Linus

On the subject of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism... It was never meant to be anything more than a working definition for academic purposes, and its author has said as much. It is utterly useless as an official policy because it can be used to stifle legitimate criticism of the state of Israel. Any organisation that adopts it - and I include the Labour Party, sadly - is making a rod for its own back. There are far simpler, and more effective, ways to define anti-Semitism that ensure that the genuine racists are identified, but that wouldn't make great headlines.

And you know what? The general public could not give two shits. There's some bleed in that the olds and thicks believe Corbyn is a fascist somehow, but most people in the UK simply don't care. It's just the only thing they've got to beat him with, because they found that the IRA links implicated Thatcher, Major and Blair, and the vast majority of Labour policies, when blind-tested, actually meet the approval of the British people. The media hate Corbyn, and 80% of this country's media is owned by 4 individuals, all of whom would find life under a Labour government too taxing...

Can I just say that I'm appalled with myself for starting a post with "As a Labour Party activist", but also that you - not MPDTTDTPT, obv - should join the Labour Party and help get Labour elected where you are (and I say that as someone in Andrea Leadsom's constituency...)!

As a Labour Party activist, speaking to actual voters, these lot can fuck the fuck off. All this does is increase the chances of more Tory hell, but thankfully only by a little bit because outside of the Westminster bubble they are non-entities. It’s better they’ve finally found some balls rather than sniping every chance they got.

The Labour Party is bigger than any individual but Corbyn revitalised a moribund outfit, and i’m genuinely proud of the 2017 manifesto. THAT’s what will make the difference. We live in hope.

1 hour ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

I also owened this, before giving it to Al Snow back in 2013

I still have this - and the Mankind one. Can’t *bear* to throw them away...

1 hour ago, Callum1993 said:

This is so bad it’s actually now good. It’s bewildering and brilliant.

I don’t often post about my podcast here but special occasions are special occasions! Today, Chris & I recorded our 100th episode, and it’s a 3-hour marathon answering listeners’ questions about all kinds of things (including a big chunk on NXT-UK repercussions). We’re nice so we’ve split it into 3 handy parts and you can find them here!

https://love-the-graps.pinecast.co/episode/17647bcf-c5b8-40b5-9d6b-9a01179e330f

They tend to announce a full year’s worth of Camden shows in the October/November previous. Tickets usually go on sale the midday after the last show, so October 28’s went on sale yesterday. Once a show is sold out a twickets site opens for re-sales.

Looking at the photos, and thinking back to the question of when the “original” FWA ended, i’d be tempted to say, “when the orange canvas and blue apron went.” 😄

44 minutes ago, Teedy Kay said:

Topsy and Tim's mom does nothing wrong in my eyes.

She slept with Phil Mitchell...

Just off the top of my head, and from my era of the FWA (and there’s bound to be more from the later era, including Haskins, Redman & PJ Black), you could use:

Doug Williams, Jonny Storm, Jody Fleisch, Kev O’Neill, Dominator, Brandon Thomas, Wade Fitzgerald, Olly Burns, James Tighe, Nikita, Rishi Ghosh, RJ Singh, Stixx, Greg Burridge, & Roy Knight.

Plus Andy Simmons, James Tighe, Max Voltage, and others have all been active recently

I suggested it to Mark a couple of years ago but he wasn’t interested. He - maybe rightly - said that most of the fans are in the business now!

On 8/24/2018 at 11:02 AM, elisarcabrera said:

Interesting they liked the name of it enough to continue.

at the time we folded EU Title and when we were deciding to replace it, it was me who came up with the name All England. It was a major debate amongst the partners because not everyone liked the idea. They wanted we have something more in line with what championships were usually called. But I pushed it because I felt we needed to be pushing something uniquely ENGLISH/BRITISH product. All England was obviously derived from Tennis not wrestling but to me conveys something very English and at the same time English traditional. 

Oooh, we're going to fight about this (maybe if we do that thing one day?)! I distinctly remember coming up with the All-England name precisely because Wimbledon was on the telly at the time! Since I got back into the sport, I've followed "my" belt with interest - I was particularly happy when one of my favourites, Earl Black Jr, won it. I do remember the push to be more English, though, with mixed results!

As a trivia note, Scotty Rock carried the belt to the ring at the first TV taping, but we'd decided not to recognise his title reign for some reason that escapes me, and thus we had to come up with an excuse. Does anyone remember what I called the belt he was carrying on commentary? Not sure you could do it today! 

1 hour ago, TildeGuy~! said:

Cheers for this info, I’m a brand new Hana Kimura fan so I’ll be getting tickets to this.

Edit: I’ve just taken a look and they’ve only announced Jordynne Grace, Chihiro Hashimoto, Charlie Morgan, Toni Storm and Kay Lee Ray.

Do you have a link to the other announcements? 

Just checked and Hana Kimura is no longer on the Walthamstow show, just the Thursday night show in Bethnal Green. Sorry!

