Statto

3 hours ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

 I also have a vague memory of seeing Loki wrestle in Norwich, I think Scott Conway promoted that. 

Think you might be thinking of New Era Wrestling in Ipswich, which was a Dann Read promotion? One of those first show of a new promotion that turns out to be the only show.

Rarely will you hear the kind of odd existence of a minor touring band summed up better:

I have a wrestling one of these that I'd forgotten (repressed) until watching the Iron Claw the other night. 

The year is 1990, 8 year old me is about a year into his wrestling fandom, and the Texas Tornado has just blown into the World Wrestling Federation. The announcers acknowledge that his "real name" is Kerry Von Erich, but that never appears in writing. 

At the same time, I discover a stall on the local Sunday market that sells copies of old Apter mags. One day I nag dad enough to let me come home with a copy of The Wrestler or something from about 1987. One of the articles, opening me to this whole mad world outside the WWF, refers to somebody or other having had a long established feud with a "Fritz Von Erich". 

Not being able to comprehend that there could possibly be two people in wrestling with such an odd surname, my feeble child's brain reaches the only conclusion it can - the name "Kerry" must be spelled very differently to the way it is pronounced.

This would be bad enough on it's own, but... one day I'm at my mate Gavin's, my mum comes to pick me up. She and his mum start chatting about one of the other mums, whose name I learn at that point is Kerry. I take this opportunity to to show off my towering intellect, and spend the next 10 minutes arguing that the name "Kerry" is unusually spelled "F-R-I-T-Z". 

I still think I left the conversation adamant that must be how you spelled the man's version of the name. 

Just left the cinema. Thought it was fab. Had everything I want in a movie - tragedy, wrestling & Lily James with a southern accent.

If anything, I thought movie Fritz wasn't enough of a cunt to do the real thing justice. And as Lister said, it's one of those wrestling movies where wrestling is a work, except when it isn't.

Oh yeah, and like Lister I thought "if I could travel anywhere in space & time right now it'd be the Dallas Sportatorium on a Saturday night when the von Erich boys were booked against the Freebirds" Especially if Lily James was waiting outside with a southern accent. 

One of my favourite artists has got a nice little ditty about an ageing journeyman MMA fighter on his latest release:

20 minutes ago, Sergio Mendacious said:

Might be a bit rose-tinted as a memory, but I saw Magic, the Queen tribute band, in a Butlins showbar in about 1991, and they absolutely peeled the paint off the walls.

Yep, I saw a LOT of Queen tributes in the mid to late 90s (I was a Queen obsessive in my high school years) and these were always by far my favourite. 

I always enjoyed that they did half & half dress up too - "Freddie" was in full Wembley 86 attire but no fake tache or similar, "Brian" had a Guild Red Special & a wig, "Roger" wore a black & white striped top not dissimilar to one the real thing wore in 86, "John" just didn't bother, and then there was the second guitarist (who also covered keyboard parts with a synth pedal, so "Spike Edney?" who had no one to really try to dress up as anyway. 

Ah that sucks. Like Mojo a lot, and you've posted my favourite song! 

Edit: what the hell, I'll add this. Maybe tonight Mojo, maybe tonight... 

6 hours ago, Surf Digby said:

I've seen a couple of Beatles tributes recently that were both good. I can't remember the name of the first, but apparently the bass player taught himself to play left handed for extra authenticity. 

The others were The Vox Beatles, who did three sets, each in a different era. 

Now this has unlocked a memory!

New Year's Eve 2014 (I think), I was single, none of my mates were so no one was going out. Some friends of mine had very recently taken over the bar/restaurant on a posh campsite about an hour away, said they were doing a party for the lodge owners/residents and I should come down. So I did. 

I walk into not only said lodge owners party, but someone's WEDDING RECEPTION. The band at the reception were a Beatles tribute who played 3 sets in era appropriate costumes (I don't think they're were called Vox Beatles, but maybe). As they were packing up, I had to ask "Paul" if he was really left handed.

"No mate, but the pictures made my skin crawl every time I looked at them so I had to learn it that way round."

They'd come from Scotland for the gig, by the way. Finished after midnight, packed up the van and headed back home. From the Suffolk coast. On New Year's Eve. Those lads must've made THOUSANDS that night. I hope. 

When I was a younger man, me and a mate would travel up to Liverpool every year for the Mathew Street festival, which the scousers among us will know features primarily tribute bands on the main stage at Pier Head. 

One that particularly sticks in the mind was a Guns n Roses tribute who seemingly shared the real band's timekeeping abilities. 

As their set barrelled towards its crescendo, fake Axl snarled in his fake Axl voice "And now... we're gonna take you DOWN... to the PARADISE CITAAAY!" 

At that point, a bloke walked on from stage left, tapped his watch and shook his head. 

"Errr... actually doesn't look like we are everyone" fake Axl sheepishly said in his real Midlands accent. "Sorry, cheers, bye."

And off they shuffled. 

5 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

That’s not completely true. There were absolutely fan made ones. There were also a lot of rectangular ones with #wewantcody in red that were scattered around the crowd, also seen at the NXT PLE on Sunday.

Such things can be the result of coordinated fan efforts, though. 

