Maikeru

10 hours ago, bbabba said:

Of course, could vary from city to city within Northern Ireland.  Wrestling may be a lot more popular in Belfast, which I've only ever visited once so can't comment on.

 

I'm from Belfast and was surprised to hear you've only been over once - until I realised I've only been to Derry once! 

1 hour ago, mim731 said:

I might be miles off, and it's pure speculation, but I would imagine the point about the north of England is probably a historical legacy from the sheer number of working class towns. Wrestling was not traditionally the sort of entertainment that would have appealed to middle or upper class audiences in the past, so the legacy of that culture within those working class towns would have made them historical hotbeds for promotions to book. Also the price of venues etc compared to the South East of England I would imagine plays some role there. Given Scotland, Wales and the North of Ireland were all largely working class areas too, or certainly areas that relied on agriculture and industry in the past, those roots probably mirror northern England. 

I was thinking along the same lines. When you look at search volume by city it's Bradford and Wolverhampton right at the top and the likes of Cambridge and Brighton right at the bottom. Middle classes of the South too busy with the cricket and rugby perhaps? 😉 Can see how wrestling might be seen as a bit lowbrow in some circles.  

If you are sceptical then head over to Google Trends, where you can look at relative keyword search volume within the UK since 2004 broken down by region and (if you want) city. Try all the usual terms - ‘wrestling news’, ‘pro wrestling’, ‘WWE’, ‘Wrestlemania’ and a few other niche ones for good measure - ‘Njpw’ etc. You will almost invariably find nearly twice as much volume for N. Ireland as England per head, not far off that for Scotland, with Wales somewhere in the middle. If you look at it by city it’ll be Glasgow and Belfast up at the very top most of the time, with Cardiff and northern English cities following suit - the further north you go, the more popular it is it would seem. 

I have always thought that there seemed to be a disproportionate amount of buzz for wrestling in these places - look at how much modern talent to come out of Ireland and Scotland relative to their populations; pretty much any major English wrestler I can think of is from the North except Nigel McGuinness, Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll... ok there must be others but it’s late); look at the local scenes with ICW and OTT; the amount of WWE house shows they get. But this is the first time I’ve come across hard evidence for this hypothesis. 
 

Reasons? 

On 1/26/2021 at 12:00 AM, boyfriend said:

Would love to see this if you can link me up? Thanks

Might have been this one actually not UKFF (scroll to bottom of thread): Is Dusty (Hasbro) hard to find in the UK? | Wrestlingfigs.com WWE Figure Forums

I saw a post on UKFF a while back with a scan of a letter from the UK distributor of hasbros from back in the day confirming which figures from each series were released here. The mystery of why I couldn’t find Dusty Rhodes anywhere despite knowing a ton of people with massive collections was finally answered. Can’t remember if Andre the Giant went completely unreleased here or just had an incredibly small run, but couldn’t get him either.

I’m surprised to hear people went years not knowing what had happened to Hogan and Savage - WCW magazine had a short lived run here around 94/95 I think but PWI would have been in WH Smith’s throughout the decade right? What about the Billionaire Ted skits?

Definitely remember spending years wondering what happened to Warrior after ‘92 though. Also Sid Justice, Demolition Ax (knew who Repo Man really was think) and Dusty Rhodes (he was mainly behind the scenes in WCW at the time wasn’t he?).

On 11/19/2020 at 11:54 PM, Mikeymike83 said:

I stand corrected.... partly!

I didn't realise how early he started with the company. I've had it in my head it was '86. But never mind, that bit I'm wrong on.

Personally, however, I would go from WM7 as his face turn. But, I won't argue with your saying it was his reinstatement as an active wrestler. All interpretive I guess!

 

Edit: I'm of the opinion he was equally adept at either side of the good guy/bad guy spectrum. I'd edge towards face though, he was my favourite good guy (And probably overall) when I first got into wrestling in '91. So my heart always leans towards the Macho Man as a babyface wrestler.

He was still a heel on commentary for a while after WM7 though. The turn was quite gradual I think.

I've tried this a number of times before:

WWF from Jan 1984 starting with MSG event with Hogan vs Shiek and watching all TNT episodes. Got bored after about 7 episodes.

WWF from Jan 1987 watching all the Prime Times. Got bored around WM4.

WWF from April 1992 watching superstars. Only Seen Mooney's Podcast has sustained me. 

WCW from first Nitro. Got bored during first PPV.

WWF from start of attitude era in Dec '97. This one kept me interested for a while, till around June '98. But I never watched the attitude era before.

