Just How Awesome is Steven Seagal?

          If you are anything like me, you've asked yourself this question many times. How awesome is Steven Seagal? You've seen at least one of his movies before. Or if you're like me, you've seen all of them! I even bought Under Siege on Blu-Ray because I can't get enough of Casey Ryback. Also, the opening scene to Above the Law where he's in his dojo beating up all his students at once might be one of the most bad ass openings ever. What you might not know about that scene is that it's actual footage of him in his dojo. He is a 6th degree Black-belt in Akido, a pretty serious martial arts technique focused on punches and throws. That whole opening scene was someone taping his class. If you've seen it, that's why the quality isn't exactly movie quality. I feel like I'm wasting my time telling you how awesome Steven Seagal is because it's obvious you already know.
          It's not just his movies that make him such a man's man. I'm sure you've heard of the UFC fighter Anderson "the Spider" Silva. Mr. Silva has been training with Steven Seagal and used one of his techniques in his last win. It's a similar technique that I talked about in my "how would you dodge a front kick" blog. Lyoto Machida is a training partner of Silva's and undoubtedly got the same front kick from Steve. Yes, I've watched his movies enough I can call him Steve! Not only does he dominate the action/fight scene movie genre, he also trains real fighters that win fights with his techniques. How awesome is that?
          He might not be the best actor in Hollywood. I'll admit that. But this next story just made me appreciate the man even more. A central Pennsylvania  pastor has been telling his followers for the past 5 years that he was a Navy SEAL in Vietnam. He even had the audacity to wear the SEAL's gold trident medal around his hometown. When his story was looked at more closely. There were some serious similarities to the cinema classic I mentioned above. Oh yea, I'm talking about Under Siege. This pastor has been telling his congregation and others in his hometown that he was a Navy SEAL in Vietnam and his stories were closely related the exploits of one Casey Ryback. A Navy SEAL cook with a bad attitude and a general dislike for authority figures. The pastor's story has been brought to light and set straight by some actual Navy SEALs that say they deal with people like this all the time. More surprisingly is how many of those frauds are members of the clergy. Ridiculous.
          I can't blame the guy for copying Casey Ryback though. As far as Navy SEAL stories go, he has a pretty awesome one. I could go on and on about how awesome Steven Seagal is. However, other than the reasons above I can't think of anything. That sheriff show he did, or is still doing, is lame. But, all the movies he's done and lives he's affected make him one of my favorite action stars. He should be one of yours too. So I ask the question again. Just how awesome is Steven Seagal? I went to 7-11 on my lunch break and asked the nice guy in the alley how awesome he was. As I zipped up my pants and he took the first bite of his Ham Sandwich, you know what he told me? "Pretty awesome dude." I couldn't have said it better myself.