Tag: Tom Dagnino/Finstock/Bobby Gucci

The Forgotten Moments of the Schmoedown

The Forgotten Moments of the Schmoedown

The Movie Trivia Schmoedown continues to go strong despite the current pandemic bringing an end to live and studio matches and forcing the league online. Given the unavoidable circumstances, Season 7 is well on its way to being a resounding success.

Each season, we so many wonderful moments – either story beats moments within a match. Some will live on forever, like the XX5XX moment from the inaugural Free 4 All, the reveal of the 5 Horsemen at the LA Live event and The Tackle, but there will also be many moments that are also worth celebrating and remembering that seem to fade out of conversation after a year or 2 due to the people involved no longer competing or the storyline it was involved in having come to an end. Today I want to give some love to those forgotten moments.

The breaking of the 4 Horsemen

mts collision four horsemen break-up i betray you john rocha matt knost william bibbiani ricky hayberg
“I BETRAY YOU!!”

Season 3 saw the beginning of factions within the Schmoedown, as John Rocha put together the 4 Horsemen: Rocha, Matt Knost, William Bibbiani and Robert Meyer Burnett, while Tom Dagnino put together the Lion’s Den to counter them. It’s safe to say that the Lion’s Den had the greater success, while the 4 Horsemen came to an end at Collision of Season 4.

Despite a starring debut, William Bibbiani was struggling to get over with the fans, but his yell of “I BETRAY YOU!” as he left the Horsemen to form the Growling Commandos with Ricky Hayberg and Witney Seibold was a big step in helping “The Beast” truly come into his own and set up a rivalry with Rocha. Likewise, after being the top heel of the league, this betrayal gave Rocha the chance to turn away from this and become a more respectful character, leaving a space at the top of the heel tree for Team Action to swagger into.

The “perfect” game

When someone talks about playing the perfect game, thoughts immediately go to William Bibbiani, Dan Murrell, Robert Parker and Kevin Smets. One name that is often forgotten, though, is that of Mark Ellis.

mts mark ellis jteWay back in Season 1, Mark Ellis was pitching a perfect game going into the final round of his quarterfinal against JTE. Now back in those days, the final round was a Jeopardy round, similar to the current betting round in title matches but with Schmoedown Pros able to be as many points as they had.

Both Ellis and JTE got the question right, but “Baby Carrots” had taken the risk of expecting JTE to miss and not bet enough points, losing 11-14. While this match does live on in infamy due to it leading to the Trial of JTE, Ellis’ perfect game is a moment that gets forgotten when we look back at the match.

Reilly’s greatest flub

Back in season 3, John Rocha (who hosted a Star Wars podcast) forgot that Bespin was featured in The Empire Strikes Back and has never been allowed to forget it. Over time, many of the top competitors have had their own “Bespin moments” that they have never been able to fully live down: Mike Kalinowski’s “Pudding” and “Flash”, Kevin Smets’ “Don’t tell Peter” and Ben Bateman’s “Giancarlo Stanton”. One man who always seems to get away with it, though, is Mark Reilly.

mts john rocha mark reilly“Then I hit Opponents Choice. I could have let that bad luck beat me. But I kept going and had fun. Then I had the Sandlot moment – and kept going. Who cares. Answer the questions as they come. There were no nerves, just trivia. I kept smiling and knowing that if it was meant to be, it was meant to be.” ~ Mark Reilly

During the Speed Round of Reilly’s Championship Match against John Rocha, the pair were asked “Which film features the following characters: Billy, Gale, Sidney, Dewey, Tatum, Cotton, Ghostface?” When horror-buff Reilly buzzed in, everyone was certain the he would be giving the correct answer of Scream, but instead he guessed The Sandlot and lost the point. Reilly’s reaction when the correct answer is revealed is priceless, but somehow (probably because he still managed to win the match) this great flub is often forgotten by all but Reilly.

