to change the name “Dastardly” to “Debonair”. Well Bateman’s struggles this season seem to have pushed him back towards his old self, but it looks like the arrival of the Schmoeminati has been focused on pushing Ghai beyond what he could take and forcing him to snap back to his dastardly self. There is a legitimate chance that the 2021 Draft will see Team Action reunited, and with both the Action Army and Schmoeminati behind them, all hell could be set to break loose…

OPPOSITION? HEEL THYSELF! – Five Schmoedown Players Who Wisely Went Wicked

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 8/8/2019

As someone who was not a regular watcher of the WWE, one of the things that took me a while to understand was the intricacies of kayfabe and the roles of heels and faces. After over two years of watching the Schmoedown however, I have come to appreciate the role this has in the success of the league and really look forward to seeing how new entrants will act and what dastardly deeds the heels will get up to next.

While many of the heels have been that way from the start, like “Dastardly” Andrew Ghai, there are others like Ken Napzok and Mike Kalinowski who were once seen as heroes of the league, fighting the good fight, until they snapped and turned to the dark side. In addition to shocking the fans with their turn to evil, many of these heel turns have played a big role in improving not just their own personal Schmoedown careers, but also the league as a whole.

Today we’ll be looking at those former faces who found success by going dark!

Six Degrees

Two of the original ladies of the Schmoedown, “Miss Movies” Brianne Chandler and “Sassy” Stacy Howard arrived in the league with a victory over the Wangers in October 2016. However, their success was limited over the following months, until they brought in Jay Washington as their manager. Washington helped turn the pair into the first big female heels of the league, while the Viper Squad became one of the more established factions of Season 4.

While Rachel Cushing and Clarke Wolfe were showing their success as faces, Six Degrees made it clear that the role of a heel would work just as well with a woman or a man, creating the opportunity for any new arrivals to play any character that they wanted.

Mike Kalinowski

He was Captain America. He was Batman. Then, he became “The Killer” and the leader of KOrruption. Mike Kalinowski’s heel turn on leaving The League revolutionized the Schmoedown last season as he – under instruction from Paulie G (and unbeknownst to Kalinowski, Kristian Harloff) – began blackmailing Commissioner Thadd Williams into running the league however he wanted.

Under Mike’s supervision, we saw the Innergeekdom Division get its first Ultimate Schmoedown-style tournament, which saw Mara Knopic make her debut and run all the way to the Innergeekdom Championship, whilst also highlighting the strength of the division and setting up himself, Rachel Cushing and Adam Hlavac as some of the biggest stars within the division. We also saw the Anarchy Tournament completely shake up the Teams Division, as most teams were broken up and new alliances were created, giving us super-teams like Who’s The Boss, The Odd Couple and the Founding Fathers.

The Anarchy Tournament also created a number of new teams who either stuck together after the tournament or found themselves reforming on a more permanent basis over the next year, effectively “rebooting” the Teams Division at a time where the Patriots, the Shirewolves and Above the Line had been dominating the league.

On a more individual note, this turn also represented the moment where Mike’s fortunes began to improve. His studying seemed to go to a new level as he strove to win his own tournament, eventually leading him to becoming the first Schmoedown Pro to win the Innergeekdom Title twice. Meanwhile, his new partnership with Chance Ellison and creation of the KOrruption faction has seen him earn an upcoming title match in the Teams Division, as well as finding himself just three matches away from the Singles Title.

Ken Napzok

Staying within KOrruption for a moment, we also need to take a look at Ken Napzok. As part of the Nerd’s Watch, Napzok was a force for good in the league but he did not have the ability to stand up to the Lion’s Den. Eventually he decided that “If you can’t beat them, join them” was an acceptable alternative and he betrayed Rachel Cushing to join Tom Dagnino.

While it may not have had a net positive impact on his playing career, turning heel gave him the chance to go all-in on the mic and he has since proven himself to be one of the best in the league when cutting a promo either on camera or live on stage. More than that, his turn also freed up Rachel Cushing to join Clarke Wolfe and take the next steps in her development into one of the best to ever compete in the league. Not to say that he was holding her back, but the Shirewolves and the Fyffe Club played such a key role in Rachel’s success, and that would not have been possible if Ken had not abandoned her.

Drew McWeeny

Who would have thought that Drew McWeeny could turn heel?! “The Godfather” had always been a player focused on pure knowledge instead of storylines, but this season he has dived in headfirst by siding with The Family. Usually quiet and reserved, he has not really had to change his ways much, but his strong, silent personality makes him so menacing whenever he does speak – just look at Burnett’s reaction in the recent promo when McWeeny reminds him that he was promised a belt!

Beyond that, turning heel and joining The Family has brought him real success. With Burnett and Ghai there to take care of things on the mic, McWeeny can focus on his performance in the match, and having Ghai at his side on the table adds a great element of strategy to go along with his immense knowledge.

Could this alliance ever see him win a belt again? I’d never rule it out!

Who will be the next Schmoedown Pro to turn from hero to villain? What impact will that have on the league? Only time will tell…

AMAZED AND CONFUSED: What Does the Return of Mara Knopic Mean for the League?!

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

Posted to TriviaSD.com 29/7/2019

We’ve all become accustomed to Schmoedown live events having a shock moment towards the end, but San Diego’s live event may have given us the most amazing (pun fully intended) shock to date.

Having won the Innergeekdom Title back from Rachel Cushing, Mike Kalinowski took his chance to call out Jason Inman for a match. The crowd went wild as a former Innergeekdom emerged onto the stage… but instead of Inman, it was Mara Knopic, appearing for the first time since Spectacular III!

When Kalinowski took advantage of his power over Thadd Williams to earn a title shot without having to go through any qualifying matches, it was announced that Mara would be awarded a rematch if she lost the title in that match. Kalinowski won the title in Sudden Death, but the rematch never materialised as Mara stepped away from the league.

Now the Brown Dwarf Star is back and looking to settle a score with “The Killer”.

