REVIEW: Matwarz Presents Straight Talk With Mad Man Pondo (Recorded in Australia, February 26, 2006)

HEY guys. I'm not one to shill (well, maybe a little bit...), but I just watched "Matwarz Presents Straight Talk With Mad Man Pondo" and I gotta give my main man Martin Cox some major praise.

For anyone who saw the crazy US indy hard-core maniac when he toured Oz in February (or for anyone who didn't but wanna know more about this seriously entertaining bloke), then get your hands on this two-disc, three-hour-plus DVD.

First up, it comes in a high-quality package with a classy-looking slick. Very professional.

The interview itself is done in the typical format of the US-made "shoot" interviews, but interviewer Martin does break up the single-camera, talking head with footage from IWA Mid-South and "The Jerry Springer Show", plus stills of Pondo's battle with Aussie wrestlers.

Speaking of which, Mad Man is frank and honest in his discussions about working against the AWF's TNT and PWA's Krackerjak and Mad Dog.
He also explains why fans weren't permitted to see the "real" Pondo in action. Of course, this interview was taped on February 26, before his final match against Mad Dog, so who knows what crazy shit those two may have pulled off in their bout? :)

Anyhow, apart from that, Pondo goes into a lot of detail about his 17-year career, plus his involvement with the Insane Clown Posse, Jerry Springer, new horror film "2001 Maniacs" (starring Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund) and his cult TV show "Skull Talk". He gives his uncensored thoughts on hard-core icons like Necro Butcher, JC Bailey, Toby Klein, Warpig and legends such as Vader, Billy Gunn and Raven. He also gives us the lowdown on his own promotion, IWA East Coast.

Extras on the DVD include footage of "Spider" Nate Webb diving onto Pondo at IWA-MS King Of The Death Matches 2002 (which Pondo talks about in the interview) plus an amazingly gory death match from January 2 of this year in Big Japan with Pondo facing Masada and Mad Dog (the referee is our very own Daniel Beaumont, the guy responsible for getting Pondo over here in the first place).

The Pondo DVD is a great "shoot" interview and, hopefully, Aussie fans will support it, so as to encourage Matwarz to put out more "Straight Talk" DVDs in the future.

If you're interested in a copy, send $30 to:
Martin Cox,
C/- Matwarz,
PO Box 8337,
Northlands Retail,
Preston,
Melbourne, Vic, 3072

Or e-mail him at matwarz@hotmail.com for further details.

OK. End of shill. :D