A.P.

Just a heads up, I bought Jericho's new book today from WH Smiths, so it is out in the shops a week before its official release date, in case anyone wants to pick it up.

Brian, given your forthright pledges on here over the last few weeks, I excitedly picked up the new issue at lunchtime today, alas to find on the second page I read....A TYPO!! From the Stop Press snippets: 'Taryn "Tiffany" Terrell was pulled a scheduled match for Pro Wrestling Revolution'.

 

I know it may be pedantic, but seriously, how difficult is it to weed these simple errors out? I read Powerslam and PWI each month and they don't have them. Nor does Four Four Two magazine, World Soccer or any of the other magazines I may pick up over the course of a month. It makes FSM come across as second rate and unprofessional, when in actuality you are most probably a talented and hard-working bunch.

 

I hope you take this comment constructively and as intended (i.e. positively), and look forward to the continued improvements.

I'm sad to see that this got through. I won't, however, comment on errors I see in other magazines.

 

This month's FSM has over 41,000 words of text in its features, news, and columns alone, which is much, much more than either of the other wrestling magazines you mentioned. That, however, should not act as an excuse, and I hope that the small error will not spoil your enjoyment of this issue.

Thanks for the reply, and it's good to see it is not being ignored. I look forward to reading the rest of the magazine, especially the NJPW article.

Brian, given your forthright pledges on here over the last few weeks, I excitedly picked up the new issue at lunchtime today, alas to find on the second page I read....A TYPO!! From the Stop Press snippets: 'Taryn "Tiffany" Terrell was pulled a scheduled match for Pro Wrestling Revolution'.

I know it may be pedantic, but seriously, how difficult is it to weed these simple errors out? I read Powerslam and PWI each month and they don't have them. Nor does Four Four Two magazine, World Soccer or any of the other magazines I may pick up over the course of a month. It makes FSM come across as second rate and unprofessional, when in actuality you are most probably a talented and hard-working bunch.

I hope you take this comment constructively and as intended (i.e. positively), and look forward to the continued improvements.

Would anybody like to see a article where a closed queston is asked then the person saying yes could write why they think yes and ditto for no.

 

An example would be " Do you think Batista would do well in MMA?" and the writer who thinks yes could give his view and reasons why and then a writer who thinks no could do the same

They do exactly this in The Wrestler/Inside Wrestling magazine and it is always very interesting. So yes, that would be a good addition to FSM in my view...

Sneaky fuckers have clearly been lurking on here for a while

This, very much so. Last time I read FSM, it was guilty of the same thing PowerSlam and Every Wrestling Website Ever Besides Official Company Ones And Slam.Ca are guilty of: The tone was always "This is crap because it's not like ROH." It'd be nice to see the new FSM run stuff from writers who don't use the independent, hour-match promotions as their benchmark for entertainment.

I implore you to actually check out a recent issue of FSM, because perhaps if you did, you'd realise that FSM preaches no such viewpoint of 'if it's not ROH it's crap', and is in fact the complete opposite of this, taking a very objective, impartial, fair and balanced view towards all types of wrestling, with the scope of their coverage obviously weighted to suit popularity/relevance.

By posting comments such as the above, you present yourself as of the same intelligence as the people you constantly denounce who slag off Cena, the PG era and WWE programming despite having not watched it for years.

Been hearing that they are starting to turn a corner under their new editor but I have not managed to get a copy to see for myself.

 

So has the quality of the mag improved recently or is it still pretty much the same?

In the last two issues, we've turned FSM on its head in terms of the style of writing, and overall voice of the magazine. We've overhauled our staff to meet professional print journalism standards, and we've expanded the scope of our wrestling coverage tremendously. Furthermore, FSM is now unquestionably a pro wrestling magazine - which, from my understanding, was a bone of contention at some points in its history.

 

I'm coming from a biased position, obviously, but if you have not checked out a recent edition of the magazine (issue 62 came out on Dec 30; issue 63 is out on January 27), then I would recommend you do so if you have been previously put off by the tone of FSM or other publications.

 

In all honesty, the feedback to the new regime, so to speak, has been very positive indeed, but I'd value any opinion from the UKFF that was made constructively and thoughtfully. I'll do my best to answer questions that I can.

 

 

Brian Elliott

Editor, Fighting Spirit Magazine

Hi Brian,

I thought the current issue was excellent, with a vastly noticeable improvement in the tone and professionalism of the articles. Certainly the best issue I can remember for a long time in the 2 and a half years I've been buying FSM. This was vastly welcomed, because I had felt the magazine had been going downhill in recent months, with the recent MMA-filled issue that James Denton guest-edited almost putting me of buying FSM altogether as a final straw! (that isn't meant as a cheap dig towards him, I'm just being honest!)

That said, I have read FSM for 2 and a half years now and have largely enjoyed it, so I am very glad that a turnaround is on the cards, and look forward to the continued improvements. The Japanese wrestling article was excellent and I look forward to many more of this ilk. That said, a few improvements that I would suggest are:

- Please please please sort the typo errors out!!! This has been going on for years, and if continued, it would seriously put in jeopardy me buying the magazine every month. If the magazine can't be bothered to read what they have written, why should I?