Will she get the chance, though? Kalinowski refused to commit to the match onstage, and current Overlord Robert Meyer Burnett recently changed the rules surrounding former champions getting an automatic rematch. So it may be that he will refuse to recognise Mara’s right to a rematch and instead make her earn the title shot. Kevin Smets has just taken down Adam Hlavac in the San Diego undercard and despite the pair being arguably 2 of the top 4 active in the Division (along with Kalinowski and Rachel), the match was not a #1 Contender, so Mara could be forced to take on Smets for a shot at the title – or perhaps even face Rachel in a rematch of their 2018 tournament thriller!

Regardless of whether she gets her immediate rematch or is forced to work her way to Mike, the question will be “can she win the title back?” While she may not have the statistical dominance that we see from many of the other recent champions, she has consistently done exactly everything she needed to (including playing through physical discomfort) in order to get the win, to the tune of 5 wins (2 by TKO). More than that, she has the distinction of being the only Schmoedown Pro to have defeated Jason Inman, Mike Kalinowski and Rachel Cushing in Innergeekdom. Her only loss has come to Mike, in a rematch, and even that went into Sudden Death!

This is someone that you rule out at your peril.

Beyond the immediate future, competing in the Innergeekdom again, it is also worth looking at the wider impact Mara Knopic’s return could have on the league and the factions. It’s hard to believe that KOrruption or The Dungeon would try to bring her in as each faction already has two Innergeekdom competitors (Mike and Chance for KOrruption, Smets and Zipper for The Dungeon).

Meanwhile, Roxy has set herself up against both these factions, with her beef against Kalinowski going back to him leaving The League and her new rivalry with Kaiser as they compete for Manager of the Year. At the moment she is only managing just Marc Andreyko and Jeff Sneider, so bringing in a former Innergeekdom Champion would give her a chance to be competitive in another division.

The obvious faction to look at here would be the Horsemen (Horsepeople? Horsepersons?), as they have established themselves as a stable of champions (it’s just a matter of time, Ben) and have been missing a representative in the Innergeekdom Division ever since Inman stepped away. So bringing in the person who took his title from him would be a statement of intent from a stable that has just lost the Singles Title.

Both The Family and Time Machine are also without an Innergeekdom representative and can never be ruled out – especially if Burnett says Mara can only have her title rematch if she joins The Family – but of the two, I think that Time Machine would be more likely given Jay’s recent change in attitude, while Mara probably wouldn’t want to join Andrew Ghai in a faction given the bad blood surrounding Ghai’s win over Dan Murrell.

Or, we could see Mara stay away from the factions and remain on her own. It didn’t appear to hinder her on her 5-0 run to the Innergeekdom Title last year, while she has already shown that she is able to hold her own against the heels and cut a promo with her own special brand of entertainment.

Regardless how things go, it’s great to see the Innergeekdom Division getting deeper again with the arrival of Pros like Chance and Brandon Hanna and the return of a former champion in Mara. We’re in for an amazing ride!

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

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

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.

DON’T TELL PETER: The Top 10 Mind-Blowing Moments of Schmoedown Collision III

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

Posted to TriviaSD.com 4/7/2019

Season 6 of the Schmoedown really has been the Magic Season so far and it’s safe to say that Collision III was no exception! After the success of the Schmoedown Throwdown earlier this season, the crew took on the daunting task of live streaming the entire four-match event and pulled it off with great aplomb, so before we get into the main part of this article, let’s take a moment to congratulate everyone involved in putting on such a wonderful event!

Here at TriviaSD.com, we love to break down the big events and look at the highlights of the event. Of course, Collision as a whole was a highlight, so it wasn’t easy to narrow it down to just 10 moments and as you will see, I did cheat a little with a few of these selections, so if you think I missed something that deserved a spot on the list, let me know in the comments.

10. Let Him Finish

With Mark Ellis on the desk you can guarantee there will be some fun moments during matches. Having previously idolised Kristian’s golden throat in the earlier seasons, it looks like Baby Carrots has now taken pride in his own voice and wants every chance to use it. So imagine how he felt when competitors were so confident in their knowledge, they were answering before he had the chance to complete his question. Poor Mark looked crestfallen at not being able to show his full range of question-asking skills and kindly asked the competitors to allow him to finish the question… only to be cut off again a few minutes later!

9. Checking Rachel’s Buzzer

One of the joys of the live streams has been getting to see some of the behind the scenes action that would usually get edited out. One example of this is going into the Speed Round of Title Matches and checking that each competitor’s buzzer works so that nobody is at a disadvantage. Rather than just asking each competitor in the Shirewolves vs. The Odd Couple match to test their buzzer one by one, Mark Ellis chose to ask each competitor a question for them to buzz in and answer. Coming finally to Rachel Cushing, he hit her with “Who is the greatest Innergeekdom player of all time?” As Rachel buzzed in, fans were left wondering if she would be modest and give praise to one of her fellow competitors in the division, but to the joy of the crowd, she backed herself and declared that it was her. Extra motivation for Kalinowski at San Diego Comic-Con? Most likely. But I doubt many people would argue with her.

8. Top Promotion

While the quality of the entire Schmoedown product has been on the rise in recent seasons, one thing that has really shot forward in quality this year has been the pre-match promos. Combining the history needed for the upcoming match, the competitors’ smack talk and a clear view of the prize for victory, the promos have done a great job of bringing the hype before the match starts. With two of the most dominant Innergeekdom competitors of the moment facing off for a shot at Rachel Cushing, there was already plenty of hype for Kalinowski vs. Smets, but the pre-match promo took things to another level and gave the competitors the hard task of trying to do it justice by putting on a great match – SPOILER: they did!

7. Facing Off

With the rivalry between KOrruption and The Dungeon and so much at stake in the match between Mike Kalinowski and Kevin Smets, any chance to get the mental edge on their opponent would be huge. Mike Kalinowski got in an early shot by managing to infiltrate the Dungeon and face off with Smets in his own environment. Rumours that “The Smasher” punched a hole in the wall just after the camera cut are still to be confirmed.

As if that wasn’t enough, both competitors chose to come out with the rest of their faction as their representatives for the Manager Bowl made their way to the table. With their match on next, Smets and Kalinowski found themselves nose-to-nose and it didn’t look like either was willing to back down, leading Chairman Kristian Harloff to order them to leave or forfeit their #1 Contender match. Between these two events, it was clear that neither competitor would be giving the other any quarter during their match.

