2012 UKFF UK50 - RESULTS THREAD

[Big Benny HG]

The reason I didn't vote was because Benny accused me of voting twice last year when I didn't so this year I just thought I'd watch comment and enjoy but when reading only 60 people voted I kinda feel bad.

This is true. I received votes from 'tattooed_gooner' and 'NBW Southside', which everyone believed were both your accounts at the time (and, I think, it later came out when the moderators did an IP check that they were). If truth be told, I did actually count your votes last year, but just told you I hadn't when it came up a few months later to try and put you off multiple voting next time! I do apologise if they weren't both you!

 

No. 21: James Scott

Score: 125 points

Total 1st place rankings in 2012 votes: 3

Percentage of 2012 ballots including James Scott: 21.1%

(2011=40th, 2010=16th, 2009=19th, 2008=18th, 2007=24th, 2006=8th, 2005=NL)

 

Photo credit - www.PBWwrestling.com & David J Wilson)

 

A former Top 10-ranked UKFF UK50 entrant, 'Darkside' James Scott appears in our rankings for the 7th time in the 8 years, achieving a 19-place increase on his finish last year after a full year in the ring. Keen-eyed observers will also note that James has also scored the most individual 1st place votes we have seen so far in the list (which is why he appears higher than CJ Banks, with whom he was tied on points). This period also also seen Scott accomplish a career-long goal of wrestling in Japan, as he flew out for a tour with Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE. On domestic shores, he appeared a couple of times for Teesside-based 3 Count Wrestling, where he has been a long-time headliner, but has predominantly featured in Scotland.

 

A member of the Gold Label group of elite baddies, Scott began the eligibility period as the reigning Heavyweight Champion of Insane Championship Wrestling. Scott and partners Lionheart, Wolfgang and Red Lightning beat Jack Jester, Chris Renfrew, BT Gunn and Kid Fite in a Streetfight at 'Never Mind the Baws' in July 2011, then followed up with a successful singles title defence over Johnny Starr at the next show. October's 'Fear and Loathing 4' featured another streetfight, this time Scott, Lightning and Wolfgang going down to Gunn, Renfrew and Fite. The day prior, Scott had stopped off in Irvine for PBW's biggest event of the year, 'Maximum Impact 2011'. There, James had failed to add another singles belt to his collection, as Germany's Bad Bones retained the UEWA European Heavyweight Title in a feature contest.

 

2012 began with Scott dropping his ICW strap to BT Gunn at the 'Square Go' event. With the Gold Label rapidly disintegrating, the former Darkside notched up singles wins over Falcon and Sean South in February and April respectively to keep himself relevant in the title scene. He next shot at the gold came at 'Up In Smoke', where Gunn retained in a 4-way that also starred Jack Jester and Wolfgang. While all of this was happening in the Glasgow nightclub venues, Scott was also tangling with the likes of now-Scotland-based Mikey Whiplash, TJ Rage, Jester and Stevie Xavier back over in PBW.

 

In BCW, another of Scotland's lead organisations, Darkside had beaten the likes of Noam Dar and Danny Hope in 2011 singles matches, before joining Wolfgang in 2012 to reform their 'T2K' tandem, once the premier tag team in Scottish wrestling. T2k beat Blaze n' Rampage for the BCW Tag Team Championship in February, then retained in a March rematch. They then took T2K to SWA, but failed to win the Unified Scottish Tag Team Titles when they were beaten by the Weapons of Mass Destruction. The next day they headed to ICW to participate in that promotion's Tag Team Title Tournament, but were ousted by The Bucky Boys in the opening round.

 

Just after the end of this year's voting season, James appeared for all-female outfit Pro Wrestling EVE in Suffolk, where he was beaten by Leon Britannico (Paul Robinson's masked Lucha Britannia persona) in a 'male guest match'.

 

What did the UKFF think?

"Scotlands pound for pound best. Great h eel and face"

 

"Always dependable for a great match, good look, fantastic promo"

 

"Aggressive and massively entertaining in either full out heel mode or as the never say die babyface. Sad to hear his time in Japan was cut short by injury"

 

"Unstoppable in my opinion. Very glad to see that he got to wrestle for Zero 1 in Japan. Constantly surprises me with his evolution as a character and in ring performances"

 

"Great heel and exciting performer"

 

"all rounder, just great to watch/boo/cheer"

 

"A great wrestler, a main eventer who wouldn't look out of place in any major company"

 

"This guy's just ridiculously good, isn't he? He gets so many of the small things right, and his crowd interaction, heel or face, is sensational"

[The Cum Doctor]

Shame that he just missed out in the 20. Guy is a joy to watch. As I said, the interaction with the audience is always quality no matter what he's doing, and draws a reaction. Personal favourite was when he did a Suicide Dive in PBW, clattered into the rails which had the audience going "ooohhhh". Hearing this, James Scott jumps to his feet shouting "IT'S ALL GOOD! EASYYYYY!!!". Brilliant.

