We’ve brought you wrestling documentaries from the very talented Kenny Johnson before. He documented the vida loca of the wonderful Veda Scott, and he chronicled Johnny Gargano’s farewell to the indies. Now Johnson is back at it again with “Please Don’t Die,” a wonderfully VHS-themed documentary on “Bad Boy” Joey Janela, who you may remember from taking the single most ill-advised and insane bump of 2016.
Janela is quickly making a name for himself on the independent scene with his work in Beyond Wresling, AIW, AAW, and primarily CZW, where he developed a reputation as a (mostly) non-deathmatch wrestler who was, nonetheless, willing to do batsh*t crazy things. It’s an in-depth look at the life and career of the Bad Boy, and even if you don’t know anything about him, it’s engaging as hell.
The craziest part of all of this, of course, is the firsthand account of that absolutely insane bump off the roof. It’s worth watching for that alone. But don’t sleep on the part where he gets to wrestle one of his heroes, Sabu, who was in desperate need of surgery at the time.
The documentary gets into the very real and very personal background that may have led to him becoming a wrestler and a real-life bad boy, and overall it’s a great, comprehensive portrait of an up-and-coming pro wrestler you may not be very familiar with, but probably will be soon.
Let’s hope Johnson keeps cranking these documentaries out, because they’re all great. You can check out the full, nearly 40-minute documentary below.
(As a heads up, this documentary contains dirty language! F-words and everything!)