6. Manager Face-Off

It wasn’t just Smets and Kalinowski who were facing off against each other early in the match as managers Tom Dagnino, Kaiser and Jay Washington all faced off, proclaiming that their competitor would win the manager Bowl. Throw in accusations from Tom about what really happens in the dungeon and Jay flipping off the other two while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet, and this was a great light-hearted scene between three of the most entertaining mouthpieces in the league.

5. Kaiser’s Top 3 Managers

While on the subject of entertaining mouthpieces, Kaiser came out with an absolute zinger just before the start of the Manager Bowl, announcing “It’s an honour to be here with three of the greatest managers ever to perform: Tom Dagnino, Bobby Gucci and Bob Finstock!” While a fun comment in itself, it also has a great little nod to the craziness that is Tom Dagnino and his many alter-egos over the years.

4. Winning in Primetime

Those of us unfamiliar with the fan leagues likely didn’t know the name Paul Oyama when this season started, but he has been quickly making a name for himself in the Singles Division. Having seen off Brendan Meyer, Josh Macuga and Chance Ellison, “Primetime” faced off against Liz Shannon Miller for the chance to challenge Dan Murrell for the title. Miller came into this league with a recommendation from Ethan Erwin but Oyama saw her off in stunning fashion to earn a title shot. Oyama’s victory makes it this high not just for the way he won, but also for the legitimacy it is giving to the fan leagues as a proving ground, as he becomes the first competitor to come from the fan leagues and earn a shot at a title.

3. Wheel-y Fun Round

The wheel may be old and on its way out, but it still appears to have a mind of its own. Never was this more obvious than in Round 2 of the Manager Bowl, which was probably one of the most fun rounds of competition in a while. From competitors continually deferring their spin to three of the first four competitors landing on Spinner’s Choice (sorry Zipper), to John Rocha continually spinning slices that had already been selected, leading to him accepting a questionable category just to keep the game flowing. The fun with the wheel gave Round 2 a fun undercurrent, while also showing us a high level of movie trivia knowledge.

2. Making History

Success for the Shirewolves is becoming a staple of these big event Top 10 moments articles and this one is no exception. Having lost to The Odd Couple in their last match, the Shirewolves came out victors in this rematch as neither Jeff Sneider nor Marc Andreyko could correctly answer their 5-point question. This victory saw Rachel Cushing and Clarke Wolfe make Schmoedown history once again as the first Team to regain the Title, while it once again showed the strength of The Odd Couple. Don’t be surprised to see Sneider and Andreyko in contention again by the end of the season.

1. An Emotional Finish

I’ve mentioned the build-up to Kalinowski v Smets a couple of times on this list, and now its conclusion takes the top spot. There was hardly anything between the two throughout the match and going into the 5-point questions it was still level. Both competitors were so invested in the match, that when Smets missed his 5-pointer – incorrectly quoting “Don’t tell Peter” instead of “Don’t tell Harry” – Kalinowski’s reaction was a reflection of Smets’. Then when Mike correctly answered his 5-pointer – something he had gone through backstage right before the match – he was clearly overcome with emotion as the rest of his faction rushed to congratulate him. If ever you needed a reminder of how much this means to the competitors, this moment was it!

SCHMOEDOWN COLLISION III: The Biggest Winners and Losers!

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

Posted to TriviaSD.com 2/7/2019

The biggest Schmoedown event of the summer is now in the rear-view mirror. Four huge matches with plenty at stake: two competitors earned Title shots, the Shirewolves won their Teams Title back and The Family now find themselves in charge of the Commissioners for the next month.

As with any big event, there are those who greatly benefit from the results and those who have far less to celebrate, so in this article we are going to look at five parties who can be considered the big winners coming out of Collision and three who suffered the biggest losses of the evening.

THE COLLISION WINNERS

Fan Leagues

History was made last year as the first competitor made their way from the fan leagues to the Schmoedown in the form of Chance Ellison, but Season 6 has seen even more competitors making the jump from the fan leagues up to the pros. Two of them were competing in #1 Contender Matches at Collision: Kevin Smets and Paul Oyama.

Oyama earned a shot at Dan Murrell’s title with a win over the highly touted Liz Shannon Miller, while Smets fell only just short against Mike Kalinowski in arguably the most suspenseful match of the event. In addition to Oyama and Smets, Jeannine “The Machine” continues to improve her already great reputation in the league with a strong performance in the Manager Bowl that saw her lose to Drew McWeeny, but still beat John Rocha, Stacy Howard and Eric Zipper.

All three of these competitors showed amazing levels of knowledge and have quickly become ones to watch in the league, which gives such great validation to the fans and the associated leagues.

The Family

After Andrew Ghai’s loss in Houston, The Family needed some success to get their season back on track. Their recent win over Inky and the Brain was a great start, but Drew McWeeny winning the Manager Bowl was huge. On a personal level, for “The Godfather,” his Singles record has never really matched up with the level of knowledge he clearly has, so to win in a stacked group that includes one of the all-time greats in John Rocha will do wonders for him.

But on a wider scale, Robert Meyer Burnett now has control of the league for an entire month and can use this opportunity to benefit the faction. Will he look to reward McWeeny or Andrew Ghai with title shots (either in Teams or Singles)? Will he give them matches against seemingly weaker opposition in order to improve their records? Time will tell.

Production Crew

The guys that don’t get enough credit from all of us, but without whom the Schmoedown would grind to a halt. From promos and preparing the wheel to camera work and editing, the production crew do an amazing job every week. Putting on a live stream adds extra pressure, and this was one of the longest live streams yet, but it went off with barely a hitch. Congratulations and thank you to all of you!

The Shirewolves

Obviously the Shirewolves are the winners on paper, but it goes far beyond that. They made history once again by becoming the first team to regain their titles, and with a 7-1 record they are moving steadily closer to beating the Patriots’ 9-2 record. Being double-belted once again helps the argument that Rachel Cushing is the GOAT, while Clarke Wolfe’s legacy is also greatly improved by becoming a two-time Champion. No matter what happens from here, the Shirewolves will live on in Schmoedown history.