 

The matches have been excellent too. The match with BT Gunn was ridiculously good and the heat for it was immense.

[Big Benny HG]

So, then, all of this means that your Top 20 this year will include:

 

(alphabetical order)

 

Andy Wild

Bubblegum

Dave Mastiff

El Ligero

Jack Gallagher

Joey Hayes

Kris Travis

Lionheart

Mad Man Manson

Mark Haskins

Martin Kirby

Marty Scurll

Mikey Whiplash

MK McKinnan

Nathan Cruz

Noam Dar

Paul Malen

Rockstar Spud

Stixx

Zack Sabre Jr

 

Not a bad looking Top 20, to be honest. If I had to pick my own personal Top 20 British wrestlers, I would think at least 15 of them would be from those above.

 

But what do YOU think? Is this a good representation of the Top 20 wrestlers you've seen in British rings at the moment? Anyone that stands out in those above to you as not fitting here? Anyone that should be there that hasn't made it in this year (or will that just head back to James Mason/Rampage Brown arguments?!?)?

 

Any predictions for Top 10/5/3/winner yet?

[The Dart]

To all the "had I voted..." people - why didn't you? Doesn't take that much longer to actually vote than it would to write a post saying you didn't, but mentioning who you would have voted for if you had...

 

It takes a lot longer to consider who youre top 15 is, its easy for me to say Cruz would be in my top 3 cos I know he would, who would be places 4-15 and writing a point on the reasons for each takes far longer

 

 

Funny about people going on about people having different opinions and and being entitled to different opinions, and just because someone's opinion is different doesn't make it wrong. And within 35 minutes of me saying Nathan Cruz isn't very good we have two people jumping on the defence - two people who very probably know him given who they are.

 

of course, its because I know Nathan that I made my points about him, I didnt jump on the defence by any means, I have no problem with you having a different opinion on him to me

 

For the record I wasn't referring to you when I said '2 people'

 

Either way, I'll happily accept I may not have seen Cruz at his best. He was hyped so much on here and I'd never seen him, when I finally did see him live, I was gobsmacked by how rubbish he was, compared to how people on here described him. And he was no better the next few times. Maybe he does save himself for promotions like Southside. I've never seen Southside live, and if this was 6 or 7 years ago I almost certainly would have gone, but I'm not doing all that travelling I used to do anymore. In fact, that brings me to what I was going to say earlier about this thing. One of the good things for me about the UKFF50 especially now is it's giving me a good reason to click on some of those youtube links and check out some matches of guys I've not seen before, and in some cases not even heard of. And I wouldn't normally bother going out of my way to find their matches. And this year I've seen less British Wrestling than ever (well since I started) so it's good to see some of the guys I've not seen before, even if it is only on video. So, well done to HatMan for that too.

[The Cum Doctor]

But what do YOU think? Is this a good representation of the Top 20 wrestlers you've seen in British rings at the moment? Anyone that stands out in those above to you as not fitting here? Anyone that should be there that hasn't made it in this year (or will that just head back to James Mason/Rampage Brown arguments?!?)?

 

I'm not willing to predict the top spots. I do think this is a decent representation though from what I've seen. There's guys there I'd hope to see more of in the future ( guys like MK McKinnan, Mad Man Manson and Paul Malen ) and the rest of them are guys who I feel are worthy of high praise. I'd maybe have guys who didn't make it ahead of some of them, but you can't begrudge them their places.

[cobystag]

But what do YOU think? Is this a good representation of the Top 20 wrestlers you've seen in British rings at the moment? Anyone that stands out in those above to you as not fitting here? Anyone that should be there that hasn't made it in this year (or will that just head back to James Mason/Rampage Brown arguments?!?)?

 

Any predictions for Top 10/5/3/winner yet?

 

Well 13 out of my 15 are left so I'm happy with that. Think MK's gonna finish between 20 and 15 tho, I'm well chuffed he's made it this high and it is well deserved.

 

I think the top 5 should contain El Ligero, Marty Scurll and Noam Dar. Mastiff, Zack, Haskins and Spud should definitely all make the top 10.

