janb

10 hours ago, midlandsfirst said:

The same Big Joe who recently pissed off Progress management with his t-shirts? 

About as much chance with that as Vinnie Mac lending Roman Reigns to AEW...

No, not the same Big Joe. The OP was referring to North West Big Joe not RISE Big Joe.

2 hours ago, gadge said:

I don't get it? El Phantasmo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerson,_Lake_%26_Palmer

38 minutes ago, TildeGuy~! said:

For me Rev Pro has that problem, Andy Quilden constantly screaming into the microphone and Andy Simmonz who does a terrible and unfunny Bobby Heenen act.

I really like the 2 Andys, good chemistry, some fun insider stuff at times but not too much, and they don't detract at all for me. The latest Portsmouth show has Gideon Grey as co-comm, I particularly enjoyed his contempt for Aussie Open.

Pollyanna's timeline today noteworthy as well on this topic.

1200 people as sitting ducks in East London, I would hope the security is pretty tight. Perhaps a Bataclan style attack would be more likely than someone buying a ticket and doing something but still. Also they are used to running boxing there which may well attract a different sort of dodgy character which may influence their approach. Also the building is owned by Tower Hamlets council I believe so for liability reasons even if nothing is likely to happen they have to make sure they have every box ticked.

23 hours ago, janb said:

22nd September (Bubblegum vs T-Bone, Hooligans vs NAK...OI4K were billed for this but are they now in Wolves both nights or just the Saturday? FCP and PCW have kind of swapped roles when it comes to imports)

To answer my question, OI4K not on publicity so in Wolves. Veda Scott and Mike Bailey in Preston.

26th August Girl Power 2 in the Academy

22nd September (Bubblegum vs T-Bone, Hooligans vs NAK...OI4K were billed for this but are they now in Wolves both nights or just the Saturday? FCP and PCW have kind of swapped roles when it comes to imports)

27th October? (originally announced, not yet an event page)

15/16 December (Wrestling World Champs)

On 2017-6-27 at 9:30 AM, Big Benny HG said:

 

There weren't any new recent shows on sale on Saturday, but they did have last summer's Blackpool Winter Gardens show out, which I hadn't seen for sale before.

2015? https://www.cagematch.net//?id=1&nr=128269

They just ran Club Domain last year.

40 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

What's happened to PCW?
I recognise barely any of the names on their shows anymore - it's like when 1PW started using all the trainees.
Is it a cashflow crisis or just that they have pissed so many people off with their customer service?

Not recognising names may say more about you than them. Bradford had Matt Riddle (indy superstar), Angelico (Lucha Underground/indy star), Dezmond Xavier/Zachary Wentz (CZW/US indy really talented dudes), Bubblegum/Iestyn Rees/Lionheart/T-Bone/Joey Hayes/Martin Kirby (established UK guys), Chris Ridgeway (pretty well established UK guy), Lewis Girvan (ICW), Soner Dursun (Futureshock, if you haven't seen his match(s) with Travis Banks then you should), Matthew Brooks (GPW, tremendous gimmick which should make him a Martina style breakout star), and 4 trainees in Michael, Arcadian, Matthews and Birch.

The Bradford show was really good. Perhaps what happened with Riddle last time did burn them in that market.

Then Saturday they ran a show against SSS16 which maybe wasn't the wisest move, and personally a lack of trains and affordable hotels (bank holiday weekend) meant I couldn't go.

But yes, definitely their customer service etc (the lack of an efficient, coherent VoD service hurts them as well) has got rid of a lot of the hardcore Britwres fans, and they are well served by the likes of Progress, Fight Club PRO, ATTACK etc whilst closer to home GPW and Futureshock both seem on an upswing, so people aren't paying them as much/any attention. Then you have the nice friendly Aulds at Southside, and Andy Q at Rev Pro if you fancy a few imports in your wrestling. Whilst WCPW seem to draw a lot from a new crowd of non-Britwres fans if they've squeezed anyones market its PCW.

Obviously the economic situation has declined (for everyone), and those eye-catching ex-WWE names are not knocking about like they once were, so yeah they are losing out on the casuals as well.

The irony is, having run off a lot of fans they have started producing a more interesting product with interesting names and some good/great matches that those people would probably enjoy. Whatever the reasons for the likes of Rampage, Mastiff, Ligero not being around their absence have given the roster a badly needed refresh and the shows I have been to starting from the World Championships last year onwards have been very enjoyable.

11 hours ago, iammarkingout said:

Did the boxing happen at Fusion Nightclub last night? 

