I have to admit that I do not watch wrestling. But, if we are being honest, I also must admit that I directed wrestling on television while I was working my way through college. So when I learned that wrestling star, Cody Rhodes, was guest starring on this week’s ARROW, I was intrigued.
That being said, I can share some things that I learned while directing wrestling…
1) Wrestling is choreographed. I knew how to block and get the camera angles so the editor did not have a bunch of reverse shots.
2) Not everything goes according to plan. Some of those haymakers actually connect, and wrestlers get hit…and get hit hard.
3) Unlike their characters, the wrestlers I met were gentlemen, intelligent, very athletic and decent actors who knew how to entertain their audience.
But what I did not know until I researched Rhodes’s character (who is not in the comic books) is that Stephen Amell (Green Arrow) is a huge wrestling fan who has participated in the WWE SUMMER SLAM and won the “Slammy Award” for Best Celebrity Moment.
I am guessing that all of this led up to Rhodes being cast as drug dealer, Derek Sampson, on this week’s ARROW.
I am pretty sure that this scenario either could be a stunt coordinator’s dream come true or his worst nightmare.
Tonight, when new Team Arrow member, Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez), decides to take on Sampson, the Dog runs into a problem. He dares to defy Green Arrow’s orders by going after the powerful Sampson who seems to have survived a run-in with death and now feels no pain.
Not only is Sampson terrorizing Star City, but a dip in a chemical vat may have left him invincible. Wild Dog is woefully mismatched and Green Arrow must come to his team member’s rescue. Even stranger than a potential Wrestlemania faceoff between Amell and Rhodes is the appearance of Executive Producer, Marc Guggenheim’s name in the credits as “Guggenheim Ship.”
Again, I am pretty sure that this scenario either could be a stunt coordinator’s dream come true or his worst nightmare. Even worse than letting “Mayor Handsome’s” face get rearranged in a wrestling mishap? Letting your boss get pummeled in a choreography goof.
All I can say is, “Let’s get ready to rumble.”
Other guest stars in tonight’s episode, “A Matter of Trust” are Christopher Ang, Timothy Lyle, Stew McLean, David Nykl and Carly Pope.
“A Matter of Trust” was written by Ben Sokolowski & Emilio Ortega Aldrich and directed by Gregory Smith.
ARROW airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW in the U.S. and on CTV Two in Canada.