I liked Greg Valentine too. Had great music in 1991. And blonde hair.

Definitely Sid. 

Demolition including the Crush & Smash incarnation; in my view far superior to the bald Legion of Doom (whose music I didn't like either).

Big Bossman as a heel (feud with Hogan really drew me in).

Akeem (possibly just cause I had the Hasbro and it was quite rare round my way).

Powers of Pain. Face paint and music.

Lex Luger as a face '93-'95.

Gorilla on commentary. 

Brutus Beefcake. 

Brother Love. 

I shared a lot of my random wrestler interactions on this thread a while back: https://ukff.com/topic/140077-strange-encounters-with-wrestlers/page/5/

Can think of a couple of others (more 'friends of friends' type stuff than direct claims to fame):

- My grandparents (may God rest their souls) lived round the corner from Finlay and knew his Dad (Fit Finlay Sr). My ex-girlfriend's Mum also went to school with Finlay Jr and my ex's brother went to Finlay Sr's amateur wrestling school when we were dating. When I met Finlay at a Smackdown house show in 2003 (well before he'd come out of retirement and was still a road agent) he seemed miffed that I'd recognised him/interrupted his conversation with another member of the crew for an autograph and wasn't having any of the 'my Granda knows yer Da' chat I tried on. 

- One of my good Japanese friend's sister is a professional interpreter and translator for the entertainment industry and spent a whole day interpreting for Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart in Tokyo a few years back (including on a visit to Ribera Steakhouse) - I even saw the pictures to prove it. Said Hogan talked about his son Nick a lot to Jimmy. She also does (or at least used to) do the Japanese subtitling for TNA shows. I also randomly met a guy from Tampa in a karaoke bar who said his Dad was the doctor who treated John Graziano after the tragic accident and obviously dealt with the Hogans (apparently Tampa residents are well used to seeing them around though - even Hulk). 

Yeah seriously I've never been able to figure out how all the groups of mates I see at indie shows actually come to know each other - I'd be hard pressed to find someone who's into that in my entire electoral constituency let alone my own circle of acquaintances. There was the IT bloke at work about a year back who spotted me with the observer open when remote accessing my computer, but he was purely WWE. I did get to know some of the regulars to say hello to at shows back when I used to frequent them but it wasn't like we became buddies. On the other hand I've also felt that fans at the smaller shows really ought to treat everyone they see like their best mate given how obscure a hobby they share!

Used to be a regular at my local promotion Future Pro Wrestling in South London until it folded a couple of years back. He still wrestles at the Resistance Gallery once every few months or so. 

My 4 year old asked me this the other night after watching Shawn Michaels win the World Heavyweight Title belt from Triple H in the 2002 Survivor Series elimination chamber. It took me a second before recalling a conversation from like three weeks ago when he asked me why I had to put on a belt, and I replied that I can't go to work with my trousers falling down. 

Any funny questions you've had from mums/dads/kids/mates unfamiliar with the business? 

Junk Yard Dog torturing someone (possibly a jobber) by choking him with his chains repeatedly and brutalising him in various other ways for what seemed like half an hour on WCW Worldwide in '91. I was 6 or a young 7 at the time and pretty traumatised thinking it was all real. 

Something probably did happen with a guy getting choked with chains but unlikely to have been JYD as he was a face (and it probably didn't last half an hour on what was a 60 minute show on ITV). 

Seems almost everyone here got into it during the ‘91 to ‘92 UK boom (as did I).

Hogan vs Warrior 2, besides the botched flaming paper thing at the end, really wasn’t that bad a match.

On 10/4/2019 at 11:53 AM, ThumpSquids said:

All very simple moves to perform, provided a small amount of athletic ability and coordination.  

To do them well, i.e. at the right time, for the right reason, that's the tricky part. 

Yep, a rookie wrestler in Japan once told me he had a ton of moves (dropkick included) off to a tee in training but just couldn't use them when performing. He's better now but took ages to learn the timing side of things. 

Am keen to hear from those with some experience of training. Some of my guesses are:

Easier than they look:

- Arm drags (receiving - always impressed how even the most inexperienced wrestlers manage to flip themselves over for these)

- Suplexes

- Drop kicks (to me these look impossible, but seems everyone can do them)

Harder than they look:

- Some worked submission holds

- Clotheslines (that don't look phoney)

- Irish whips into turnbuckle (receiving)

- Running the ropes (seems you have to turn in a very specific way)

What do folks think of WrestleTalk? A good bit thinner than FSM, kind of a cross between it and Powerslam. Some interesting content though. 