1 hour ago, WestCoastPop619 said:

Anyone care to speculate what progress might have planned for the Saturday afternoon/evening? Of Wembley weekend, as they eluded to having something going on but have yet to announce it. Another show? Q&A? Screening of the doc? 

If you don't mind a trip across London, Pro-Wrestling EVE have a show in Walthamstow on the Saturday night, with Meiko Satomura, Chihiro Hashimoto, Toni Storm, Kay Lee Ray, Hana Kimura, Kris Wolf, Charlie Morgan, and more.

7 hours ago, Otto Dem Wanz said:

So this SSE Arena show - is it going to be worth attending for someone like me who:

- Hasn't been to a Britwres show before
- Hasn't really watched any PROGRESS at all
- Hasn't got any mates that like wrestling so would be going alone (don't think the missus would be up for it either!)

- Yes, there'll be some familiar faces there from NXT/NXT-UK, and it will (should!) have a familiar big show feel

- Yes, there'll be some storylines culminating but most of it can easily be explained in a few sentences (the champion is WALTER and his challenger will be someone who manages to win 3 straight matches before Wembley, the tag belts are currently held by #CCK and they will face the winners of a round-robin tournament which is ongoing, Pete Dunne will face Ilya Dragunov in a battle of Europe's best, Doug Williams is Atlas champion having his last hurrah before retirement), and I'd imagine the show will be structured to be newbie-friendly because there'll be thousands of new fans

- Yes, BritWres fans are very friendly, and there'll be a few organised meet-ups if that's your thing. Otherwise, I'm sure there'll be others on here who are doing the same and wouldn't mind a pint and a chat

Ha, that’s fine. I kind of assume that everyone knows when probably not many do!

In a former life I was Mark Priest, probably best known for the commentary on Revival (and 30-odd episodes of FWAtv before that). 

I got hooked up with the FWA in the autumn of 2000, driving the ring van and doing some managing. When the TV Project got off the ground, I transitioned into writing the shows so they could sensibly be carved up by Elisar into half an hour episodes, and scripting backstage scenes.

At that point, the actual wrestling shows were largely put together by Mark Sloan and Alex Shane, while Elisar, myself and Ralph Cardell did the TV side. Dino came on board and the six of us guided the promotion through to the Revival project.

When that failed to get picked up for a series, I decided I needed to go back to the real world and left in the summer of 2002. It was a fun two years!

(I was also storyline commissioner for a transition period between Cab Kennedy and Victoria DeMontfort, and managed to grant myself a title shot against Justin Richards on a CSF vs FWA show. I did not win.)

19 hours ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

Elisar. where were the FWA TV (MyTV episodes) pre-tapes filmed? Looks like they were in the job centre.

That was the office at Porchester Community Centre in Portsmouth. Like WWE, the commissioner’s office moved with each show we filmed at. All the other “interior” shots were pretty much Elisar’s flat 😂

I remember that night mainly because I did the set-up, left to go fill in for Alex on the Talksport show (giving out live updates which were just what was booked to be happening at that point 😂), and then racing back for the end, and “leaving my commentary point” to try and intervene between old and new school! A busy but incredibly fun night!

The early FWA - and Revival - are pretty much the Sex Pistols at Free Trade Hall of BritWres.

I refuse to let go of "hiccough."

1 hour ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Hey guys I have a question that maybe you can help me with.

My sister's kids want to read a/some comic books for the first time. They are 4 years old. They're familiar with the big name super heroes and I guess would like to read some stories that involve them - Captain America, Iron Man, Batman, Superman, Spiderman.

Any recommendations for something that will be a good entry point for them?

There are a few magazines - with some comics in - on the newsagents shelves which are a good start. There's a Spider-man one, a Batman one, and my daughter loves the DC Superhero Girls mag.

Past that, the big companies are really bad at doing stuff for kids, but any decent comic book shop should have a kid's section.

I enjoyed episode 1, will watch episode 2 tonight. I wish it was definitely set in the Arrowverse but I can understand why it's not, at least for now. Wonderful to see the TV debut of Gambi - a no-prize for the first man to tell me who he's named after and why!

I've never really pimped my podcast here, but we're doing something for Christmas that I thought should change that...

So me & my wrestling wife Chris do this podcast, called Love The Graps. We've done 50-odd episodes this year, and they're usually reaction pods to shows we've just been to (with other occasional nonsense thrown in). Usually the podcast is FREE!, but for Christmas we decided to record some special episodes and ask people to pay for them. The reason? We want to raise money for a charity in our home town, called Eve, which helps women put their lives back together after suffering domestic abuse. The lovely people at ATTACK! ran their raffle for us last week, so we've already got a chunk, but we're asking people to pay at least £1 for over two hours of product (you can, of course, pay more).

If you like smart arses talking about wrestling (and Hulk Hogan movies), please give us a try for this brilliant cause!

You can get involved here. Cheers!

Yeah, I think he pretty much sums up how we all feel about this...