Mike Kalinowski

Aside from the obvious, that he now gets to challenge for the Innergeekdom Title again, Kalinowski’s emotional victory over Kevin Smets will elevate him even higher in the history books. Smets looked unstoppable in his run for the title, yet Kalinowski – despite being considered the underdog by many fans and competitors – came out on top. His presence and confidence in front of the camera makes him one of the premier competitors in a live environment and he has the knowledge to back it up. While Rachel may be considered the greatest Innergeekdom competitor, “The Killer” is not far behind and if he can defeat Rachel Cushing at San Diego, he may take that honour along with the new belt.

THE COLLISION LOSERS

Samm Levine, Emma Fyffe & Jenn Sterger

Jenn and the Commissioners end up in this list not because of anything that they did badly, but instead as a result of Drew McWeeny winning the Manager Bowl. This put The Family in the driving seat for the league, which means Robert Meyer Burnett is now in charge of Samm and Emma. Besides likely needing hearing tests by the end of the month, Samm and Emma now have to start hoping they aren’t going to see Burnett ruin everything they hold dear to the league, while Jenn may find herself out of a job since Burnett mentioned changing interviewers, though she may be able to get around it, if he specifically bans “Jessica Sterger.”

Stacy Howard

Things haven’t really gone to plan for Stacy so far this year. After leaving the Viper Squad for KOrruption, she then found herself finishing behind her former stablemate Jeannine in both a 1v1 match and the Manager Bowl. While this loss may not hurt her record, it won’t help her standing in the Singles Division, especially given the strength of her faction. It may be that she takes a break from Singles for a while and focuses on her new partnership with Tim Franco as part of Crimson Fury.

The Horsemen

While they weren’t overly involved in Collision, the Manager Bowl could have left the Horsemen in a dangerous situation. Rocha lost the Manager Bowl, but he put in a strong performance to be proud of. However, Drew McWeeny’s victory means that the Family are in charge of the league for the next month. Burnett is on bad terms with both Rocha and Dagnino after their previous associations, and Andrew Ghai’s war against Ben Bateman leaves a lot of hostility between the two factions. The Horsemen could find themselves marginalised or even suspended for the near future, depending on how Burnett exerts his control.

THE SUM OF ALL FEUDS: All The Season 6 Schmoedown Rivalries!!

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

Posted to TriviaSD.com 21/1/2019

We’re all well aware that the Schmoedown is equal parts movie trivia and entertainment, and as such we often see a number of rivalries and grudges developing in the league. As we approach a big event like Spectacular or Collision, we usually see a number of storylines come to the fore. Right now there are plenty of grudges between competitors and factions, so let’s have a reminder of who hates who in the build-up to Collision!

Who’s The Boss vs. The Family

Let’s get one of the most obvious ones out of the way first. The Civil War between Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai has been ongoing since Ghai tackled his former teammate through a table at Spectacular. Ghai now has a faction of his own to go up against Who’s The Boss in the form of The Family: Drew McWeeny and manager Robert Meyer Burnett. While the enmity between Ghai and Bateman is obviously the driving force of this war, let’s not forget that Burnett has his own score to settle with Tom Dagnino, who threw him out of the Lion’s Den at Spectacular II after deeming him surplus to requirements.

I get the feeling that Bateman and Ghai going toe-to-toe in Houston is only going to take this war to a new level.

Who’s The Boss vs. The Odd Couple

While I include all of The Odd Couple in this section, Sneider and Andreyko don’t appear to have too much enmity with Who’s The Boss here – despite Sneider’s history with Dagnino – but they are willing to back up Roxy Striar. Roxy and Bateman have a history and the live match in Chicago showed that this was too much for her to ignore as she struck her former flame in what has become known as “The Slap Heard ‘Round the World”. Whether you think it was fair or not, Roxy has completed her penance (thanks to Sneider beating Reilly), but she has still refused to apologise for her act and on a recent edition of Inside Schmoedown, she made it clear that she would do nothing different if given the chance to turn back time. On both Inside Schmoedown and Collider Live, she has made it clear that she was very much against Bateman, calling herself a “Ghai Girl” but also fired shots at the rest of his team: Tom Dagnino and even Mark Reilly, going as far as to call the former Singles Champion a sheep.

Don’t expect Who’s The Boss to take these insults lying down. As for Andreyko, who found himself reinvigorated in the league after leaving the Lion’s Den and turning face with the Fyffe Squad, how will he react if his new manager continues to walk down a darker path?

The Odd Couple vs. KOrruption

It’s safe to say that the members of KOrruption probably aren’t on Roxy’s friends list either, as let’s not forget she used to be Mike Kalinowski’s manager before he walked away from The League and brought KOrruption into the Schmoedown, something that remains a bone of contention between them. More recently, Roxy has also accused KOrruption manager Grace Hancock of some underhand tactics which led to Roxy missing her team’s matches, although fans of Collider Live may be inclined to believe that Grace is innocent and that Roxy just ignored her sat nav again.

With Sneider and Andreyko also being former members of The Lion’s Den, they have history with Grace and know just how sly “The Lioness” can be and will also be quick to back Roxy up if this feud continues.

KOrruption vs. Founding Fathers

This is an interesting one, as it’s not clear quite how far this rivalry currently stretches. John Rocha and Mike Kalinowski clearly have great respect for each other – it was Mike who got rid of the 3-match stipulation that set The Outlaw on his way to winning the title off Bibbiani – but it’s not yet clear how this has been affected by the agonising Sudden Death loss that knocked the Founding Fathers out of the Anarchy tournament. Kalinowski’s teammate Chance Ellison, however, does not have the respect of “The Outlaw” and it has become clear that the Founding Fathers want a rematch with KOrruption to knock Chance down a peg or two and help them push for a title shot.

While this rivalry could be limited to just the two teams, don’t be surprised if more of the faction get involved, especially Grace Hancock, who as a former manager of the Lion’s Den has plenty of history against Rocha.

