Intro
So, picture this, it's the early 2010s, and CHIKARA is the hottest indy promotion on the world wide web. My friends and I find the Chuck Taylor Invisible Grenade Spot video, and we think it's the funniest shit. Fast forward a few months, and my buddy discovers RFVideo. In addition to some random ROH DVDs, he also finds "Chuck Taylor: Tries his Hardest. Ladies and Gentlemen, I legitimately didn't know shoot interviews were a thing at this point, and wrestlers that I liked just shooting the shit with an off-camera host was fascinating to me, especially because I really liked Chuckie. This solidified of fandom of Chuckie, so I'd like to look back and see if it holds up.
The Shoot
They're clearly in the midst of setting up a show in the background, as behind Chuckie are ring ropes. I like this set up, it feels like a somewhat legit presser. Chuck struggles to talk about the beginning of his career, and I get that. Indy guys are accutely aware they did stuff in the beginning that meant nothing with people who didn't go on to be big names, so I cringe inwardly when guys like Chuck are put in these situations.
As someone who was just learning about the indies, Chuck describing the differences between Southern and Northern styles was super enlightening. Also,this is where you start to see Chuck is a very gifted story teller, as Chuck describing Southern style as a match where you build up to a punch for six minutes will always get a pop out of me.
They spend a lot of time building up and putting over Ricochet, which we had no frame of reference for at the time, but it's super hilarious with hindsight. Orange Cassidy and Bryce Remsburg are in the peanut gallery just off camera, which is pretty cool.
This is the point where they jump between IWA-MS and CZW with no real cohession. Chuckie's homophobic and racist comments pop the boys. You can tell Chuck is the kind of guy that will relieve tension by making asinine comments about people because everyone else is too scared.
Luckily Rob directs the interview to be in a chronological order. Chuckie big ups Low-Ki, who was super cool to him apparently. If I had to peg two people who just wouldn't get along it'd be them.
Now we're to the good part, the debauchery stories. From making out with "Thick" German chicks and taking a picture of the location, to a crazy Eurotrip that involved a ton of American talent, which involved a VERY drunk Doug Williams (There's too much cockblocking going on, we need to formulate a game plan" became a common phrase said while hanging out with my friend), to El Generico screaming at and flipping off Ron Jeremy during a standup set, these stories are hilarious
After randomly taking a super dark turn (Taylor flatly admits he's losing money doing this) and after the concluding "What does the future hold" question we go into word association ("OMG is the shits, I'm so glad he's going to go die in Iraq") and we're done after 49:30.
Conclusion
I hate to say this, but the truth is this shoot is only worth anything now for the indy names Chuck name drops and the one elongated tale of debauchery. Beyond that it's kind of nothing.
Final Grade: C+