Well this is going to be interesting.

To get any new readers up to speed, I have attached myself to the At Odds with Wrestling podcast homework assignments. Each and every week without a major wrestling pay per view, the hosts alternate assigning each other something else from the world of wrestling to watch. This week debuts a new series in which we watch all 13 episodes of the unique series known as Wrestlicious.

What would you do if you won a fortune in the lottery? What else other than open a new wrestling promotion that takes inspiration from the classic format that was GLOW. It’s an interesting show, it’s a strange show, and most of all it’s a show that makes me wonder what the original vision for this project was and how far the finished product is from that.

How to go about my feelings for this show? I think it’s best to review the two episodes and then come back to discuss what is happening here.

A reminder, I watched many episodes of GLOW for my old podcast The House Show, so I do have some familiarity with this type of wrestling show.

We start episode one of TakeDown on MavTV. Which is apparently still around and plays motor sports all day long. We’re at JV’s Crib with JV Rich – our lotto winning owner, and four women who we don’t yet know. Oh and Jimmy Hart is here too.

There is a GLOW type rap to open the show and introduce some of the talent. It’s horrible and while it does introduce some of the wrestlers, nothing really stands out here. I’m not sure who is actually singing. Some of these gimmicks are sure to be problematic. We get dancing twin referees who I’m sure I could discover were both in Playboy or dated Hugh or were in bubble gum commercials if I cared to look it up. Remember, TakeDown features “more action, more variety, and less clothing.”

Johnny C is here as the producer. Hey, he was one of the producers for GLOW and appeared in lots of the bits. Kandi Kisses plays her new single for him. He says she’ll sell millions of ear plugs.

We get a tease for tonight’s main event.

We’ve already seen a variety of women and now I wonder how and who decided which women are in the opening show rap. Maybe it changes up.

Johnny C is now out as the ring announcer. He introduces Kandi Kisses and the Gumdrops. The dancing is terrible. The song sounds like a 3 Count number. Kandi is lip syncing poorly. So I guess she’s not one of the girls actually singing the show theme song.

Every week women will be announced for a future 20 girl battle royal.

This week’s TakeDown Spotlight is the Stone Cold Stunner, Autumn Frost.

Toni the Top vs Maui the Island Princess.

This sounds just like Tony D’Angelo’s music on NXT. That’s a familiar looking referee, but I watch a lot of wrestling. There are a ton of shots of the crowd to help edit this into something watchable. Toni hits a package piledriver type move that she calls Sleeps with the Fishes for the pin. This is maybe a minute long.

Holy crap, how many commercials are there?

Cousin Cassie is at the doctor. Bandita’s Cantina segment. These are much like GLOW, a segment themed around one of the girls telling stupid one liners. I’m guessing a script assist for TakeDown has to be given to Al Jaffee’s Snappy Answers for Stupid Questions.

Who will get to name the Battle Royal?

Maria Toro, Bandita, and Felony (with her parole officer) vs Tyler Texas, Cousin Cassie, and Charlotte the Southern Belle (no, not that Charlotte).

There is so much innuendo from the commentary and none of it is good. Hey, it looks like the girls learned how to run the ropes. That’s a start. This match is mostly Bandita and Cassie. There’s a distract the ref spot and Felony uses this opportunity to try to sneak away from her guard. The heels actually learned some fun heel spots. There’s a pin attempt called “the reverse cowgirl” and I don’t think this is Saturday morning, or afternoon, programming. Charlotte finally comes in with the hot tag. Charlotte hits the “Confederate Crunch”, and somehow this isn’t the most problematic thing on the show. The ref is distracted again and Toro hits the Bull Run, allowing Felony to pin Charlotte.

Episode two.

Jimmy Hart meets Layla Milani.

Johnny C introduces Boot Camp Bailey. Bailey is getting Dominick Mysterio level heat here. Bailey is looking for a few good women. Aren’t we all? “Random” girls from the audience are selected. Plus the floor manager who so far is the most attractive woman I’ve seen on these shows.

The Wrestlicious Wrewind covers what happened on the previous show.

The next three participants in the upcoming Battle Royal are named.

We get a Country Quickie joke fest with Tyler Texas and Cousin Cassie.

“Are you smarter than a male wrestler?” Starring Jimmy Hart, Miss Glory, and Brian Knobbs. I didn’t see this cameo coming, but I’m not shocked. What happened in 1776? Knobbs says beer drinking. Miss Glory loves her country and answers correctly.

We are reminded of what happened “earlier” – five minutes ago – with Bailey.

The Young and the Wrestlers. The women selected earlier are now at some school or boarding facility. They jump on the bed, check out the hot tub, and go to the bar when Bailey shows up to begin training.

The TakeDown Spotlight features Lacey Von Erich.

Toni the Top and Frost meet Rich for a joke.

Paige Webb reads emails and sees more than she asked for.

Autumn Frost vs Paige Webb.

I know who Paige is, and I’m digging this. This is the best match so far. Paige is better known as Serena Deeb, and Frost is Jennifer Blake. So both are actually trained. Webb comes off the top which is a risky move from the looks of those ropes. Frost stuffs the monkey flip. Frost with her feet on the ropes for the pin.

We get a TakeDown Tease of what’s coming on the next episode.

Alright, so now I’ve watched two episodes of this show. Webb/Frost was by far the best match and also the best segment of the two episodes. As mentioned before, I’ve watched a lot of GLOW. I’ve also started watching WOW Women of Wrestling lately after realizing one of the contestants on Beast Games is their former champion. Both of those shows are better than Wrestlicious.

But I also think both of those shows have noble beginnings. I think GLOW saw the silliness happening in pro wrestling and found a way to capitalize on that with some harmless cheesecake all in fun. I think WOW took GLOW, updated it, and let mostly trained wrestlers just have some fun.

Now this is just opinion and I’m not implying anything about anyone. I think JV Rich liked wrestling and found a lot of the women to be attractive, then won the lottery and saw it as a means to an end to have sex with them. Hey, maybe if I (Rich) create a company and am the boss or payroll for this company I can use that power to have relations with some of the women.

This is going to be a local thing but maybe people reading had something similar. I grew up close to the Canadian border and late night programming may have gone a little farther there than in the States. One of those 2 to 3 AM shows was a 1-900 number infomercial featuring a porn star pool party. All the girls were there in bikinis asking viewers to call them for just 99 cents a minute. Recognizable porn stars at that. It was a hell of a commercial to watch late at night if the Howard Stern repeats on E weren’t that appealing. So the commercial is mature but not R rated and the girls seem to be having fun just hanging out but we know what is being implied and what message is really happening.

And that is what I felt watching Wrestlicious. This show doesn’t feel like it was done for the love of wrestling, it feels like it was done for the love, or lust, of women. Listen, I’ve done a lot for the love/lust of women. A lot of stupid stuff. A lot of wasted money. But to see millions of dollars wasted just to try to get into someone’s pants feels like a new level of perversion. And I’m only giving this opinion on JV Rich. I think everyone else said screw it, we’ll play along because the checks are good.

I can’t say there’s a nobility to wrestling. We all know and have seen too much. But at the end of the day, most of these companies just want to put on a show. Wrestlicious feels like Greed and Lust are running a promotion and the talent is happy for some TV exposure and a check that won’t bounce.

Oh good, and we have eleven more episodes to go.