KOrruption vs. Trivia Dungeon

KOrruption really haven’t been looking to make friends recently. Mike Kalinowski is without a doubt one of the elite Innergeekdom competitors, but with the rise of Kaiser and his new competitor Kevin Smets, it has been clear for a while that the 2 titans of Innergeekdom trivia have been on a collision course for the chance to take on Rachel Cushing in San Diego.

While this may be relatively tame, Kaiser has recently taken on 2 more competitors in the form of unlikely teammates Paul Oyama and Eric Zipper. Zipper has had a bone to pick with Kalinowski ever since “The Killer” arranged for him to face Rachel Cushing in the second round of last year’s Innergeekdom tournament (which saw Cushing win by TKO) and has not enjoyed Kalinowski’s nickname for him of “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah”. More recently, Zipper’s frustrations spread to the whole faction as a quiet word in his ear from Grace made him think that abandoning his World’s Finest teammate Winston Marshall would lead to him replacing Mike as leader of the faction, only to find himself friendless and embarrassed when he found it that it was all a lie. Meanwhile, Paul Oyama has his eyes set on a match with Chance Ellison in an effort to prove that “The Cobra” is nothing special despite having been the first competitor promoted from the fan leagues.

With so many big personalities in these factions, expect fireworks at some point!

Time Machine vs. KOrruption

How many times is Kalinowski going to steal people away from Jay Washington? Spectacular II saw The Missfits come to an end as Brianne Chandler drove off into the sun with “The Killer” and now this season he’s stolen away Stacy Howard from the Viper Squad too become a part of KOrruption! Add in his verbal sparring online with Jeannine and there are plenty of reasons why Time Machine will want to take him down.

Stacy’s defection clearly hit a nerve for Jay and Jeannine. They understandably felt betrayed, whereas Stacy didn’t feel that she was getting the support she deserved, so Jeannine’s TKO victory over her last month will make her keen to get one over on her former stablemates.

Emma Fyffe vs. Samm Levine

The final ongoing feud in the league does not involve any factions but could end up having one of the biggest impacts.

Emma Fyffe has thrown herself into her role as Commissioner of the Innergeekdom and Teams Divisions and has clearly been annoyed with the former Double Champion’s much laxer attitude to running the Singles Division. After being given a kick up the ass by Fyffe, Levine found himself taking a more active role and whether it was down to taking an easy option or wanting some form of revenge, he scheduled his fellow Commissioner into a match with Chance Ellison, leading to her being TKO’d. Fyffe’s response to this has now been to suddenly throw Ellison into the Innergeekdom Division.

What will Samm’s next act of “Commissionin’” be and how will Fyffe react to that? Will she be looking for a way to force Samm to compete in Innergeekdom considering he is officially retired from Singles and Teams? Most importantly, how many competitors will get caught in the crossfire during the battle of the Commissioners? Only time will tell.

Have your say: Which is your favourite feud currently going in the league? And who do you think will be involved in the next one?

FACTION WITH FANGS: The Year of Jay Washington and the Viper Squad

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 coming weeks, I will be 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 11/1/2019

What a difference 12 months can make in the Schmoedown. This time last year, Jay Washington was left reeling after Brianne Chandler walked away from the Missfits and jumped in a car with their rival Mike Kalinowsk. Now, he has just become the first manager to lead a competitor to the Singles Title!

It’s been a year of up and downs for Jay, and it starts and ends with Schmoedown Spectacular…

From the Ashes

Brianne failed to show up to support Jay ahead of Schmoedown Spectacular II’s manager Bowl – in which he came 3rd, behind Emma Fyffe and Tom Dagnino – but she arrived later, to tell Jay that she was leaving the Missfits. She tried to convince Stacy Howard to come with her, but Stacy chose to stick with Jay.

This moment brought an end to the Missfits, but Jay took this as a chance to rebuild and the Viper Squad was created, with rookies Markeia McCarty and Jeannine the Machine being brought into the new faction.

Early Success

2018 started well for the Viper Squad. Jeannine won on debut against Bonnie Somerville – with Jay even turning up to support her despite having left the hospital just three days earlier! – and a victory for Stacy Howard over Josh Macuga was quickly backed up by The Machine beating Emma Fyffe via TKO, as the Vipers began a feud with the Fyffe Squad.

With Stacy at 4-1 and Jeannine at 2-0, things were looking good for Jay and his faction.

Mid-Season Struggles

Things did not go so well in the Innergeekdom Division, however. Jay Washington looked to take on Emma Fyffe in the first round of the Innergeekdom tournament but could not keep the momentum going and lost 16-17. Meanwhile, Markeia made her debut in an unenviable first round matchup against an in-form Rachel Cushing and she fell to a loss via KO.

The run of bad results continued at Collider Collision II, as both Stacy and Jeannine were set to compete against each other and Marc Andreyko in a triple threat match, with the winner set to compete in a Number 1 Contender match. Unfortunately for the Vipers, neither of them could pull out the victory over the Android and he went on to beat Ethan Erwin for a shot at the vacant title.

Anarchy

Things became even more difficult for the Vipers as factions and teams were split and reorganised for the Anarchy of the 2018 Ultimate Schmoedown Teams Tournament. Stacy Howard suffered a first round exit along with Winston Marshall at the hands of the Founding Fathers, but Jay must have thought Christmas had come early when Jeannine was paired with Ethan Erwin. However, due to scheduling issues, they had to swap teams and Jeannine instead was paired with Brian Walton, and they in the first round to The Paddington Two.

Ethan Erwin was moved to partnering Sabina Graves, and they also went out in the first round, to the Cinemaniacs. But Jay was able to get special dispensation from puppet-Commissioner Thadd to manage both Jeannine and Ethan’s teams during Anarchy and continue working with Ethan for the remainder of the season.

Markeia was also involved in Anarchy, but as a manager of Take The Cannoli rather than a competitor, and was the only member of the Viper Squad to make it into the second round of the tournament, where they lost to The Harris Brothers.

Ultimate Victory

With Ethan Erwin and Stacy Howard both in the 7 confirmed competitors for the 2018 Ultimate Schmoedown Singles Tournament and Jeannine in the Qualifying Gauntlet, Jay was very busy as the season came to an end.

