411’s WWE Untold: Team Hell No Catches Fire Report

411’s WWE Untold: “Team Hell No Catches Fire” Report
-Episode 4
-Run Time: 24:23

-The WWE Network dropped the 4th episode of their Untold series. So far these shows have been enjoyable and are easy to watch if you have 20-25 minutes of free time. For those unfamiliar with the series the WWE covers a topic with various principles acting as talking heads. This episode takes a look at the unlikely team of Kane and Daniel Bryan.

-This time we actually get faces with the voices and for this episode Kane and Bryan handle everything. Kane talks about being pegged as the monster and he would get frustrated as he knew he could do more. He didn’t always feel he needed to be boxed in a serious role.

-Bryan says he doesn’t remember meeting Kane, but remembers watching him debut at Bad Blood.  Bryan laughs that he was still in high school when Kane made his debut.  His first few years in the WWE he always called Kane, sir because he was respected.

-Kane says the first time they started talking was on a tour of Mexico on a bus and they talked about retirement and financial investing.  Bryan says they were on a trip on Washington and got the song “Down Town” by Petula Clark stuck in their head.  Bryan would pull a prank where he would play the song on a phone and leave it on the floor of a bathroom stall while some poor sap was inside relieving himself.  He pulled this prank on Kane, but with a twist as he took Kane’s bag, put it high out of reach and blocked it with a stack of chairs. Kane walked in while the room was dark with “Down Town” playing. He remembers seeing the anger in Kane’s eyes and when Bryan yelled “got ya” the anger went away and they became friends.

-They show a few outtakes from the Dr Shelby skits and obviously they had a blast.  Kane says they got along great behind the camera which made it interesting to hate each other on camera.  Bryan talks about how his character was going off the rails mentally and they were building to a SummerSlam match with him against Charlie Sheen.  The problem was they never got Sheen to sign off on doing the match and two weeks before the show they changed it to a match with Kane.

-Kane loved the match as it is was an easy story to tell of big man vs little man.  Bryan loved the match and says it was the first of many attempts where he tried to get Mr. Small Package over as his name.

-Bryan talks about the Anger Management skits and when he saw the initial dialogue he thought it was horrible.  They filmed them in sections and when he saw the finished product it was better than he anticipated.  They show Bryan yelling at a kid wearing a goat mask and making him cry.  The kid ends up being Dr Shelby’s son who was playing a goat in a play about Noah’s Ark.  It’s amazing these people were able to keep a straight face through all this.  Kane relates a few more stories and he can’t help but laugh.  Bryan says he found himself chuckling when Kane went through all the bad things he did including electrocuting Shane’s testicles.  The deadpan manner just killed it and Bryan had a hard time trying to act disgusted.

-We learn Michael Aspinwall is the actor who played Dr Shelby.  Bryan and Kane put him over huge.  Bryan says he didn’t know much about wrestling, but he was a key component to the segments.  Kane puts over all the other actors no matter how small their role was as they needed everyone.

-They talk about filming in a diner in Albany, New York.  Kane says they shut down a section of the diner so they could shoot, but the other half was still serving customers.  He continues by saying that what they did was great, but he wishes they would have shot some of the legit reactions they were getting from the paying customers that were there.

-Sept 3, 2012 during RAW Active the fans voted for Kane and Bryan to hug it out instead of fighting or tagging together.  This was amazing as they milked it for everything with the crowd going crazy over all of it.  Kane says there would not have been a Team Hell No if they had voted for them to fight each other.  Bryan calls it one of his favorite segments he has ever done.  The pop they get for the hug is rather impressive.  BG James told them both that if they weren’t careful they were going to have a heck of a tag team.

-At Night of Champions, Bryan and Kane win the tag titles from New Day.  Bryan remembers the match being a fun creative process of 4 guys trying to tell a story.  The story they were telling was Bryan and Kane fighting each other, but their dysfunction leading to them winning.  In this case Bryan shoved Kane off the top rope and he happened to fall on Kofi for the pin.  Kane admits he didn’t have much control off his body since Daniel was pushing him, so he was worried a bit for Kofi’s safety.

-That leads to “I am the Tag Team Champions” and Kane says that was Vince McMahon’s idea.  It drove him nuts as he has a degree in English and it butchered what he had know.  It doesn’t make any sense at all and Bryan also harps on the fact that it is grammatically incorrect, but it was fun.  Kane doesn’t even know what it means to this day even if it ended up on a t-shirt.

-RAW Sept 24, 2012: Another poll, this one on twitter, sees the WWE universe name the team “Team Hell No” over the other choices of “Team Teamwork” and “Team Friendship.”  Bryan so wanted them to be “Team Friendship.”  They had merchandise ideas of a t-shirt that looked like it was drawn by a little kid of the two of them holding hands with a rainbow behind them.  He was okay with Team Teamwork as well and Kane says that name was terrible and he hated it.

-Team Hell No wins the poll with 59% of the vote (Team Friendship got 38% and poor Team Teamwork only got 3%). Bryan calls it the lamest of the three and all the merchandise money they were counting on disappeared.

-Next up was a Graduation Ceremony and Bryan calls it one of the times he knew he was just going to go out and have fun.  They got Cole and Lawler to hug each other.  Kane puts over the fans and how much audience participation they were able to get with the team.  He could never do anything like that with his previous Kane character so it was fun for him.

-Team Hell No held the titles for 245 days before dropping them to The Shield at Extreme Rules.  Bryan says there are times it hurts to lose a title, but other times it feels good.  That was one of those nights as it was The Shield’s time.  Kane equates it to being a championship team and starting a new season.  You are coming off a great run and you don’t know what’s next, but you just start over.

-After the show they wanted them to cut a promo saying someone needs to stop these Shield guys.  It made them sound weak and they both thought it sucked.  So Bryan decided to cut a promo saying that he wasn’t the weak link and was going to prove it.  That little piece started his run as the underdog trying to prove he was more than a B+ player.  Kane says that Austin was the anti-hero that was perfect for his time and Hogan was the hero that was perfect for his time.  Daniel was right for his time as everyone watching could relate to him.  He was the guy being kept down and he overcame all the odds.

-Bryan says there would have been no WrestleMania XXX ending for him without Team Hell No.  He puts over Kane huge and calls him an incredible character.  The real thrill of Team Hell No is that Glen is an even better person. High praise from Daniel Bryan as this episode ends.

-Again a fun show that is a breeze to watch. Team Hell No is sometimes overlooked for what they did, but taking a look back it was a good run. Having just Bryan and Kane handle the talking made for a tighter show too I thought as you don’t always needs 5-7 talking heads when it’s just a 20-25 minute show. Dr Shelby chiming in would have been fun, but it was fine without him. This series continues to be enjoyable and is worth watching this episode and any of the previous three.

-Thanks for reading and thanks for the continued feedback on my Ultimate Cards. With the WWE announcing the return of the King of the Ring Tournament, I may do that show next.