Yep.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/Col.Armstrong.Photography/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1511797722198042

https://www.facebook.com/Liverpoolboxingunion/

I always go with the "if it happens in public it is a work" motto, but they are certainly doing a good job of making it seem like a shoot if it is.

Dunne has very rarely wrestled for PCW - just twice before in the promotions 6 year history - once in January 2015 ironically on the charity fundraiser show for Travis that Dunne worked for free, and then again 4 months later vs Sabu in May 2015. 

Dunne also worked a 6 way, and a match vs El Ligero on the May shows. I remember thinking Ryan Smile and Damian Dunne had more upside coming out of that weekend, although to be fair that was before Pete switched up his gimmick/worked out who he was.

As others have said one would think ownership status would mean FCP and ATTACK are added to PROGRESS on the approved promotions list (even then wrestling NJPW stars means it has to be a dark match). Rev Pro are the interesting ones given their closeness to NJPW (title even being defended on NJPW shows) and to an extent ROH. Yet I am still allowed to see Dunne and Seven on their on demand service for time being at least.

On his personal Facebook page Fludder is still pimping Pete Dunne as the star of the show and promoting his match, went as far to share it today

In fairness its an automated post about the April 2nd show, it just happened to use the Dunne graphic when the web address was posted.

 

It's not just PCW that answer fans legitimate questions in a sarcastic and unprofessional manner. PROGRESS are very guilty of this too. I don't get why promotions do it, I get that it's frustrating answering the same questons again and again. If you are going to reply just give a straight answer and be done with it.

 

Yeah, makes no sense, both have frustrated me. Why would you want to burn money by insulting customers?

I think its no bad thing for PCW to mix it up (especially with guys I wasn't expecting Fludder to book again such as Dunne and Smile), so pleased to see the lineup. Convinced me to buy a ticket.

There is going to be other non-tournament stuff as well. The Hooligans are on the poster (as is Sha FWIW). Spirit Squad are working show 3.

Smith is booked for Blackpool (Feb 3rd) and Liverpool (Feb 4th). I will be interested to see the result of the rematch against Bubblegum though.

Ligero is booked for Liverpool (Feb 4th).

Moss and Banks are more on the secondary show list, so wasn't expecting to see them here but wouldn't be surprised to see CJ if last minute replacements are needed.

I think the PROGRESS show may be more of a factor in some cases, although I wouldn't be surprised if WOS has seen some prices rise.

 

 

 

There's an early summer weekender for the Tribute to the Troops gimmick isn't there?

 

Yes, but it's different venues rather than whole weekend in same place (from memory it's Friday night and Saturday lunchtime in Preston Guildhall, with then a Saturday night show at Evoque).

 

There's a lot on in that region that weekend.  As an approximate plan, I think I'll be doing FutureShock in Prestwich on the Friday night, the Saturday afternoon PCW show in Preston and then WorkingAResthold's debut live 'pop-up' show in Manchester Saturday night.

 

RestholdMania have already announced Ligero, Mastiff, Ridgeway, Smith, Rampage (although his PCW status is uncertain as he didn't work 3 dates he was announced for at end of last year and isn't on posters going forward) so it will be interesting what sort of lineup PCW have for the Saturday night show (although having said that I just reeled off about 10 names in my head plus the academy kids).

I thought he was ill that weekend? Someone told me he didn't work the FutureShock show around the same time he was booked for, and was because of illness.

 

I don't know, all I know as an uninformed punter is that the sequence of shows went as follows,

PCW 25/11 announced, didn't work

PCW 26/11 announced, didn't work

WCPW 30/11 worked

WCPW 1/12 worked

PCW 9/12 announced, didn't work

PROGRESS 11/12 worked

That was intriguing so I have been watching his 2017 dates with interest.

I found Rob's guide to Progressing through PROGRESS useful when I got stuck in a rut (skip all the boring dudes basically)

http://www.voicesofwrestling.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47

Unlike him I do like comedy though and its not what PROGRESS is associated with but I loved the Project Ego vs Grado/Manson match.

 

There's an early summer weekender for the Tribute to the Troops gimmick isn't there?

 

Yes, but it's different venues rather than whole weekend in same place (from memory it's Friday night and Saturday lunchtime in Preston Guildhall, with then a Saturday night show at Evoque).

 

There's a lot on in that region that weekend.  As an approximate plan, I think I'll be doing FutureShock in Prestwich on the Friday night, the Saturday afternoon PCW show in Preston and then WorkingAResthold's debut live 'pop-up' show in Manchester Saturday night.