Jeannine was unable to beat Ben Bateman in the Gauntlet and Stacy Howard lost to an in-form Dan Murrell in the first round. The Viper Squad’s season was over.

But Jay was still going: Ethan Erwin defeated Chance Ellison, Murrell and Clarke Wolfe, on the way to winning the final that gave Jay the perfect end to the year, with a TKO victory over John Rocha at Spectacular III.

Trouble Ahead?

While having the Singles Champion under his management may sound great, things may not be quite as rosy as they first look for Jay. He’s been famous in the Schmoedown for having a rather angry and combative approach to his faction’s opponents, but has had to change to being a sweet and smiling presence to please Ethan Erwin. This new, nice Jay does not match at all with the rest of the Viper Squad, so it will be interesting to see what happens moving forward.

Right now, Ethan is not a part of the Viper Squad. He’s just sharing their manager. I have a couple of possible theories as to what we may see happen:

1. Ethan gets corrupted by the Viper Squad and joins them – Personally I can’t imagine this happening right now as Ethan seems far too chill to turn heel, even if he were to lose the belt.

2. Jay continues with 2 separate personalities, his new nice guy act with Ethan and his usual attitude with the rest of the Vipers – which could have hilarious consequences if both Ethan and the Vipers are around at the same time.

3. Jay tries to stay a nice guy to keep Ethan with him, which results in the Viper Squad dismissing him – Markeia noted how free she felt managing Take The Cannoli and that experience could lead to her taking over control of the Vipers

What do you think will happen going forward? Can Jay keep managing the Viper Squad and Ethan Erwin? With Ethan defending his title at the New York live event on January 26th, we probably won’t have long to wait until we find out!

HFS: The Top 10 Moments of Schmoedown Spectacular III!

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

Posted to TriviaSD.com 1/1/2019

Now that the dust has settled and we’ve feasted far too much over the holidays, I’m sure we can all agree that the biggest event in the Schmoedown calendar was (as its name suggests) Spectacular! Schmoedown Spectacular 3 gave us six wonderful matches and so much more besides, enough to keep us busy discussing the possibilities while we await Season 6.

With so many hours of footage, there was obviously a lot to take in, but I have tried to put together what I feel to be the top 10 moments from the event!

10. The Future of the Schmoedown

Maybe not as flashy or funny as some of the other moments on this list, Kristian’s announcement of the future of the league going into Season 6 was so important it had to appear on my list. It is understandably a controversial decision to some people but it is also an exciting moment as we look to see the Schmoedown growing into live streams.

9. Alex Uses The Force

Alex confronted Ken, Kalinowski and Chance ahead of the Star Wars title match. The KOrruption boys tried to jump the champion and steal the belt, only to fall through what was revealed to be a Force projection. This was a great little moment to hype up the coming match and include Alex – who appears more confident with each match – in the storylines. The cameo from Nathan Hamill as his teacher saying that it worked out better than the last guy who tried it was a great little surprise.

8. One Letter Off

The Commissioner Bowl may not have been the best match of the event, but it was certainly an exciting one with a lot of fun moments. Probably the best moment of the match itself was Tom Dagnino’s first question of Round 3. Asked “Who wrote and directed the 2016 film Suicide Squad?” he answered David Ayers rather than David Ayer, missing out on the point despite one of the most questionable challenges I have ever seen. What makes this moment such a standout is that Dagnino was eliminated with 11 points, while none of his opponents could score higher than 12, meaning that we were just 1 letter away from having Dagnino as Commissioner!

7. One Last Dance

I’m a big Horsemen and Top 10 fan so a bit of bias may have come into this pick. Following John Rocha’s unsuccessful title defence, Matt Knost announced that he would be stepping away from the Schmoedown and with one last shimmy exited the league. I’ve really enjoyed Knost’s wit and humour over the years while his knowledge has probably made him one of the more underrated players in the Teams Division, so it is a real loss to the league. Hopefully he will find the time to return in the future to call a couple of matches at the desk. As if the emotion at Knost leaving wasn’t enough, there is also the excitement to build now for who will replace him as the 5th Horseman, something that I’m sure will keep us theorising until the reveal.

6. Perfect All Round

You always want a good performance in a title match and The Shirewolves vs. Who’s The Boss? did not disappoint. With the scores at 12-13 in favour of the challengers after Round 1 (only 7 of a possible 32 combined points dropped), The Shirewolves spun a strength in Sandra Bullock and fired through the round to go 6/6 for a perfect 12 points. Who’s The Boss? got stuck on Festival Darlings, which they didn’t appear confident in, but knowing the need for a good score to keep in touch, Reilly and Bateman matches Clarke and Rachel’s feat, going 6/6 for a perfect 12 points. Frank Janisch will know better than I will, but both teams going perfect in Round 2 is a rare feat and just highlighted the quality of the teams on display.

5. Burning The Mask

After hours of watching Tom Dagnino look everywhere for his missing mask, Spectacular III ended with us seeing the grubbiest piece of knitwear in Los Angeles being thrown in a bucket and set alight by a mysterious figure, revealed to be Robert Meyer Burnett. Last seen being abandoned by the Lion’s Den at Spectacular II, it will be interesting to see what impact “The Captain” has on the league in Season 6. He will surely be looking to win back his Innergeekdom title in what has become a much stronger division, while it looks like he may now have a feud with Dagnino to go along with his feuds with Rocha and Hector Navarro.

4. It Was Him All Along

The KOrruption storyline had clearly been building to a head in recent months and we finally found out who was behind Mike Kalinowski’s evildoings following the Commissioner Bowl. Thadd shredded an envelope containing sensitive information that was meant to be revealed if he lost, only for Paulie G to come out and announce that he had a second copy, the contents of which would be announced by his employer… Kristian Harloff! The former Commissioner announced that he had always been aware that the contract stated he would revert to Commissioner after four months, only for Thadd to hide the page. Harloff announced himself as the Chairman of the Schmoedown and said that Emma Fyffe will be a Commissioner with other Commissioners still to be announced.

While bringing a great end to the KOrruption and Commissioner storylines this season, we now have the excitement of seeing how the Chairman runs the league with multiple Commissioners, while it will be interesting to see if Kalinowski begins a vendetta against Harloff now he sees how he was manipulated.

