Anna Bauert has been one of our more unique hires at Fightful.com. She produced and starred in "Most Ridiculous" for months, has done a ton of photoshop and editing work for us, co-hosted Tuesday and post-PPV podcasts, and even a little writing, too. All this in addition to being an award-winning actress. I thought she'd be a good subject for our first Fightful Spotlight, where we take a look at the personalities....of some of our personalities.
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What got you into wrestling?
I started watching when I was about six years old – the local video store in my small town for some (god-sent) reason had an entire section of WrestleManias, SummerSlams, Survivor Series, etc. For a kid, I became pretty well-versed in late 80s/early 90s WWF very quickly. I would also defy booking and pretend I was tag partner of the Ultimate Warrior and Jake the Snake, or part of The British Bulldogs. My actual dog also made a great tag partner when we took on the living room furniture.
What made you take the leap into training, and how did that go?
Pro wrestling weaved in and out of my life over the last ten years. When Warrior died, my attention switched back and soon after provided me an inexplicable kind of happiness. It got to the point I knew I needed it in my life in some capacity, I just had no idea how or where I would fit in this equation. I started classes to see if in-ring was the way to go. It was a lot of fun—painful as hell (I can still viscerally recall bumping in a ring for the first time), and I wasn’t bad. At my time at the school, I also worked as a heel manager (there is no experience quit like having 5yos spit at you... I wouldn’t recommend it), and ring announcer / MC. I ended up enjoying the latter the most, but then life and acting gigs picked up and it all had to go on pause for a while. I would like to step back in the ring at some point, not with the goal of being a pro wrestler, but just to have a few moves up my sleeve. You never know when they might be useful... *cough* #AnnaforGLOWs02 *cough*
I remember you saying that you sometimes see acting as a gateway to wrestling. Is that still the case?
They go hand in hand. To be a pro wrestler you have to be able to sell a promo and pull off a gimmick. And you do see a lot of actors crossover into the pro wrestling world, either with interest or as a wrestler. To me, pro wrestling is this crazy mix of soap opera, pantomime, stunt work, and live theatre. So it makes total sense for a guy like Stephen Amell to step into a ring, given the physicality of Arrow, and vice versa with Cody Rhodes guest starring on his show. It’s another avenue. And hey, pro wrestling Shakespeare... now there’s an idea.
Who would you say are some of the better actors within WWE?
It’s always the ones who have their persona figured out, back to front and inside out. They’re able to handle the scripts, regardless of quality, because they know their perspective on it. KO I think is one of the best in the company. You can put him on commentary and just run, he knows exactly where Kevin Owens stands. The Miz and Alexa Bliss are also fantastic. Brian Pillman, despite the...morally questionable storylines, will always be a favorite of mine because of how in-depth he went with that persona. That was almost Daniel Day-Lewis level method acting.
What is the process for Most Ridiculous like?
Long.
Overall it takes about five days. There’s a lot of content to cover, angles to dissect and spin. Filming takes about 45mins to an hour, depending on how well I’ve prepared. Next is editing and condensing the footage to trim the fat and put in within its time limit (I try crop it to around 5.30 at this point). Photoshops probably take the most time with preparing the images, cutting them together and blending. But it’s an integral part to the show since it essentially works as another character, and can further the story or deliver the punchline. Then it’s just refining until I think it’s passable, uploading it, gathering screenshots for marketing, and we’re off to the races.
And then it’s Monday and we start all over again.
Most Ridiculous helped land you an acting job, explain that please.
It was actually the reason I booked a horror feature earlier this year. The director found my material online, which he liked, but said it was Most Ridiculous that brought me over the finish line. It’s nice to know that even if people have no idea what I’m talking about, they still appreciate the passion (I hear that a lot from friends).
