simonworden Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 For someone who wasnt aware till pretty much just after this show of the British Wrestling Scene, I struggle with the concept of Wrestling on Radio and probably would of at the time. For people who listened what kind of experience was it to just have audio? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Is God Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Here's part two of my Revival report from Feb 2002, including the first time I ever spoke to Alex Shane...  VOLUME THREE- THE INTERVIEWS  5.15pm  Interview with Tommy Boyd- promoter of Talksport Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members seph Posted February 8, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted February 8, 2012 Just found this full account of the day, from former UKFF member SephJnr:Â .... Â Â That's WAY too coherent for me nowadays. I couldn't come up with that again even if I found the notes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam South Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 For someone who wasnt aware till pretty much just after this show of the British Wrestling Scene, I struggle with the concept of Wrestling on Radio and probably would of at the time. For people who listened what kind of experience was it to just have audio? Â You'll have to forgive the conjecture, being that I didn't actually hear the broadcast (for obvious reasons), but I don't think it'd be that much different from football on the radio. One would imagine that anyone tuning in would be a fan already, therefore they'd have a grasp of the basics regarding moves. Â As I imagine it, you'd get the intros to describe the wrestlers attire/demeanour, etc. There's usually quite a few moments of downtime (ie: rest holds, time on the mat, etc) when you can instill a bit of emotion/colour. And, like I say, when it comes to moves you would have thought the listener would have basic awareness of what's what, so you could just say 'slam/suplex' or whatever as appropriate. Â In some regards it actually makes more sense for wrestling to be on the radio than other sports. Without the visual reference with football, for example, you miss a lot of stuff- off the ball runs, player positioning, etc. Wrestling's actually quite straight forward in comparison. Â Or at least that's my impression. Like I say, much conjecture involved. Unfortunately I don't think anyone would have a copy of Revival to listen to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members mim731 Posted February 8, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted February 8, 2012 For someone who wasnt aware till pretty much just after this show of the British Wrestling Scene, I struggle with the concept of Wrestling on Radio and probably would of at the time. For people who listened what kind of experience was it to just have audio? Â Have. Would have. Sorry to be a pedant but that drives me crazy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dean Ayass Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 (edited) Ah, Revival. 10 years ago. Blimey. I suppose 10 years is long enough to get away with a few confessions, ha ha. Â Someone was asking about what it was like doing wrestling commentary on the radio. It was easily the most challenging thing I've ever done, and remains so to this day, but in a good way. You had to add details of what you were seeing. I envisaged it as quite literally painting a picture with words. So, for example, not only was Drew McDonald cranking in a chinlock on Robbie Brookside, but the bald-headed Scot Drew McDonald, dressed in a red singlet, was cranking in a chinlock slap bang in the middle of the ring on Robbie Brookside, whose long brown hair had fallen all over his face. That kind of thing. Â Confession time: I was never supposed to do the live radio commentary! I was only ever scheduled to do the TV commentary in post-production. But I basically followed Mark Priest up to the commentary booth and just thought I'd wait until Tommy Boyd kicked me out. But he never did. Whether it was an oversight or he just thought it was a good idea presented in front of him, I shall never know! I still think that commentating on wrestling live on national radio is one of my proudest, and most unusual, achievements. Â I remember trying to ensure all evening that my good friend Ulf Herman didn't swear too. Ulf speaks fluent English, the only problem being that, since he learned most of it from old school British wrestlers, it's peppered with expletives, which aren't conducive to TV appearances! So every time I passed him that night, I'd say "Ulf! What have you got to remember tonight?" "No swearing! I know, Dean!". He very VERY nearly did, when looking at the camera and saying "Nobody's perfect, but I'm pretty f.... [catches himself] damn close!" Â Brian Christopher was a complete and utter bell-end. My first encounter with him was when a man with his young son caught me just after the Q&A to ask if I could get Brian to autograph it for him (as he was just heading downstairs to the dressing rooms). I asked Brian, fully expecting him to say no problem, and he just went no. I smiled, thinking that he was joking, but he just stared at me like I was an idiot and walked off. He did indeed refuse to work with a couple of people, I forget who, for being too small, before being paired up with Guy Thunder in a dark match and Ulf Herman on the TV broadcast (so that we got two matches out of him, as we did with Eddy). After the show, Brian was loudly insistent on someone taking him out to go partying and drinking, which was a great thing to say considering that he was sat about a metre away from Eddy Guerrero, who was working independents after being released by the WWF (as it was then) for drink and drug addiction. Some people ended up taking Brian out for the night in London, then abandoning him in the city because he was pissing everyone off. In a marvellous twist of karma, Brian got in a cab and asked them to take him to whatever hotel he was booked in. The only trouble was that there were two locations of this chain of hotels, on opposite sides of the city. So Brian chose one, got there, realised that it was the wrong one, and had to then be driven all the way across London, tripling his taxi bill. Oh well. Â We dropped Ulf off in his hotel in Paddington, while we both moaned about Brian Christopher, who we renamed The Redneck Chicken Fucker, being from Memphis. Ulf also regaled us with the tale of trying to get a match out of The Ultimate Warrior a few years previously in Germany. We stopped off with Ulf at a nearby Burger King, while everyone else stared at him for being so big, and then made our way back home to Brighton. It had been a long day but a fantastic day, and not even Ipswich losing 5-1 at home to Liverpool could dampen it (it proved to be the season that we got relegated, I think I'm right in saying that Michael Owen scored a hat-trick in that game). Â Eddy Guerrero on the other hand, was wonderful. A very polite, humble man, who had no ego about him whatsoever and had no problems putting Doug Williams over in the semi-final, which is still one of the best matches I have ever had the pleasure of