3. The Mystery Basterd

With some Schmoedown competitors actually working in movies, there is always a chance that one day they will eventually be the answer to a question in the Schmoedown. This happened perfectly in Rocha v Erwin when during the speed round they were asked “Who played Pfc Hirschberg in the war film Inglourious Basterds?” Now with so many Basterds, it’s difficult to remember each one’s name and you could tell that both competitors wanted to guess Samm Levine but didn’t want to look foolish if it was wrong. When it was announced that the former Singles Champion was indeed the right answer, the moment got even better as it turned out he was in the crowd and he came on to take the belt that neither of them deserved. Any time we get to see Samm is a great moment and for this to happen in the main event of Spectacular 3, one year after he became champion, was just perfect!

2. Who Run the World?

The Shirewolves vs. Who’s The Boss? match makes this list for a second time, this time for the Shirewolves’ entrance. Coming out to “Run the World” by Beyoncé, the Shirewolves used their entrance to showcase the wealth of female talent in the league, being accompanied out by a number of female competitors including then-Innergeekdom Champion Mara Knopic, and Vipers Jeannine the Machine and Markeia McCarty. We always know to expect a great entrance form Clarke and Rachel, but following Clarke’s statement that “We are the league” following their first title victory, this was a beautiful way to remind everyone that the Schmoedown does not need a women’s league as the women involved are more than capable of beating the men put in front of them.

1. The Tackle II

Andrew Ghai’s tackle of John Rocha stole the headlines at Schmoedown Spectacular 2 last year, and he did it again. The wannabe linebacker came to commiserate with former teammate Ben Bateman following his loss in the Team Title Match. When Bateman expressed an interest in sticking with Reilly, Ghai accepted it, announcing that he had found a new teammate and suggesting the four of them make their own faction before leaving. Bateman was clearly so happy that Ghai understood and his comment in the post-match interview of “Action Army for life” showed that he was still committed to his brother in arms… right up until the moment Ghai tackled him through a table. The hearts of the Action Army broke as they watched Ghai show his disgust for Bateman’s newfound respect and spitting on his former brother before being chased off by Reilly.

Now the Army must decide if they are #TeamGhai or #TeamBateman and Ghai’s feud with Ben is surely going to play a part in Season 6, while William Bibbiani may also be after Ghai unless he repays the former champion for the broken table!

So those were my top 10 moments, what are yours…?

Anarchy Semifinals

The 2018 Ultimate Schmoedown is underway and as its name suggested, the Team tournament has been anarchy. For those of you who have missed a big chunk of this season (you’re missing out and really need to go back and watch what you missed), all teams were disbanded and picked from a hat, leading to 16 new teams– well technically 15 new and the Wildberries – and a number of new managers. Following the Shirewolves’ victory to earn the Team Title and a few other issues with the original selections, the 16 teams were confirmed along with the bracket and the tournament kicked off at the 3^rd live event.

Rather than try to do a write-up for each match as I did for the Innergeekdom Tournament, as many of these teams may not have much of a future I have decided instead to give my overall thoughts from the round instead.

Read my thoughts on previous rounds here:

The semifinal results were:

The Harris Brothers beat The Odd Couple 29-26

Who’s The Boss beat KOrruption 28-26

“Apes together strong”

It may come as no surprise, but the way a team works together and its chemistry is so important in this tournament. On the whole, I think all 4 of these semifinalists have done a great job of working together.

mtssneidermuppet — The Insneider has been a little different since he left JTE, but his partnership with Andreyko has looked dangerous

Lon and Jonathan were always going to work well together being brothers, and I think that this has gone a long way to helping Jonathan quickly bed into the competition after an unexpected entrance following JTE’s injury. Chance may be new to the league but by being paired with Kalinowski, he is with someone who is so experienced in the Schmoedown and with plenty of experience in the division. Sneider is the most experienced (and most successful) in the teams division of all these competitors and has done a great job of adapting from working with JTE to Andreyko, while Reilly and Bateman are so invested in the league. Being a big fan of the Horsemen but also Team Action, I have listened to a couple of podcasts where Ben and Mark have discussed their team-up and talked tactics and it has been great to see how Reilly has actually modified his game off the back of these tactical discussions.

When you watch the most successful teams in Round 2 or on the 5-point question in the final round, it is so rare to see a competitor just blurt out an answer these days. Even when one of the competitors clearly knows the answer straight away, you will generally see them take a moment to discuss it with their teammate just to make sure they are definitely correct. With so much talent now in the league, playing as 2 individuals will not get you a win deep in a tournament and it will be important to work together as a team in order to reach the top and win the belt.

On the desk

One of my favourite things about this season has been the number of new faces appearing at the announcers desk. While variations of Kristian, Ellis and Ken (with occasional cameos from Campea, Reilly and Macuga) was great, having Jenn Sterger and other competitors like Bibbiani, Rachel Cushing, Jason Inman, Jay Washignton, Sneider or – in the case of this week’s matches – Jonny Loquasto and Marc Andreyko has not just allowed us to see some more of our favourite competitors, but also allowed us to get more of a variety of styles at the desk. Jonny was a great announcer and you could tell he was experienced in this sort of role, while Marc did a great job of bringing his wit and humour to what was already going to be a wonderful match.

As Season 5 draws to a climax and moving into Season 6, I hope we continue to get competitors appearing at the desk. With Ken and Alex set to battle it out for the Star Wars Title at Schmoedown Spectacular, I would love it if their rival from the last Number 1 Contender match Joseph Scrimshaw were to appear at the desk for their match and I would love an Innergeekdom competitor – Rachel, Jay and Emma all have experience at the desk – to announce Mara Knopic’s title defence against Kalinowski.

Not to be forgotten

“Shut your mouth and spin the Wheel” – Mike Kalinowski

This has arguably been the best season of the Schmoedown so this is a tough call to make, but I honestly think the match between Who’s The Boss and KOrruption could be my favourite match of the year so far!