5 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

The TV audience is down and going further down seemingly by the week but measures like social media interaction, clicks and views of videos online are huge.

Known in marketing lingo as 'vanity metrics' - they are notorious for not converting into actual revenue for the company. 

How anyone finds Strictly Come Dancing entertaining is beyond me. But admittedly a much larger proportion of the population would struggle to understand what I see in wrestling than would question my mum's love of Strictly.

There are likely less than ten million people worldwide watching wrestling regularly. Should the industry be thankful that there are that many people willing to suspend disbelief for a fake sport? Or is the level of talent and sacrifice required from performers compared with other forms of arts and entertainment such that it's a travesty more people don't appreciate it? 

Was at a convention in London a few years back and decided to pop into the Wetherspoons next door for lunch and pint. As it would turn out, so did Jim Ross, Typhoon, Papa Shango, Ron Simmons, and Demolition (who sat a few tables away). I happened to leave around the same time to go back to the venue next door, and overheard Ax ask the hotel reception for a cab to Heathrow in the morning. 

I had gotten a pic taken with Ax and Smash earlier in the day, plus an autograph afterwards when I told them enthusiastically that I'd come out just to see them. Ax was polite and asked how far I'd had to come..... felt a bit awkward answering "er.... South London". So after seeing them for a pic, then for an autograph, then in Wetherspoons, then at the hotel reception, I ran into them a fourth time when they were on their way out of the convention hall and stopped to check out a really impressive fan artist's work. I already was feeling a bit paranoid at this point that they'd think I was stalking them. I hurried to the lift after that to go up to the ground floor (convention was in the basement of the hotel). Just as the doors were about to close, in walks Jim Ross and........ Demolition. I pretended to be completely uninterested and kept my eyes fixed on my phone. In the process I inadvertently forgot to press the button for the ground floor, and ended up going to the 7th floor with the three of them, who then got out to head back to their rooms. I didn't lift my head once. 

I worked ring boy jobs here and there for a few promotions when I lived in Japan from '07 to '08. At a NOAH show in Kyoto we were setting up the ring a few hours before bell time and Kenta Kobashi walked in and started lifting weights right there in the venue hall. 

Chris Hero was lurking at the back of the crowd after his match at one of the other NOAH shows watching the rest of the bouts and came up to speak to me (curious as to what this white guy was doing checking tickets in a random Japanese city) - his opening line was "you don't look very Japanese!". I explained I'd gotten the gig via involvement in the local university pro wrestling society (yes those are a thing in Japan) and he was like..... "oh cool". He was a gent and best part of it was I got to ask him a burning question I'd had for ages that only a foreign wrestler in Japan could answer - "given few of the Japanese wrestlers speak much English, how do you communicate in the ring?". He had no issue breaking kayfabe in explaining that it's generally ok because most wrestling moves/sequences are intuitive, "just as long as you don't do anything complicated!"

Taiyo Kea approached me for the same reason before an All Japan show I worked at in the same venue. Said his Japanese was still so-so after all his years there and that mine was probably better. Nice and humble bloke. 

Taru and Brother Yasshi (from Dragon Gate) are in all the time at a wrestling-themed pub in Kobe at which I was regular for the years I was there and still visit when I'm in the country. I once asked Taru to chop me and he had no hesitation in obliging. He let me reciprocate (I'd had about six pints by this point) and thankfully made it out in one piece. He told me he was returning to All Japan a few years ago (but it ended up falling through). Yasshi is a gent and pretends to be impressed watching me sing karaoke in Japanese. His family are in the gravestone making business and he plans to retire to that at some point. 

17 minutes ago, bbabba said:

Yes, I remember how great it was in 1999-2000, going to the local newsagents and the sheer volume of magazines you could get.  If you went to somewhere like WHSmith you could also get the imported American magazines, with their 5 month out of date, kayfabe coverage. 

You can still get PWI in some of the bigger WH Smiths. 

In general, wrestlers and promoters ought to be more respectful and grateful to fans given their support for what is a very niche product at the end of the day. People who are entertained by, and prepared to suspend their disbelief and cheer for other people pretending to fight, and pay money to see them do something they really enjoy should be appreciated (unless they are abusive obviously). Otherwise one of these days there just might not be too many of them around anymore.  

The star rating system is meaningless. The criteria used is extremely vague and unclear; what makes a good wrestling match is pretty much entirely down to personal opinion.