Shark Boy Exclusive Interview
By future | Posted in • General
Shark Boy, our official mascot took the time to do a special interview with us. Take a look and enjoy all that is ‘Shark Boy’!
Q. Hello Shark Boy, thank you for doing an interview with us. We have enjoyed watching your matches and appreciate the gimmick. The Shark mask… how can I ignore it? What was the inspiration for the Shark Boy gimmick? I envisioned a Bat-Man deal where you disguised yourself as a shark to strike terror into the hearts of cowardly and superstitious wrestlers.
A. That’s sort of what I was going for. The song “I Come from the Water” inspired me to come up with a superhero-type character who rises from the ocean to battle the bad guy wrestlers. Then, when I went to work for Ian Rotten in Louisville, KY, Shark Boy was officially born.
Q. Who were your favorite wrestlers growing up? Was wrestling always a dream for you, or did you have other ambitions?
A. Randy “Macho Man” Savage, Brian Pillman, and Ric Flair were all major influences on me. I’ve dreamed of being a wrestler since the age of 12. I may have had other ambitions during my life, but none of them as great as my desire to become a wrestler.
Q. Who trained you? How’d you get hooked up with WCW? Why did they have you wrestle without the mask on Thunder?
A. I was originally trained by Les Thatcher in Cincinnati. WCW heard about my performance at the 1999 Brian Pillman Memorial show and signed me to a contract. Then I trained for four months at the WCW Power Plant in Atlanta. It was during my time in Atlanta that Kevin Nash visited the Power Plant and asked if anyone wanted to take a powerbomb on Thunder the next night to set up a match between Scott Norton and Goldberg. I raised my hand and we went into the office to talk. I asked Kevin if I should wear my Shark Boy attire to the ring and he said it would probably be better to just be myself and sort of “protect” the Shark Boy gimmick for the time being. That’s what I did, and a few months later Shark Boy became a regular on WCW Saturday Night.
Q. What’s life like on the road? Are there any wrestler groupie stories you’d like to share?
A. Life on the road can be really fun sometimes, but other times all you want to do is just get back home as soon as possible. As far as “groupie stories” go, I think I’ll pass on that question for the sake of my marriage. 
Q. Do you have a favorite match that you’d like to tell us about? Or a favorite opponent?
A. One of the neatest experiences I’ve had in my career was when I wrestled a three-way with Eddie Guerrero and Billy Kidman at a benefit show for WCW referee Mark Curtis in Rostraver, PA, in the summer of 1999. They are the two smoothest workers I’ve ever been in the ring with and it was a tremendous learning experience to say the least.
Q. Have you ever seen the Death Valley Driver website? They put out a list of the world’s top 500 wrestlers. You’re ranked somewhere in the 300s, which in my opinion is quite a compliment. I’d love to be one of the world’s top 500 artists. What do you think? Are you underrated? What’s the biggest asset you bring to your matches?
A. Rating wrestlers is a matter of opinion I guess. One person might say I’m ranked too low, another might say I’m ranked to high. The important thing is that I give my very best performance each and every time I step into the ring. I believe my desire to entertain the fans is my biggest asset in this business.
Q. Who is the biggest jerk behind the scenes? My money is on someone like Steve Austin.
A. Actually, I met Steve Austin at the 1998 Pillman benefit and he seemed like a really nice guy. I have very few negative comments to make about anybody in the wrestling business. We’re all brothers, and saying anything derogatory about one of my brothers just wouldn’t seem right.
Q. MvsR staffer ‘Future’ is a big fan of Mexican luchador wrestling. Have you ever wrestled in Mexico? I think you’d fit right in as a luchador!
A. I never have, but I would love to as soon as I get the right opportunity.
Q. What is the future for Shark Boy (aside from being our mascot)? Will you pursue an acting career go another direction? What do you hope for out of wrestling? Fame, fortune, women, power, glory? Or just a nifty belt and a spot on TV every week?
A. The future for Shark Boy is wide open. I would love to continue making my living in the entertainment industry, be it acting, writing, directing, etc. Right now I’m just happy being Shark Boy and living out my dream of being a wrestler. A spot on national television every week is definitely my next goal. The fame and fortune will hopefully follow.
Q. Well thank you for taking the time to do an interview with us. We hope this interview will give our reader (and your fans!) a little insight on the life of a wrestler. We wish you a long and prosperous career. Follow the fin! =)
A. Thanks for making me your mascot! And be sure to visit SharkBoy.net and drop me an email or post something on my message board! It’s also the only place you can order official Shark Boy T-shirts, masks, autographed photos, and other goodies coming soon! Thanks for supporting the shark!