2 in a row

feat mts collision triple threat singles championship dan murrell mark reilly john rochaEverybody remembers Ben Bateman’s recent feat of winning 2 matches in 1 night at Spectacular, where he TKO’d William Bibbiani in the Ultimate Schmoedown Singles Tournament final and then later KO’d Paul Oyama to win the title. While Impressive, it is not even the first time a Schmoedown Pro has won 2 5-round matches in a day.

That feat was achieved by “Dangerous” Dan Murrell at Season 4’s Collision. With Mark Reilly holding the Singles title, Murrell defeated both him and John Rocha in a Triple Threat to win the belt back, then had to immediately defend it as Samm Levine crashed his post-match interview to cash in his Free 4 All prize and challenge Murrell for the title.

Now Levine’s logic makes sense, that Murrell would be tired after such a big match and not be able to hit the heights again right after, but the GOAT earned his first Perfect Round 1 in the 8 question format (though he did miss the bonus question) on his way to a 26-23 defence.

The great JTE-isms

mts japeto jteJTE will always hold a special place in our heart and it is a shame that we do not get to see him compete as much anymore. While he played the heel so well, you could never bring yourself to truly hate him as you were always looking forward to his JTE-isms.

Now some have lived on better than others. His “Jew Bear” from last year’s Free 4 All remains in peoples minds due to the recency and the famous “Tricenatorustops” from the first ever Schmoedown against Cobbster is too good to ever forget! But there were also plenty of others from the littlest of evils over the years, from “The jungle rules the kingdom” to the classic answers of “Gwelmo del Toro” and my personal favourite from his Singles match against teammate Jeff Sneider “Japeto”.

The other table clear

mts free 4 all samm levine hector navarro marc andreyko robert meyer burnett dennis tzengWhen we think of table clears at the inaugural Free 4 All, our minds understandably go to XX5XX, but there was actually another one later in the event that could have massively changed the Schmoedown.

The penultimate entrant was Samm Levine, who came to the table and with a score of 3-2-2-2-2 eliminated Robert Meyer Burnett, Dennis Tzeng, Marc Andreyko and Hector Navarro. This meant that the fight for the prize would be between Levine and none other than Tom Dagnino, Leader of the Lion’s Den. Now thankfully Levine won the final round 3-1, but just imagine an alternate universe where Dagnino had won the Free 4 All and had a title shot guaranteed for one of his faction. The second half of Season 4 could have looked very different.

The Force is with Sam Witwer

As the voice and likeness of Galen Marek/Starkiller in the The Force Unleashed games and the voice of Maul, Emperor Palpatine and The Son in the current Star Wars canon, it looks like Sam Witwer may have picked up some real-life knowledge of using the Force.

When most people think of Witwer competing in the Schmoedown, they think of his last gasp victory over Ken Napzok to win the Star Wars title at Spectacular II, there were some other moments that really shouldn’t be forgotten.

Season 3’s match between The Council (Ken Napzok and John Campea) and the Force Bros (Witwer and Freddie Prinze Jr) is probably best remembered for Freddie getting a point in Round 1 that he shouldn’t leading to the rule now that answers must be spoken and written on the whiteboard, but that led us to Sudden Death and a great moment. Sudden Death was different back then: A question on the buzzer, if the Schmoedown Pro buzzed in and got the answer right, they had the chance to answer the next question for the win. Now by this pin in the match, Witwer has shown that knowledge isn’t really his problem, but he is not fast on the buzzer. So trying to get the win, he jumps in midway through the question, not realising that this would stop the question being completed. With the question standing at “Who is surrounded by droids…” Witwer somehow correctly guesses Obi-Wan Kenobi, before answering the next question correctly to win the game.

