Fifth Quarter Creator & Director Talk ‘WrestleStock’ Episode, Working With Wrestlers and More

– The 5th Quarter creator Michael D. Ratner and director Bob Castrone talked about their “WrestleStock” episode in a new interview with WrestleZone. You can check out highlights from the interview below, along with the episode itself here.

Castrone on what fans can expect from The 5th Quarter’s “Wrestlestock” episode: “In “WrestleStock” we are going back to the summer of 1968. A lot of people know that there was a three-day music festival in the late sixties but a lot of people don’t know about the three-day wrestling festival that happened the year before. That is the crux of what “WrestleStock” is about. It’s this three-day festival in a field with wrestlers and wrestling and a lot of x-rated antics as well.”

Castrone on which wrestlers in particular they enjoyed working with: “All of them were incredible. It was insane to go out to the middle of a field in Encino with a wrestling ring and watch these guys actually wrestle. We had a stunt coordinator on set and I’ve been a wrestling fan since I was a kid but I’ve never seen it close up before. To see these guys just pull off these moves in this bizarre setting is just surreal.”

Ratner on if they had always planned on doing a wrestling-themed episode: “I like the idea of working in non-traditional sports. For me there are only so many spins on a basketball story or a baseball story. We did twelve episodes in season one and we are doing twenty in seasons two and three. We are able to do stuff about race walking or weightlifting or pro wrestling. Growing up I was a huge pro wrestling fan and I wanted to do something fun here. Pro wrestling was always on the whiteboard of ideas.”

Ratner on almost to do a show with Mark Henry previously: “We were actually working on a food show together about a year ago…We were eating at a BBQ restaurant in Austin, TX during SXSW when we came up with the idea. I heard him talking about the food and he knows everything. He’s crazy unbelievable with what he knows about food so we were talking about doing a spin-off on that and we’ll probably go out, eventually, and do that together.”

Ratner of in he’s ever considered producing his own wrestling show: “Yes. My brother, Scott, who co-founded OBB with me is a HUGE pro wrestling fan. I texted him yesterday to see if he wanted to get lunch and he told me that he was watching the 1992 WCW Starrcade but also listening to a podcast that had alternate commentary. He’s the wrestling guy, he knows everything about wrestling. I would probably want him to lead most of the creative on it. It’s such a big business, obviously, I think there’s a lot of stories and things we could do around it. It’s definitely something we would consider.”

Castrone on his memories of wrestling from his childhood: “My earliest memory was my Dad fiddling with the cable box to steal WrestleMania 3 so we could watch Andre the Giant fight Hulk Hogan. That’s probably one of my earliest memories… stealing cable. I came up in the era of the Ultimate Warrior and The Rockers. The Rockers influenced “Wrestlestock” heavily. It’s either an homage or we’re just ripping them off directly. We have our Barbershop moment. That whole ridiculous era.”

Ratner on his memories of wrestling: “I remember The Ministry of Darkness. I was so disappointed that Vince McMahon was the higher power that I started crying. I remember my Dad being like, “Get it together.” I liked Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold and The Rock.”