commentating on. He knew that being on the independents was both his punishment for his past misdemeanours and his test for the future. He was clean as a whistle, the ultimate pro and it was performances like Revival that showed Vince that he was back, and he was soon rehired. In a way, it was very fortunate timing that his stint on the indies fell at the time of Revival. Â The TV commentary was recorded in Soho a few weeks later. One more confession: I stayed over in London the previous night at my mate Barry's hotel (Barry aka Charming Don Charles) and we ended up having a bit of a mad night out. So by the time I met up with Mark Priest and Dino Scarlo, who accompanied us to the studio, I'd actually had three hours sleep, was still a bit drunk, and had a cracking hangover. However, I thought it was wise to not mention this to anyone at the time. Dino would, every now and then, scribble something down on a piece of paper that he wanted us to put over in commentary and would give us a thumbs up and beam enthusiastically whenever we did it. He was absolutely brilliant at just filling us with confidence that we were doing a good job from a wrestler's perspective. I would measure the impact of any one-liners by how much I could make the (non-wrestling) producers in the gallery laugh. As a rib for Ulf, I called Brian Christopher "a redneck chicken farmer" during the commentary, censoring our previous nickname for him I also remember getting a massive bollocking from the producer, Mick Robertson, who was an old TV presenter (Magpie, which was co-presented by his old mate Tommy Boyd). Basically, I was in full-on heel mode and when Robbie Brookside interfered to help Jody Fleisch beat Drew McDonald in the semi-final, I shouted, "I know Scousers like to steal things, but Brookside has just stolen this match away from Drew McDonald!". Everyone at the time pissed themselves laughing but Mick had, by chance, selected that bit of footage to see how it all looked initially. "You can't say that! You just can't say that!" he bellowed at me. "Why not?" I asked naively. "Because it's racist!" he shouted. I decided that it would be wise to not argue that Liverpudlians aren't actually a race, and if you listen to the commentary that's on one of the YouTube links on a previous page, you'll notice that, as Brookside is walking back down the aisle, there's a 5-10 second gap in commentary, which is where this line was edited out. Â My final confession? Oh yeah.....I got paid by the TV company to do the commentary, meaning that I was paid TV rates, as opposed to wrestling rates, meaning that, even 10 years on, Revival is still my best ever payday in wrestling. Â Ah, memories...... Â Â EDIT: Just looked it up online. Ipswich actually lost 6-0 at home to Liverpool, not 5-1. Owen only scored two goals, not three. Abel Xavier, Sami Hyypia and two from Emile Heskey. Yes, Emile Heskey scored. Twice. Jesus Fucking Christ. Edited February 8, 2012 by Dean Ayass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PowerButchi Posted February 8, 2012 Moderators Share Posted February 8, 2012 That's tremendous stuff Dean. Did you do any other major shows like that? I'd love to hear about them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted February 8, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted February 8, 2012 (edited) Just about to say. Brilliant post there. This thread is very good actually. A lot of top posts from Greg, Hat Guy and others. Dean and Priest were really good. Not in a "they're British, so cut them some slack" kind of way, either. They had some great chemistry and both knew when to be funny and when to put the guys over, and were seemed to be brimming with passion during the night. They must have been in their early 20s and had very little experience as well, which makes it even more amazing how they managed to pull it off. Still should have worn suits though  To add to Dean's post about Brian Christopher, he also had a mini bitchfit on the radio about the music he was using that night. They'd done up some music for him, by Rustymusic who used to post on here, and he said "I'm not using that".  Where's Kenny, Dann Reed and Lister? They were there weren't they? I'd love to read their musings on the night. Or anyone elses for that matter. Surprised Alex Shane hasnt posted his thoughts yet. Edited February 8, 2012 by The_BarbarIAN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PowerButchi Posted February 8, 2012 Moderators Share Posted February 8, 2012 I also demand to hear Kenny's musings on doing the commentary on L!ve TV, and whether he got to meet Reggie Reggerson off Strip Masterbrain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiamTheGreat Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Awesome recollection Dean. I remeber Tommy Boyd, the week after, on radio just asking "do you think grandmaster sexay is worth eight grand?" and I'm sure he also mentioned how Brian Christopher cleared out the mini-bar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliveG Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 For someone who wasnt aware till pretty much just after this show of the British Wrestling Scene, I struggle with the concept of Wrestling on Radio and probably would of at the time. For people who listened what kind of experience was it to just have audio? I seem to remember it was very effective .I really go into the event .I have never actually seen it , so now the links have been posted I'll have to watch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliveG Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 I also demand to hear Kenny's musings on doing the commentary on L!ve TV, and whether he got to meet Reggie Reggerson off Strip Masterbrain. I'm afraid it was Bravo , UWA was on Live TV a couple of years earlier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PowerButchi Posted February 9, 2012 Moderators Share Posted February 9, 2012 I also demand to hear Kenny's musings on doing the commentary on L!ve TV, and whether he got to meet Reggie Reggerson off Strip Masterbrain. I'm afraid it was Bravo , UWA was on Live TV a couple of years earlier  What? That's what I'm referring to. I want to hear about Kenny doing the commentary for UWA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Is God Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 (edited) And so the day of the 10th anniversary dawns! Here's the final part of my memoirs from Feb 9 2002. Reasonably prophetic in parts...  VOLUME FOUR- REVIVAL- THE EVENT   6.30pm  Dann and I got great Edited February 9, 2012 by Victor Is God Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted February 9, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted February 9, 2012 Brian Christopher was a complete and utter bell-end. My first encounter with him was when a man with his young son caught me just after the Q&A to ask if I could get Brian to autograph it for him (as he was just heading downstairs to the dressing rooms). Â While I've always taken it as read that Brian Chrstopher would be a twat, I think it would refuse if someone asked me to sign a small child. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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