Cobra Kai Season 6 pays homage to forgotten action movie with sorry Rotten Tomatoes score

Cobra Kai loves a musical throwback to the 1980s, but in Part 1 of Season 6, the show pays homage to a truly terrible action movie from the 1990s.

Johnny Lawrence adores the rock music and hair metal from his glory days, as the Cobra Kai soundtrack proves. But he’s also a big fan of action movies from the 1980s and ’90s – mainly the big ones that starred Arnie and Sly.

But Johnny also loves those straight-to-video flicks that featured the likes of Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Michael Dudikoff.

In the final episode of Season 6 Part 1, he trains the kids of Cobra Kai using beer bottles and racist dummies. But he also makes them watch one such feature; a film that’s designed to inspire his students to believe in themselves. And that movie is Best of the Best 2.

Best of the Best 2 explained

Best of the Best 2 is an action sequel that hit screens in 1993 and starred Eric Roberts and Chris Penn.

The first movie was released in 1989 and starred those same actors alongside James Earl Jones, Sally Kirkland, and Louise Fletcher. It told the story of a rag-tag group of American fighters heading abroad to compete in a martial arts tournament. So not unlike the plot of Cobra Kai Season 6.

Best of the Best 2 focuses on their return, with Penn’s character being killed in an underground fight club, and Roberts’ character eventually entering the fray to avenge him.

It isn’t a great movie. The first Best of the Best has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 33%. While 2 is down to 10%. One critic states “The narrative is filled with unintentional humor.” While another writes that “as far as this style of junk goes, Best of the Best 2 is pretty darn bad.”

But while the sequel was a theatrical disappointment as well as a critical dud, it ultimately found an audience on video, so much so that Best of the Best 2 was followed by a pair of (even more dismal) sequels.

The film also found a fan in Johnny Lawrence, who encourages his students to be more like Eric Roberts in the series. As well as the creative team behind Cobra Kai, who named Episode 5 of Season 6 ‘Best of the Best.’

For more on the show, here’s the Cobra Kai release schedule, details of what’s in Mr. Miyagi’s box, plus how the new Season 6 Part 1 twist sets up a huge confrontation in the future.