mts sam witwer captain needa 2Witwer’s next appearance was at Celebration in a Fatal Fiveway for the first ever Star Wars title. After missing his 3-pointer in the final round (though I would challenge the wording of the question), Sam seemed off his game and when asked “In The Empire Strikes Back” who barked the order “Shields up!” just before the Falcon buzzed the Star Destroyer’s bridge?” he was unable to pull the correct answer of Captain Needa. This miss meant that Napzok and Campea would go to Sudden Death, which Napzok won. Witwer made his return to the Schmoedown in another Fatal Fiveway #1 Contender Match just ahead of Spectacular and found himself in similar circumstances. If he hit his 5-pointer he would win, a miss would see Alex Damon and Joseph Scrimshaw go t Sudden Death. As the question “In The Empire Strikes Back who said “Get a shuttle ready. I shall assume full responsibility for losing them and apologise to Lord Vader.” was read out, Sam’s face was shocked as he realised the correct answer was none other than Captain Needa, earning him redemption and a shot at the title (as well as handing Damon his only loss to date).

As George Lucas famously said: “It’s like poetry, they rhyme.”

Macuga v Finstock

mts finstock marc andreyko tom dagnino josh macugaThe Wildberries became so beloved, it’s hard to remember that they were not always a team. But before that, Josh Macuga had been teamed with Finstock, a pairing that did not end amicably. This led to a moment in Season 4 where Josh Macuga and Finstock were set to play a match against each other, with the loser being banned from the league.

The day of the match came, Macuga made his way to the table and then the impossible happened: Tom Dagnino walked out alongside “Finstock” – clearly Marc Andreyko in the Finstock attire (still to date the only other person we have seen don the mask). Somehow the idea that Finstock could be anyone meant that the match continued, and in a complete shock, Josh Macuga somehow managed to come away with the victory over “Findreyko”, leading to Dagnino being (briefly) ejected from the league.

Actin v DC Movie News

So this is one that I have to include in its entirety as I absolutely love it. Action were at their heelish best with Andrew Ghai back from suspension and their constant goading of DC Movie News led to a match. Kalinowski had recently found himself without support during his #1 Contender Match against Clarke Wolfe and clearly wasn’t happy in the pre-match promos. The match was hard-fought with DC Movie News running through James Bond in Round 2 but gifting Action a strong category of Sci-Fi/Fantasy after they hit Opponent’s Choice. Action got the win and then in the post-match interviews things went crazy as Mike Kalinowski severed ties with The League and went off on his own after reducing Adam Gertler to tears.

And this then led to…

Thadd Williams v Mike Kalinowski

mts thadd williams tells mike kalinowski no

Following Kalinowski’s break from the league, we were treated to about half a year full of scenes showing Kalinowski taking over control of the Schmoedown by bribing Commissioner Thadd Williams. As well as leading to huge impacts on the league – such as the first ever Innergeekdom Tournament, the debut and rise of Mara Knopic and the Anarchy Tournament – these scenes were also great viewing and deserve remembering as we watch Thadd get further and further out of his depth.

The other Odd Couple

One of the teams to form during Anarchy was that of William Bibbiani and Matt Knost. Not even taking into account their history as former members of the Horsemen, Knost’s focus on the game and Bibbiani’s love of theatrics never felt a good mix and it was no surprise to hear Bibbiani state on the Finstock Exchange Podcast recently that the first thing they managed to agree on was making their team name “The Odd Couple”, only to find that Andreyko and Sneider had beat them to it.

Knost’s humour is something many fans have missed since his retirement and one of the best examples was during one of the Cinemaniacs’ entrances, where Bibbiani and manager Emma Fyffe came out dancing and playing with a beach ball while Knost trudged out sulkily alongside them, only for him to catch the beach ball and stat to smile and dance as he slowly deflated it.

Please come back Knost!

 

What other great moments can you think of that seem to have been forgotten over time?

TAKING ON THE FLOUSE: 3 Schmoedown Opponents for ZeFlertinFlouse

TAKING ON THE FLOUSE: 3 Schmoedown Opponents for ZeFlertinFlouse

Twitter went crazy last week as Bavarian superstar ZeFlertinFlouse made his debut on SEN Live and began doing the rounds on a number of affiliated shows.