- As said by a previous poster, I often find the guest columns to be very weak and samey (and in some cases now, irritating and self-appreciating). Perhaps cutting down on the numbers, and a total change of columnists would freshen it up (and no I'm not talking about Gorilla Typhoon!). Perhaps one of the UK guys like Mark Sloan etc to cover the 'what it's like to be a wrestler' type of stuff, and someone like Mark Madden for an edgier column? And keep them on topic with stricter column guidelines! If I wanted to read about Wayne Rooney, I'd buy FourFourTwo!

- Just as there is a small and brief roundup section for UK action, similar for International and U.S. indy would be much welcomed (kind of like PWI do at the back of their magazine). Perhaps space could be made by dropping a guest column. I feel this would bring a more total coverage of pro-wrestling, and one that, hats off to you, is very positive every month and constructive (unlike, say, Powerslam).

- Dropping MMA content and coverage, barring that which relates to pro-wrestling, such as this month's good article on how MMA uses the pro-wrestling template to draw money. It has never made much sense to me doing a hybrid magazine as I feel you are always alienating someone. MMA fans will be annoyed if there isn't enough MMA, and pro-wrestling fans such as myself will be annoyed at not enough pro-wrestling. As the saying goes, you can't be all things to all people.

I hope these points come across as constructive, and I look forward to the next issue!

Nitro 96 reached me today, many thanks!

Haha that is hilarious. Hard to tell whether London is humouring him throughout, and the guy is clearly a pillock, yet as said, brilliant posture and really pulls off the paper wrist tag.

5 pages of people mentioning all kinds of shit with no critisism, then a few mentions of Cena lead to the people posting it being questioned for why they hate him and people summizing it's just because it's the cool thing to do.

 

I'm all for discussion and everything but a lot of people on here seem to dismiss anyone critisizing John Cena as someone doing it just to get a reaction.

 

Personally I find his matches hard to enjoy because his offence and his selling - so everything he does inside a wrestling ring - are so phony looking (something I've never said about any other WWE main eventer ever) that I can't suspend my disbelief, and I have the same problem with his promos. I love psychology in a match where the heel breaks down the babyface until he can muster up a comeback. That's probably the biggest critisism of Cena (and there are many), that he STILL hasn't grasped the concept that if somebody works for 10 minutes on your arm or leg you really shouldn't be running around or picking people up 2 minutes later.

So there is literally nothing about John Cena I enjoy watching.

 

... just kidding, I only don't like him because it's the cool thing to do.

 

I'm something of a Cena fan (I thought he was a shoe-in for 'wrestler of the year' in 2007 and by far the most consistent headliner in 2009 as well) and I disagree with pretty much everything you've said there, re. Cena's actual working ability (I even think he's a decent promo) but I do think you raise a valid point: If people dislike Cena that much and he's such a big part of the product then I'd say that's a perfectly valid reason for them to jack it in.

His fans can defend his actual matches, promos, angles, etc. as much as they want but if someone doesn't find any of them entertaining and they are a big part of the show then I can see why it would make them quit.

 

Absolutely.

 

I never missed more than 3 or 4 consecutive episodes of Raw or pay-per-views from 1993 all the way through until earlier this year.

 

Despite my dislike of Cena, I always tuned in because at least when he faced the other main eventers (with the exception of Sheamus) they were good enough workers to carry him to decent matches in decent feuds imo.

 

So the final straw for me was the night Nexus attacked Cena. Seeing legitimate rookies feuding with John Cena was such a horrible prospect in my mind that I haven't watched a Raw or ppv since that night.

 

I still read reviews of the shows each Tuesday and if I see something interesting I will then watch a repeat, but it hasn't happened yet.

I'd never really thought about this, but John Cena does actually play a large part in stopping me watching Raw at present, and I take the same approach as above and just read reports on Tuesday morning. That is why I think Cena is so hated, because the hatred from the fans goes beyond just hating his character, and is present because Cena actually prevents some of us from actually enjoying something we genuinely love. But the thing to remember is that Cena just goes out and does as he is told (i.e. spray painting JBL is poopy on a limo) and does what he is allowed to get away with (i.e. shit selling and ridiculous comebacks), so really we are hating Vince and the WWE for insulting us, and not actually Cena. He is just the scapegoat who we can channel all of our frustrations at current WWE through because he is the benchmark for the current state of play.

I remember there was a period in probably 2008/2009 where I stopped watching WWE also, and that was larglely because of Triple H, and because I grew very frustrated with him burying other wrestlers in his promos and getting clean wins over all and sundry. However, in retrospect, he was just doing what he was told and what he was allowed to get away with (although the argument against Triple H is a big stronger due to his stroke in the company).

The point is, it seems there is always a character in wrestling who it is popular to hate, but really what is hated is what he stands for and what he is preventing us from enjoying and what he is forcing us to endure. And really, all of these matters beging and end with Vince, and Stephanie (and maybe Triple H).