 

RestholdMania have already announced Ligero, Mastiff, Ridgeway, Smith, Rampage (although his PCW status is uncertain as he didn't work 3 dates he was announced for at end of last year and isn't on posters going forward) so it will be interesting what sort of lineup PCW have for the Saturday night show (although having said that I just reeled off about 10 names in my head plus the academy kids).

 

 

Is Matt Riddle over here this weekend? Could make a more than worthy main event open challenger for Rampage Brown.

Not sure about that, but I have noticed he's in the UK with PCW the day before SSS16. Would love for him to be in that this year

 

 

PCW also have a show (in Preston) the next day (which clashes with the first day of SSS16), so he could well be at that one.  

Neither Riddle or Angelico are on the combined Bradford/Preston poster, just announced as a match in Bradford, so I would not be shocked if both guys were in SSS16.

Just looked at poster, Cabana and MVP are missing too. There's plenty of room for all three without removing anyone and you'd think MVP would be front and centre (WWE name). Pentagon too, just because he just looks the bollocks.

 

Interesting/important year for PCW I reckon. They seem to be struggling to shift tickets for Liverpool show in February and theres no competition on the same night this time from ROH. New promotions popping up everywhere and you have more shows happening in and around the country, PCW need to up their game a bit, not alienating regulars might be a start.

It's sad that a promotion that once (quite fairly) boasted they "always delivered" now has nobody trusting them. But they have to understand why, and the damage the Riddle thing did. I watched with interest as they stopped mentioning Thatcher for Blackpool/Liverpool just before Christmas before advertising him again a few days ago presumably after hearing back from WWN/EVOLVE. Customer service has always been cringeworthy and that is now biting them on the behind. The CZW/wXw/Beyond weekend were some of the best shows in the UK last year but relatively few people saw them because they'd scared that many people away.

And 2017 with so many promotions and so many shows, its competitive, and people can pick and choose (although I have picked and chosen 2 PCW shows already to be fair, but I haven't committed yet to what I am doing the Kris Travis weekend).

Another 2 matches added: Night 1 Shibatta vs Hero, not massively fussed but another that I am sure many Hero fans out there. Night 2 Honma vs Samuels, this just sounds abysmal. Honma can be good most of the time but can have off nights, Samuels I really dislike and would rather RPW just got shift of him. 

The nights are the other way round for those 2 matches.

Night 1

ZSJ vs Shibata

Scurll vs Liger

Hero vs Ishii

Haskins/Bate/Seven vs Naito/Evil/Sanada

Samuels vs Honma

Night 2

Hero vs Shibata

Ospreay vs Liger

Scurll/ZSJ vs Naito/Sanada

Dunne vs Ishii

Seven vs Elgin

Noam Dar's English farewell (possibly turn into a match? Against Lionheart? Or Sha Samuels? Or Drew Galloway?)

 

Plenty has been said about PCW storylines and booking recently, but that line-up does look like it could make for a really good, fun show. Remember, it starts an hour earlier than usual (doors 4pm, show 5pm) due to Dar also having to get to another show in Ayr that same night.

Said Ayr show is Lionheart's promotion so I doubt he'll be down in Preston. Sha is an obvious possible opponent but I notice Kirby/Hayes have not had anything announced (unless Kirby is working Pro Wrestling Chaos or somewhere)

Looks a strong card which hopefully delivers.

 

Didn't one show show include a hype video for Lashly ripped straight off a WWE DVD?

That would be Festive Fury 2012 where it was announced. He never ended up coming. 

 

Well he did in September 2015. It was a slow build

As ever Ben nails it, pretty much everything I would say really but more eloquently put. I would add to the workrate match aspect of it that the prospect of a great Kris Travis match kept me coming back the first few shows I went and his loss left a big hole. Briefly it looked like Mark Andrews (before TNA), and Will Ospreay (before the parting of ways) would help fill that but Ligero/Bubblegum have been closest to fulfilling that whilst Dar picked up the big fan favourite face side of things.

Also in terms of the creative, 2014 (with Lionheart as babyface GM) felt like a big growth year for them, but heel authority ever since has grown wearisome. There is a reason after all that despite their TV obsession with heel authority WWE usually have the babyfaces go over on house shows.

On the social media/internet thing its not unique in BritWres sadly, I've seen both the unfashionable PCW and uber fashionable Progress post stuff that have had me scratch my head and cringe. If it is a company account it is not a personal account, and you are always dealing with either current or potential customers and should be selling yourself at all times. #dontbeadick as I believe some people like to say.