The German, best known for his multi-platinum albums Und, Und, Und and Flouse in das Haus and his starring role in the semi-autobiographical film Za Flert Locker is in high demand, with rumours as to his immediate future including furthering his sporting career, returning to WWE or going into seclusion while he writes his next album – which is said to feature collaborations with Yanni, David B and Stine Bramsen! However before he leaves, we can only hope that he finds time to compete in a Schmoedown.

But who would be willing to take on the man who taught Chuck Norris everything he knows? I have put together a shortlist of 3 potential opponents for him:

mts finstock is back tom dagninoFinstock

Who ever thought that a crazier character would appear on the Schmoedown Entertainment Network than Bob Finstock?! The man in the beard mask has only just returned to the league for the first time in over a year, but is now finding the attention shifting to The Flouse.

Now I can’t promise more points than Dagnino v Burnett, but I’m pretty certain the personalities on show would make it an entertaining match!

mts danish kristian harloffDanish Kristian Harloff

ZeFlertinFlouse may be the A-lister, but he’s not the first European to guest on a Kristian Harloff show, as his Danish namesake was a regular guest on Collider Live. Unfortunately, it sounds like Danish Kristian Harloff currently has some beef with The Flouse.

You see, Danish Kristian Harloff is a big fan of Stine Bramsen. And while you’d think that The Flouse collaborating with Bramsen on his next album would be good news, The Flouse is famous for taking himself and any collaborators into complete seclusion for at least 2 years when creating a new album (you can’t rush art), which means that Danish Harloff’s record of 15 consecutive years having seen Stine Bramsen perform live will be coming to an end. Would he be able to get some form of revenge in a 1v1 Schmoedown?

DJ Froby

mts dj froby

While ZeFlirtenFlouse has taken all the attention, his long-time partner DJ Froby has also been turning up on some streams, including recent episodes of the Reilly Roundtable and Chill to Action. While Froby has been on board for most of The Flouse’s biggest hits, there are rumours that a rift is forming between the pair as Froby does not feel that The Flouse gives him enough recognition in public, while reports also state that Froby is feeling threatened by the upcoming collaboration with David B.

Could the Schmoedown be about to play host to the messiest breakup since Andrew Ghai tackled Ben Bateman through a table? That all-but guarantees drawing a crowd!

 

Who would you love to see ZaFlertinFlouse face off against?

Until next time!

Masked Intentions

Masked Intentions

“Do you really think that I’m the type of Ghai that would give that guy this guy’s mask? You don’t know this Ghai at all.”

Tom Dagnino and Schmoedown fans around the world were shocked ahead of the recent match between Jader Paramo and Britney Young as Andrew Ghai presented Dagnino with a gift, the infamous beard mask, thought to have been burned by Robert Meyer Burnett during Spectacular III, over a year ago.

The two-time Heel of the Year has been undergoing a change in personality since his short-lived retirement at the end of the 2019 season – highlighted by his name change from “Dastardly” to “Debonair” – but the reveal that he had not actually given Burnett the real beard mask and is willing to give it back to someone who he spent all of last season in a feud with raises some questions as to what Ghai’s intentions are here.

You scratch my back…

mts Jeannine the Machine Andrew Ghai Jenn Sterger Drew McWeenyAn obvious result of this action is that he is sure to be in Finstock’s good graces moving forward. Good enough perhaps to start working an angle that sees him convince Finstock to trade for him. With Drew McWeeny’s recent retirement, Ghai is currently without a teammate and a move to the Finstock Exchange would give the option of a Team Action reunion or a pairing with rookie sensation “The Barbarian” that would create a third superteam within the faction. With Dan Murrell joining the Innergeekdom Division this season, the offer of Emily Rose Jacobson and potentially 1 or 2 of Grae Drake, Cody Hall or BC could sway Samm Levine into accepting a trade for a Schmoedown Pro who has the potential to make a run in the Singles Division but is most likely to challenge for a title in the Teams Division if given the right partner.