“He’s like a loser senior that got lucky to take the hot freshman to prom” – Ben Bateman

Even taking away the cutscenes at the beginning and end due to not all matches having these, the goings-on throughout this match were just wonderful. From Finstock captaining ships and looking for icebergs in the Caribbean (not a sentence I thought I’d be writing anytime soon) to Bateman and Reilly calling Kalinwoski “a loser” and a “little ninny bitch” respectively while Kalinowski called himself “the boss”, these were some of the most amazing promos we’ve had this season. A cameo from Kal during Who’s The Boss’ entrance, Ben and Reilly refusing to shake Mike’s hand pre-match, Ken and Napzok staring each other down after Round 1, the shit-talk from everyone throughout, Reilly’s celebration throwback to when he won his title back from Rocha (a match I watched mere days before as I try to catch up on all the Schmoedown I missed before getting into the league), Ben getting drunk on winners’ juice post-match and calling Kal’s balls “winners”… this match had everything!

Round 2 may have stopped this match from being as close as many of us would have hoped, but I still found myself completely enthralled throughout and think this has just beat out Team Action v DC Movie News as my favourite match from the Team Division this season, which is itself saying something considering we had 2 title matches between Above The Line and The Patriots!

“It’s easy to become a star but hard to stay one” – Finstock

Coming to a climax

Cutscenes were back this week with a vengeance and boy were they exciting!

We start off with Finstock finding proof that Bateman really was innocent of stealing Kal and was set up by Kalinowski. Finstock has done a great job of getting Reilly and Bateman working together and if Who’s The Boss win the tournament and then defeat the Shirewolves at Spectacular, I think he could come into consideration for Manager of the Year.

Following The Harris Brothers’ win, Kalinowski paid Thadd a visit and set up Ken Napzok as the contender to face Alex Damon at Spectacular for the Star Wars belt. I’m looking forward to seeing this match (though I still think it is a shame that Sam Witwer has not been available this year, the man has to work and I think the league has done a good job working around this to the best of their ability) and it will be interesting to see how Ken acts considering this will be his first match since he left the Lion’s Den.

It turns out Brianne was outside the room eavesdropping and this was enough for Miss Movies who soon paid Thadd a visit with a list of competitors who will walk unless Thadd either resigns as Commissioner or tells Mike no. Following KOrruption’s loss, Kalinowski came in to arrange Spectacular’s Team Title match as a Triple Threat: the anarchy winners v The Shirewolves v Korruption, however Thadd found his backbone and said no. Kalinowski didn’t stay to argue, but it certainly looks like he isn’t done.

While the Commissioner storyline has not gone anything like what I once predicted, I am absolutely loving the way the KOrruption storyline has tied into this and I can’t wait to see how this continues. Kristian recently confirmed there will be 6 matches at Spectacular and we currently have 4 Title Matches and a Number 1 Contender Match for the Singles Division confirmed, which leaves just 1 match. I was initially thinking this would be another Manager Bowl, but now I am starting to think that this is going to tie into these storylines.

Predicting the final: Who’s The Boss v The Harris Brothers

This is such a hard one to call as I have twice predicted against The Harris Brother and been proved wrong, but I think I’m going to have to do it again. Reilly and Bateman are in great form both individually and as a team and both clearly want to get their hands on the belt. It’s just so hard to predict as we still have so little knowledge of Jonathan’s strengths and weaknesses (which could be an issue for Who’s The Boss should The Harris Brothers spin Opponent’s Choice in Round 2), but when I look at Ben & Reilly I struggle to find many categories I think they would really struggle with.

mts tape whos the boss ben bateman mark reilly

I would also assume that in line with other tournament finals, this will be a 5-round match. Reilly is the only one here with any experience of the longer format and as I have shown previously, experience does often appear to help in these matches. I’m pretty certain he and Dagnino – who has also competed in the initial Team Title Match against Team Schmoes and managed the Patriots for 8 5-round matches – will have taken some time to talk tactics with Bateman to give them every advantage in the final.

And finally… an exciting announcement

It’s with great pleasure and honour that I can announce that I will be one of the writers for the Schmoedown’s official website!

Though I will be writing on the website, this does not mean my Schmoedown posts on here are coming to an end as there may be some things not quite right for the site that I still want to write about, it may just be that the posts on here are a little less often and I may not be following tournaments round by round as I have with Anarchy and the Innergeekdom Tournament.

There was a time last year when I wanted to start writing about the Schmoedown because I was enjoying it so much and had nobody in my day-to-day life to discuss it with, but wasn’t sure it was right for the blog. Eventually I took the chance and now my Schmoedown posts are some of my favourite to write, so thank you very much to everyone who has not only read these but also interacted with me and given me feedback this year!

Thoughts from the world of sport and the Schmoedown

Suspect #1: Brad Gilmore

Suspect #2: Grace Hancock

Suspect #3: Mark Ellis

Suspect #4: Frank Janisch

Suspect #5: ZaFlertinflouse

Suspect #6: Sabrina Ramirez & Brandon Hanna

Suspect #7: John Rocha & Finstock

Suspect #8: Jessica Sterger & PLD

Six Degrees

Mike Kalinowski

Ken Napzok

Drew McWeeny

5. Six Degrees

4. Top 10

3. Nerd’s Watch

2. Team Action

1. DC Movie News

10. Let Him Finish

9. Checking Rachel’s Buzzer

8. Top Promotion

7. Facing Off

6. Manager Face-Off

5. Kaiser’s Top 3 Managers

4. Winning in Primetime

3. Wheel-y Fun Round

2. Making History

1. An Emotional Finish

THE COLLISION WINNERS

Fan Leagues

The Family

Production Crew

The Shirewolves

Mike Kalinowski

THE COLLISION LOSERS

Samm Levine, Emma Fyffe & Jenn Sterger

Stacy Howard

The Horsemen

Who’s The Boss vs. The Family

Who’s The Boss vs. The Odd Couple

The Odd Couple vs. KOrruption

KOrruption vs. Founding Fathers

KOrruption vs. Trivia Dungeon

Time Machine vs. KOrruption

Emma Fyffe vs. Samm Levine

From the Ashes

Early Success

Mid-Season Struggles

Anarchy

Ultimate Victory

Trouble Ahead?