It's Extreme

Ok, so I tuned into Extreme Dodgeball last night. It startd out a little slow while they explained the rules and introduced the teams, but once the action started, it was pretty entertaining. I haven't played dodgeball probably since 7th or 8th grade, so I wasn't aware that there were actually different games you could play. They had one called "Dead Man Walking" where one member of each team put on an elastic headband. If the player wearing the headband was hit, the game was over. Then they also had a round where they had two normal sized dodgeballs, plus one giant dodgeball which they could use to block the smaller dodgeballs.

The 1st match was a team of jockeys who average around 4 foot 10 and 95 pounds taking on a the Sumo Storm. The Sumo storm was a bit misleading. There were only two guys who really looked like sumo wrestlers. The rest were just big fat guys. The grossest is the guy pictured above. He was just a big, sweaty, hairy guy. It was like watching James Gandolfini running around out there. There was one guy who was I believe was named Amerigus, who had quite an arm. He could really whip that ball around.

The jockeys kicked some major ass. They used their agility and small stature to their advantage and beat the Sumo Storm pretty easily. At one point one of the jockeys fired a ball at one of the Sumo guys who was in the process of trying to jump out of the way and it literally knocked the Sumo guy off his feet. That was pretty awesome.

Overall I think the most entertaining group to watch was a group of rent a cops called "Armed Response". They had this one guy who was like a ballerina out there. He didn't just throw the ball, he spun around like he was throwing a shot put. They had a lot of flashly players, but they sucked. They got their asses handed to them by the Certified Public Assasins.

I think the show has the same kind of appeal as shows like Extreme Elimination Challenge, so I don't think it will have a long run. I think people will grow tired of it after a while. The only way I can see them keeping the show energetic and new is if they have different venues to play at. Having obstacles to contend with, perhaps playing in the dark with a glow in the dark ball, or maybe trap doors that randomly open and swallow up players. They'll have to do something to keep people interested. Having two teams in a rectangular court will get boring.