Similarly, Ghai maybe trying to get in Finstock’s good books to arrange a trade between the Finstock Exchange and Usual Suspects to get Ghai a partner on the Usual suspects. “The Barbarian” looks a real talent at the moment and pairing him with Ghai could create a legitimate title contender, but he probably wouldn’t come cheap despite being a 6ᵗʰ round pick. However, if Ghai can create some goodwill with Finstock, the may convince the three-time Manager of the Year to accept a cheaper offer than expected, suddenly putting the Usual Suspects in a much stronger position.

Debonair Apology Tour

mts dan murrell andrew ghai winner
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mts the tackle 2 spectacular iii ben bateman andrew ghai

We all remember when Kristian Harloff came back to compete for one final “Revenge Tour” that saw him go all the way to winning the Singles Title from Dan Murrell. Maybe Andrew Ghai is beginning a tour of his own, though not waiting for matches to do so. We saw him telling Mike Kalinowski “it’s not your fault” that Mike was KOrrupted to the dark side following DC Movie News’ loss to Team Action. Now we have seen him bringing his season-long feud with Tom Dagnino to a end by giving him back his most prized possession. Who could be next on the list?

Well Mark Reilly and Dan Murrell would be obvious options giving the way the Dastard treated them during his TKO victories back in 2018. Perhaps we’ll see him buying orthopedic pillows for Ben Bateman and John Rocha, who both found themselves on the end of Ghai’s infamous tackles. Or maybe we will just see him finally getting Jenn Sterger’s name right!

mts live john rocha andrew ghai
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Shifting attention

feat mts Movie-Trivia-Schmoedown-Robert-Meyer-Burnett

As you may have noticed with the last section, Andrew Ghai has somewhat of a rocky history with a large number of the current Finstock Exchange roster. If the Exchange felt it benefited them, they could use this as an excuse to continually call out members of the Usual Suspects for matches.

Right now, the Usual Suspects are not in a strong position, and the Exchange look super strng, so it would be hard to see the Usual Suspects pick up many points from those matches. Perhaps Ghai’s gift of the beard mask will work as a peace offering, resulting in the Exchange turning their attention instead to Robert Meyer Burnett’s Burning Droogs. And while those 2 factions fight it out, the Usual Suspects can recover from the loss of Drew McWeeny, rebuild and restrategize, finding matches that give them the best chance of victory.

At the end of the day, the enemy of your enemy… is a pretty good weapon to take advantage of.

Sowing seeds of destruction

mts finstock free 4 all ii

“The fire that burns in your fireplace is the same fire that burns down your house” – Finstock

His current faction may be the Finstock Exchange, but if you were asked which faction you associated the Finstock character with, it would be the Lion’s Den. Finstock was very much part of Dagnino’s heel days and though the character did appear to mellow during Who’s The Boss’ run through the 2018 Ultimate Schmoedown, it wasn’t until his mask was stolen that we really saw Tom Dagnino completely give up his antics.

Now he has the mask back, will he be able to geek on the straight and narrow… or will his old antics start coming back? Let’s not forget how much beef “The Dope Rocha” and Reilly both had with Finstock back in the day. There has already been a fair bit of disharmony within the Exchange this season, some due to some questionable calls by Dagnino. Could Andrew Ghai be hoping that the return of Finstock be the spark that burns the faction down to the ground?

If you have any other theories as to Andrew Ghai’s intentions, leave them in the comments below – I’d love to hear your thoughts. But for now, let’s just take a moment to enjoy the return of one of the league’s biggest characters…

mts finstock is back tom dagnino

6 Takeaways from Schmoedown Spectacular IV

6 Takeaways from Schmoedown Spectacular IV

eason 6 of the Movie Trivia Schmoedown reached its climax at the weekend with Schmoedown Spectacular IV. With the final of the Ultimate Schmoedown Singles Tournament and Championship Matches in all 4 divisions, we were given an event that was truly… well, spectacular!