 

I'm gonna go with Spud to win it this year. I'll be surprised if he's had a handful of #1 votes but he should be consistently high in a lot of lists.

[Tommy!]

"Feel free to post this on my behalf. The issue is that the it is named the "UK top 50", When it should be the "UKFF's favourite 50" because that's all it is. Your guys favourite 50 workers. As a worker i appreciate the time Benny puts into it. It's nice to know what we do is appreciated, But this is not a top 50 by any means. It's your favourite 50.

 

As far as saying "it's someones opinion", Hiltler's opinion was that Jews should be killed, Does'nt make in correct though. The other issue that comes with this is half witted promoters who will book their talent souly based off this. There's certain guys who have had the likes of Rob Brookside, Rampage Brown & James Mason each turn & say they are good workers. Yet there's people on here who the same three have said are fucking rotten.

 

A top 50 should be pieced together by the ones with the most knowledge of the job. The actual wrestlers & promoters who are credible. This is a list of your favourite wrestlers. Anyone who believes their place in this is a div, As James Mason would run rings around all of us!"

 

Nathan Cruz.

 

Wow, I must say that make Cruz look like a spastic, assuming its not all some joke.

Getting the whole point of the thing wrong making the whiny sounding bitch about it look even more pathetic.

Bringing a ridiculous comparison to Hitler in there for no constructive purpose but to weaken what little is left of the poorly made point which is factually inaccurate.

Then rounding it of with another missing the point closing line which implies people some where take this all super cereal, which sadly I can believe.

 

It strikes me there's some sound people out there but there's also some who, for some fucking reason, take Britwres~ so super cereal. There are some who seem to approach it with a sense of elitism or ego where they really can't or won't accept they are just spending their weekends in a panto in their pants like every one else involved.

If any one is in wrestling in the UK for any other reason than they love it I'd be a little worried, because as far as I can tell it's a pretty shitty gig for pretty shitty money for the most part. Nearly every one is in the same boat yet for some, perhaps because their world is so small or perhaps because they have such a fragile ego, who knows why, they seem to approach it with such a laughably aloof view. That's not to say I like to see it made a joke of, but if ever there was an area where taking any kind of elitism or ego would be laughable it's Britwres~

 

 

Not been that impressed with Cruz myself either.

 

Me neither in truth, solid but that's as far as I'd go.

[patiirc]

So, then, all of this means that your Top 20 this year will include:

 

(alphabetical order)

 

Dave Mastiff

El Ligero

Jack Gallagher

Kris Travis

Lionheart

Mad Man Manson

Martin Kirby

Marty Scurll

Noam Dar

Rockstar Spud

 

Any predictions for Top 10/5/3/winner yet?

 

 

Top 10 prediction from here anyhoo

[fye]

For the record I wasn't referring to you when I said '2 people'

 

My misunderstanding, the you tube links are really good for introducing people to talents they havent seen much of.

[Southside crew]

For the record I wasn't referring to you when I said '2 people'

 

My misunderstanding, the you tube links are really good for introducing people to talents they havent seen much of.

 

I'd guess your top 3 would be El Ligero , Kirby and Cruz

[king_dezeeuw06]

A good top 20 picks, 12 of my 15 nominations left to go so I'm happy with that.

 

Regarding this being favorite wrestler rather than best wrestlers list, generally aren't someone's favorite wrestlers the guys who in their eyes are the best?

 

What makes a good wrestler isn't just about who knows the most moves or who is the best technician or chain wrestler, in fact being awesome at those aspects becomes somewhat irreverent if you can't have matches that are entertaining or exciting for the fans.

 

For the example of James Mason, he's clearly a great technical wrestler, but when I've seen him although he's been good and showcased his skills he hasn't pulled out any 5 star classics. Compare that to someone like MK and Noam Dar, who maybe aren't as technically sound but have consistently had really exciting, show stealing matches over the last year. To me they are better than Mason, because they have had the more enjoyable matches during the voting period, and what makes someone the best is what also dictates who my favorite wrestlers are is whoever is having the most exciting and enjoyable matches. Some people may look purely at the technical aspect as what defines how good a wrestler is, but to me that's just one of numerous aspect of modern wrestling rather than the sole deciding factor. But that's just my own opinion.

[Southside crew]

I don't know why none of us have said this earlier but Manson is the perfect example Of being entertaining without being a top wrestler !

[cobystag]

I think Manson may be the smartest man in BritWres. Legit.

[Southside crew]

I think Manson may be the smartest man in BritWres. Legit.

 

Or maybe Spud - legit

[cobystag]

I think you might have a legitimate point there.

 

Legit.