Sucktastic! Heinous even!
Next let’s take a look at the bad lighting. The outdoor and indoor scenes for the most part weren’t bad. What I found annoying is when there would be heavy use of effects, it seemed like they had to resort to a lot of pick up shots in a studio. They weren’t careful enough to keep a consistent lighting when green/blue screening (chromakeying) the actors. This led to a lot of missing shadows where there should have been one, and too much light on people when there wasn’t enough light in the effects background to generate it. For instance, we’ll use the quidditch match again as an example. When Harry wins the match and is being applauded by everyone he is standing in the center of the gaming area. He turns around and around to accept applause from the fans, and the camera turns with him in synchronization. Watch the light on his hair and face. A shadow should develop as he turns around and has his face in the shadow of the sun, clearly visible in the CGI background. However, what we see is just a perfectly lit face, the whole time he turns around. Much of the movie has this kind of appearance, and it really shows how sloppy the director was. Most directors are anal people and real sticklers for detail. This showed none of that. I guess it figures since it was directed by the same guy who made a triumphant masterpiece like Mrs. Doubtfire. It really seemed like the studio made them rush to get it out for the Thanksgiving/Christmas season, forcing them to cut corners…
Of course you can have all flash and no substance or vice versa. Here’s an example of each: Every Elvis movie made and El Mariachi. Elvis movies were made cheaply with a skimpy story but a big production to show off the star. El Mariachi was made with a super low budget to tell a good story but was unable to do spectacular ‘Hollywood’ type shooting. Which movie would I rather watch? If you guess the hound dog, you are wrong.
Purchase (if you’re a dweeb):
Remember Sammy Jankis? Chances are you will after pondering and “huh?”-ing your way through Memento, although you may never get a clear idea of exactly who the hell he is. At least Kevin Spacey had the grace enough to let us know he was Keyser Soze (and if anyone did not know that by now, let me also spoil some other things for you: Bruce Willis is dead, Tim Robbins escapes from prison, and the Titanic sinks). You will not get the same amount of closure from this, one of Hollywood’s few truly suitable alternatives to an acid trip. Memento stars Guy Pearce, a post-Matrix Carrie-Anne Moss, and everyone’s favorite supporting actor extraordinaire, Joe Pantoliano. In the very first (or final?) scene of this movie, Pantoliano, who plays Teddy, is shot and killed by Leonard, played by Pearce. You may think you’re witnessing the shortest appearance by a main character in a movie since Jar-Jar Binks (yes I know, Jar-Jar was in the entire Episode I, but didn’t we all kill him off in our minds after the first three seconds?). But wait!! In the next set of scenes Teddy returns, very much alive, only to be killed again in the same scene we saw at the beginning of the movie! This is about the point where your brain matter starts to do cartwheels, and they don’t stop until the end. Or the beginning. See, this is the thing: Memento tells its story backwards. Literally. You start with the end and end with the beginning (luckily, this means that the middle is still the middle, or else I’d be purchasing a shotgun and aiming it at the TV or at my skull) and just try to figure out everything in between. 
You see, our good friend Leonard (and yes, he is your friend if you want him to be, because he sure as hell doesn’t know any better) was a victim of an “incident” which caused him to suffer a “condition” where he can make no new memories. Everything that happens, everyone he meets, quickly fades and he is left to constantly re-learn his surroundings. Imagine waking up in the morning after having waaaay too much to drink, trying to figure out what you did the night before. Now imagine having this feeling every fifteen minutes (I’m sure some of you out there won’t even have a problem with this. Get to AA, now). The good thing is that Lenny is a meticulous note taker and very handy with a Polaroid camera. When pen and paper just won’t do, however, Lenny’ll make a permanent note by tattooing it somewhere on his body. Ladies, don’t be alarmed when you see “eggs,” “wieners,” and “lemonade” scrawled on his genitals; it’s just his grocery list.
What notes could be so important as to tattoo them over every inch of your torso?? Well, Lenny is on a mission, and the notes help him remember what that mission is. He is looking for the man who raped and murdered his wife, as well as leaving him in this constant state of confusion. We join Lenny on this mission as time goes backwards and we meet fewer and fewer people, and we learn more about why these people who used to exist did the things that they are about to do in the near past. Yeah, you heard me.
The acting in this movie is superb, and the gimmick of the story will keep you interested, at least until you figure out what’s going on. Then the pleasure comes in inviting your clueless friends over and watching the head scratching commence.
Monkeys half a and four it give I. Much very movie this enjoyed I.
Purchase Memento…
