Views From The Turnbuckle: The 10 Greatest Moments In Being The Elite History

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On Monday, Being the Elite had its 200th episode. The web series, which first began as a way for The Young Bucks to entertain themselves on the road, eventually morphed into the backbone of the career for not only The Young Bucks, but Kenny Omega, Marty Scurll, Cody Rhodes, Adam Page and more. Long before they ran a wrestling company with a weekly television show on TNT, Being the Elite was an outlet for the members of the group to express their own creativity.

While Being the Elite has hosted a few important announcements in recent wrestling history, including handling almost all the hype and promotion for ALL IN and later breaking the news about All Elite Wrestling, the real force of the show has been tongue-in-cheek humor and its advancement of storylines that have taken place in different wrestling promotions across the globe. Sticking to what makes Being the Elite so interesting, here are the ten greatest moments in show history.

10. Shockmaster Parody

The immediate failure of The Shockmaster, a bizarre WCW creation in 1993, has been one of the most infamous gimmicks in wrestling history. As a nod to the famous incident of The Shockmaster, bursting (and tripping) through a wall during a backstage interview, BTE parodied the debut by having Cody "surprise" the rest of the crew with the supposed debut of The Elite's bear mascot. Of course, the bear falls down when he tries to enter the arena and his head falls off. Bonus points for Marty Scurll saying "He fell, he fell right on his fookin' ass!" just like how Davey Boy Smith said it in the original video.

9. Brandon Cutler gets his AEW contract

It isn't always laughs and storylines on BTE, sometimes the show focuses on the humans behind the characters. Brandon Cutler, a longtime California independent wrestler who is the main cameraman for the series, as well as helping produce the shows, has been a faithful part of the series. With AEW acquiring talent, The Young Bucks got Cutler a full-time contract to continue his work, adding some security for himself and his family. While the success the The Elite have had over the last few years is well documented, it is nice to see that success opening the door for other deserving professionals to earn a good living.

8. Young Bucks Workout

The finger-pointers, two figures who are only heard and you only ever see their index fingers, are two of the more intriguing side-characters in the series. Referred to as Arthur and Trevor, the duo are almost always critical of whoever they are talking to, and have appeared as traffic cops, music executives, In-N-Out employees, among other jobs. Some people have referred to them as being Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets, but I always thought of them as parodies of Vince McMahon and Triple H, with the brash, over-the-top Arthur as Vince, and the calmer, more sympathetic Trevor as Triple H. In this installment, they guide The Bucks through an excruciating workout routine as they attempt to become heavyweights.

7. SCU

Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian had already been teaming for years in TNA before moving to ROH and adding Scorpio Sky to the mix to form SoCal Uncensored. The unit really took off on BTE, with their trademark angry rants about whatever town they are in premiering in episode #101 becoming a signature promo for the group. The entire gimmick breathed new live into an older tag team and made them probably the most important figures on the show outside of The Elite.

6. The Funeral of Joey Ryan

Perhaps the longest storyline ever played out on the show was the murder of Joey Ryan by Adam Page. The angle started with the members of The Elite being enamored by Ryan, which led to jealousy from Page. After Page "exposed" Ryan's signature dick-flip move as a "work", an embarrassed Ryan got his revenge by training his dick to perform the move properly, which he used to embarrass Page. Page in retaliation, killed Ryan and then was sent on a MacBeth-like storyline where he was racked by guilt for his action. A key scene was the memorial service for Ryan, which was filled with jokes, along with Marty Scurll unable to make it through his speech without bawling, SCU going on a rant about how funerals are a work, and Arthur and Trevor saying that "Joey Ryan was killed, like he killed the wrestling business with his dick-gimmick."

5. The Tale of the Independent Contractor

On this special Halloween edition of the show, the group took turns telling scary stories, with Cody Rhodes telling the horrifying tale of the Independent Contractor, which mocked how WWE treats its employees. "260 days on the road! No health care!" Cody tells his horrified friends. My favorite part is when he says "Hey, you guys know Christmas?" Marty Scurll cluelessly replies "Yes, I love Christmas!" and Cody tells him they will all be on a plane during the holiday, which leads to Cody having to stop telling the story because it was too scary.

4. Beyond The Mat

Episode #116 opens with a four minute, exact shot-for-shot parody of the famous documentary movie, Beyond the Mat. While the in the documentary, veteran wrestler Dennis Stamp is resentful of not being booked on Terry Funk's special spot show, in BTE, Flip Gordon is resentful of not being on ALL IN, with Matt Jackson playing the role of Terry Funk trying to coax him into being the special referee for the main event. The scene is exactly like the scene in Beyond the Mat, so it does require the viewer to have seen the documentary first, but if you have, this is one of the funnier and more creative things the group has pulled off.

3. Bullet Club is Fine

The most serious storyline ever told on the show was the divide between Cody Rhodes and Kenny Omega, with Rhodes jealous of Omega's status as the best wrestler in the world and maliciously sewing dissent in the group and splitting The Bullet Club into two factions, one that was led by Cody and one by Omega. The fracture took place during an explosive confrontation in the NJPW locker room, with Cody hucking a chair at Omega after Omega called him "The snake the grass, the three star savior." They then do a big pull-apart brawl, while The Young Bucks look like children watching their parents fight during a divorce.

2. The Exorcism of Cody Rhodes

This was the culmination of a lengthy build-up to Cody getting "possessed" by WWE and ending up in a constant demonic trance, spouting off WWE "Did You Know" facts. The episode is full of clever quips, such as Christopher Daniels being brought in to exorcise the demon "He has dealt with all sorts of nasty demons," Matt Jackson says. "Mainly, Dixie Carter and Vince Russso." Perhaps the best part is Cody grabbing Scorpio Sky and yelling "Harold!" at him, alluding to the time when Sky appeared in the famous Anger Management skits on RAW with Daniel Bryan and Kane.

1. Bullet Club Invades RAW

The Bullet Club's "invasion" of an episode of RAW was a spoof of the DX invasion of Nitro 20 years earlier, with the group getting a legion of fans outside a WWE show to rally support for the group as opposed to WWE. Cody, Brandi, Page, Scurll and The Young Bucks led hundreds of fans outside of the venue and aired their grievances against the company, both real (WWE trademarking the Rhodes name so that Cody couldn't use it while wrestling outside of WWE) and storyline (WWE kidnapping Adam Page and making him watch 205 Live). Not only was the skit funny, it also showed that the group was able to generate a serious amount of fan support for fans that didn't want to watch WWE, long before they promoted ALL IN or AEW was airing weekly on TNT. The invasion was a spoof, but the attitude the group was able to generate from its fanbase was very real.

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