I attended two tapings in different cities in the States in 2015 and at both there were fans going up and down the queues to get in handing out loads of "Cesaro Section" signs. 

It sticks in my mind because of the older lady behind me in the queue in Memphis who asked them "What the hell is a sezzerow?" 

Another streaming service related one - I cancelled my BT/TNT Sports subscription back in July when it became apparent they were no longer going to be showing college football after the re-brand. 

My account was one that was originally direct with ESPN, then transferred direct to BT, so I had to phone BT to cancel it. They'd already done the integration into Discovery+ before I cancelled though for the last 6 months I've still been able to get TNT Sports through there despite not paying for it.

They seem to have caught up with me last week, though. Sadly. 

Ugh. I still remember vividly the day Norwich handed their official twitter account over from the lead press officer to a social media manager.

It was like the club had had lobotomy overnight. 

Yeah Dasha had a bit of a 'mare on that one.

"Accompanied by...

*lengthy awkward silence*

... the Kingdom, from Cincinatti, Ohio - Mr Wardlow... Mr Mayhem, Wardlow!" 

I'd assumed EVP Nicholas Jackson's shitty moustache was intended to evoke Vince's, and the fact it was grown out into a goatee this week seems to have confirmed that. 

On 1/30/2024 at 2:30 PM, Statto said:

My old man was a long distance (UK only though) lorry driver too. I've also spent many an hour sat in footwells to get through various levels of security gates. 

Dad used to push it and try to make me laugh by giving his name as Meldrew when asked. In the 90s, that was as funny as it got. 

I realise we're now a couple of pages/days removed from the lorry driving dads discussion but if you'll indulge me - went down a bit of a rabbit hole of haulage nostalgia websites/Facebook pages today to see if I could find a photo of the lorry I spent the majority of my footwell time in. 

Very close but no cigar - IIRC they got 3 of these ERFs from new with sequential plates. These are the other 2, Dad had 571.

Dad's not driving anymore, by the way. He had a heart attack whilst waiting to load somewhere in Derby at roughly 7am on his 70th birthday, drove as far as Nottingham then finally phoned mum to say he didn't feel well. Mum phoned an ambulance and that was that for his HGV licence.

But this is what a fair chunk of my childhood looked like:

Just now, d-d-d-dAz said:

I mean, absolutely puts Rollins in the bin but Cody specifically said 'not at Mania' didn't he?

Yeah, he did. So it'd be retconning that to do it. Which I don't think they will, by the way. 

To me, this is the second year in a row where "Wrestlemania" as a concept is massively hampering a natural creative process. For so long now WWE have pushed that Wrestlemania is all that really matters and anything else is significantly less than. 

Last year, you had Zayn red hot heading into a PPV in his home town. This year, you've got matches that you should really be using to sell out two stadium shows this year. But even pushing Cody to Summerslam (which I think they will do) seems like a real consolation prize, just because it's not at Wrestlemania. 

I don't want them to do the 2-night thing, but if they wanted to it's a piece of piss to get to. 

Raw's Cody Rhodes has a contractually obligated title shot against whomever he wants at Mania. Smackdown has a GM in Nick Aldis who has been shown to not be afraid of Roman Reigns. Cody picks Roman, Aldis books Roman to also face The Rock.

2 hours ago, SaitoRyo said:

Shit-hot Texas honkytonk band Mike and The Moonpies have officially changed their name to Silverada, presumably in an effort to be taken more seriously/progress in their career. 

I've been a big fan for a while and don't know what to make of the name change. Anyway, this is their first effort as Silverada, with a self-titled LP due out in May (I think). I like it. 

 

Mike & the Moonpies came to my attention a few years back as they are my favourite artist's favourite artist. I've always thought it to be a damn good band name. Better than the one they've changed it to, IMO.

Regardless, like this song a lot. And while I'm here, I'll never miss an opportunity to pimp my favourites, so here's noted Mike & the Moonpies fans Hellbound Glory:

I feel it's my responsibility both as a Norfolk man & a UKFF to point out that one of the cinemas is in Cromer. Never know who you might bump into... 

One time local radio sports shock jock turned fairly benign ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum:

It's the ears that make it, for me. 

Oh he did. 

TIL Roman Reigns' theme is effectively a Jimmy Hart esque knock off of a TV theme.

I've always thought this (once it actually gets going) would work as the theme for a Horsemen rip-off stable:

Basically because it reminds me of the Horsemen theme, which in turn I've always thought was a semi rip-off of this:

My old man was a long distance (UK only though) lorry driver too. I've also spent many an hour sat in footwells to get through various levels of security gates. 

Dad used to push it and try to make me laugh by giving his name as Meldrew when asked. In the 90s, that was as funny as it got. 

He should sack off the in ring stuff and transition to commentary. 

But only if he does it like those 2 weeks he did NXT season 3.

2 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

And was Brock originally booked to get eliminated by Dominik Mysterio?

I'd not have totally ruled that out, TBH. Brock goes on the rampage and dumps a bunch of people, Dom manages to sneak up behind and quickly tip him over.

Leads into an angle where Dom dodges/Judgement Day protect him from Brock until Mania, where Brock murders him and everyone cheers. In another world.