With Season 7 bringing the biggest shake-up to the league since Anarchy, and the awards less than a month away, it is time to start looking at what impact Spectacular could have on the upcoming season. So in this article, I will be giving the 6 biggest takeaways* from Schmoedown Spectacular IV.

*By which I mean my 6 biggest feelings and thoughts, not more thievery from Ben “Bagel Boy” Goddard

 

Advantage: Finstock

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Spectacular really couldn’t have gone much better for Bobby Gucci and the Five Horsemen. 3/3 wins on the night leaves the Horsemen with the Singles and Teams Titles and puts the longest-standing manager in the league n a great position to win Manager of the Year at the Awards.

But as we head into Season 7, these results at Spectacular will take on even more importance. Founding Fathers’ successful defence of the Teams Title means that Finstock is able to keep them in The Finstock Exchange at the cost of his first 2 draft picks, while Ben Bateman’s Singles Title (and Who’s The Boss’ place in the rankings) means that he is also able to keep hold of them. While this does mean that he won’t technically get a pick until the 5th round on draft day, there is no way that he would have been able to draft Murrell, Rocha, Bateman and Reilly without them becoming champions. Having all the Horsemen in the faction is a great start to dominating the season as all 4 have won the Singles Title (including 3 over the last 2 seasons) and they also contribute 2 of the top teams in the league. Add in Dan Murrell’s announcement that he will be entering the Innergeekdom Division in 2020 and they are in such a strong place.

Oh, and as if that wasn’t good enough, Dagnino’s win in Orlando also means that he has a chance to steal a pick in the later rounds, so he can also find himself moving up the board from Round 5 onwards if there is someone left that he desperately wants.

KOrruption without a KO?

mtsKOrruptionmain

Kevin Smets’ win over Mike Kalinowski has left us in a very interesting situation. Not only did it lead to Mike and Chance waving goodbye to Grace and Ken and bringing in Shannon Barney as their new manager, but it’s also left Mike and Chance in a position where they are protected as a team, but without the guarantee of being able to stick with Shannon.

She’s announced that she is taking over the leadership of KOrruption, which Mike introduced before the team even formed, but unless she has a very early pick, there’s a risk that the face of KOrruption will be playing elsewhere. With Chance intending to continue competing in the Innergeekdom Division, he and Mike are 2 of the strongest triple threats in the league, so I’ll be shocked if they make it beyond the 1st round. Shannon needs to hope that she has one of the very first picks to make sure that she can hang onto her boys. If she can’t, a trade would be the only way to get them back, but she will probably have to put in a huge offer.

Get your mock drafts ready!

The geeks are taking over!

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The Innergeekdom Division is probably my favourite in the league at the moment, and I don’t see that changing very soon. Mike Kalinowski is a quality player who will be out for revenge after losing the title to Kevin Smets – who himself is going to be very hard to beat! Throw in another former champion in Mara Knopic, contenders like Brandon Hanna, Chandru Dhandapani, Chance Ellison, Emily Jacobson, Adam Hlavac and now Dan Murrell… that is suddenly looking a very deep division! Don’t be surprised to see some more rookies entering the division this season and some of this season’s rookies looking to improve now they know what it is like to compete in the league.

Innergeekdom is arguably easier to study due to the limited number of movies that will be covered, but the questions are far deeper as a result. Any of these competitors show just how good their knowledge is when they compete and will likely just get better the more they compete. It already feels like the Schmoedown Pros at the top of the rankings are already capable of beating anyone on any given Schmoeday… I get the feeling that the “elite” group is just going to get larger and larger in 2020. Bring it on!

The best rookies yet?

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It genuinely feels like each year’s rookie crop gets crowned the best yet as we get more and more rookies who know the game already so know what they need to do in order to compete, but I would argue that the 2019 crop is the strongest yet!

