So It Took Pro Wrestlers and Ghosts
to Make Reality TV Real Again
FROM the front office of ASY PARANORMAL
Ever since TV audiences saw "An American Life" on PBS in the 70's, people have fallen in love with what has been later dubbed "reality TV". Over the next 40 years, cable television exploded with this trend in entertainment. Relatively low costs begat hundreds of cheap shows and dozens of low budget networks. But over time, this craze has started to eat itself alive. Over time, the quality of reality TV started to nosedive, and shocking to some, these allegedly "reality shows" are as scripted as any sitcom or cop drama on the big networks. Ever wonder why a reality show credits writers? Well... sweet, sweet soul... it's because reality shows have writers.
The shows in the paranormal field fare no better. While seminal shows like Ghost Hunters stayed true and legitimate, the pressure to increase ratings has infected the scene. Now shows are forced to air with sensationalized jump scares, staged interactions, and to be blunt: faked evidence. In a field where 100% transparency and legitimacy is desperately needed for it to exist, you can see where this has caused problems for those in the paranormal field.
Enter the pro wrestlers...
It seems odd that paranormal investigators that hail from the land of giants, artifice, and the arcane are here to help... but they are. Travis Graves, Vinnie Vineyard (known in the ring as Funkmaster V) and Big Luke Walker (a giant man who is almost 7 feet tall), were suckered into this industry by a false opportunity by a modern day charlatan. However, once they started making TV shows for a network deal that didn't exist, they found out that they liked it... and funny enough, they were good at it.
The three started a show entitled "Wrestling With Ghosts", which is now airing its second season on ASY TV. They combine comedy with ghost investigations to liven up the show, but the thing they pride themselves on the most is that their "devil may care" attitude has garnered what Funkmaster V calls "primo paranormal evidence." Courted by every network that plays ghost shows, the trio has eventually either been told to hit the pavement, or vice versa. And the reasons are always the same:
"You guys need to act scared of the ghosts."
"You guys need to fake some evidence."
"You guys need to cut out the funny stuff."
All three are deal breakers to the networks and to the team. As Big Luke says in a first season episode where they fire a team member for faking evidence, "Once you fake one thing, you faked everything."
The three pro-wrestling/ musician/ comedians and their actual legitimate ghost show sat for months and had no home, that is, until it found ASY TV in 2017. ASY is a streaming network of original programming, and funny enough, it was started by a like minded pro wrestler, musician and ghost hunter: Brandon Bishop out of Colorado Springs. Over time, the Wrestling With Ghosts ratings were so good that it spurred the idea that ASY TV could expand into network that focuses 100% on paranormal programming. ASY Paranormal was born.
The network's biggest draw will be "The UFO SHO' with Amy Dumas", (WWE's Lita). On this program, the famous lady wrestler Dumas and Bishop drive around the Nevada desert looking for aliens. Funkmaster V has produced a show entitled "It Happened To Me", where people utter personal ghost stories into a tight camera shot to chilling results. Big Luke has made a monster movie show entitled "Big N Funky Present..." where he uses paper puppets to insert the cast of Wrestling With Ghosts into outlandish situations wedged between segments of B Movie classics like Plan 9 From Outer Space and Night of the Living Dead.
The network encourages anyone: monster movie makers, pod casters, ghost hunters, cryptid lovers, skeptics, and true believers alike, to submit their own work for the station, And, you don't have to be a wrestler. There is one prerequisite, however: Be real. ASY Paranornal is set to launch on Roku and online in early 2019. To contact ASY Paranormal about getting your content on the air, email sweetfamilyfunk@yahoo.com