While Mara Knopic and Ethan Erwin both won titles in their rookie seasons last year, Paul Oyama and Kevin Smets matched the feat this year, with Oyama taking things further by managing a successful defence. But look at Spectacular and the argument that this is the strongest class gets even more credence. Brendan “The Kid” Meyer may have lost on his debut, but he was one of the stars of the Free 4 All and had a strong season off the back of that, resulting in an appearance in the Teams Championship match at Spectacular. Laura Kelly also made her debut at Star Wars Celebration and though she lost, her performance earned her a #1 Contender match against Andrew Dimalanta (himself a rookie), who she defeated to become the 4th rookie competing at this year’s Spectacular. Add in rookie manager Kaiser and all the others who had strong seasons and I feel confident anointing this the greatest rookie class so far.

It maybe that next year’s rookies take things to an even higher level, but they will have a tough challenge on their hands.

Going heel

MTS Spectacular IV Fyffe Club Heels
mts Movie-Trivia-Schmoedown-Emma-Fyffe

One of the big shocks of the night was as Emma Fyffe revealed her faction for 2020. The return of the Fyffe Club, the greatest babyface faction in the history of the Schmoedown. But this time, things were different, as Fyffe introduced her new advisor: deposed KOrruption manager Grace Hancock.

“The Lioness” is very much a heel and it was clear from the way that Emma spoke that her time as a face is coming to an end. Personally, I love this move! Dagnino has turned face this year and Jay Washington is far too likeable to be a heel too. That leaves just Burnett, Roxy, Shannon and Kaiser as established heels – and we barely even know Shannon at this point! Having a well-known manager turning heel gives so many possibilities, especially as it already looks like we are setting up for some feuds with Shannon. Let’s just remember as well that Emma has some history when it comes to feuding with the other managers: she’s never seen eye-to-eye with Dagnino or Jay Washington, so that is unlikely to change anytime soon, while she also developed a rivalry with new manager Samm Levine over the last year due to his style of “commissioning”, which led to him losing his role as Commissioner of the Singles Division. Straight away, we have plenty of feuds set up, so the heel turn feels like it will work.

What this turn will also do is allow some of the newer managers to focus on becoming good managers rather than having to also cause trouble. Keeping Levine as a face will allow his and Emma’s feud to continue with her as the aggressor, while at this point it is hard to imagine either Coy Jandreau or Winston Marshall as heels given their personality. Having Shannon as the only heel “new” manager but turning Fyffe to the dark side leaves a good balance between heels and faces, while also giving both sides of the morality scale a good blend of new and experienced managers.

Any given Schmoeday

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Sports fans will already know the idea of anyone being able to beat anyone “on any given Sunday”. While it was arguable that we already know it existed in the Schmoedown, Spectacular IV’s big results proved it.

Already, we have seen Stacy Howard manage huge victories over Mark Ellis and Mark Reilly in Ultimate Schmoedown Singles Tournaments, only to fall hard at the next hurdle. Add to that Andrew Ghai defeating Dan Murrell then Mark Reilly – both by TKO – in his first 2 Singles matches. And now, we have 4/5 matches in the biggest event of the year ending by KO/TKO. 4 Championship matches and the final of the Ultimate Schmoedown Singles Tournament… only the best of the best will be competing in these matches, so you would have thought that these matches would be so much closer – I even suggested that Kalinowski v Smets would probably go to Sudden Death!

Instead, we saw Mike Kalinowski, arguably one of the best Innergeekdom Schmoedown Pros ever, not even taking Smets to the final round. We saw William Bibbiani getting TKO’d twice in one night! Finally, we saw Paul Oyama’s 6-0 run in the Singles Division ended by KO in a match that he finished with just 3 points.

If you ever wanted proof that the Movie Trivia Schmoedown is a sport, this is it. You can be the best in the league, you can do all the preparation you can, but on any given Schmoeday, you can still end up struggling to put any points on the board and finding yourself on the wrong end of a huge loss. And that is why we tune in: because we can never consider any match a foregone conclusion.

HFS: The Top 10 Moments of Schmoedown Spectacular III!

HFS: The Top 10 Moments of Schmoedown Spectacular III!

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 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 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…?