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Let's talk FWA


Herne's Son

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So I'm nearly done reading Greg Lamberts book and it has made me feel all nostalgic. I found the UKFF because of the FWA and never really knew much about the UK scene apart from articles in Power Slam. The FWA for me was at times really good and the closest we got to an ECW in the UK. At other times it was badly run and made no sense. Reading Lamberts book has made a lot of things come clear in my mind, like how they survived financially show to show. What I really want to talk about though is the in ring product, no doubt in Doug Williams, Jonny Storm and Jodie Fleisch they had 3 guys who could really tear the house down. When they brought over stars like AJ Styles and put them up against one of the 3 we normally got a great match. Later guys like Burchill, Zebra Kid, Aviv Mayaan amd Spud all become consistant show stealers as well.I really liked the brawls FWA did as well, the feud between the Family (which was a great gimmick) and the team of Alex and Ulf was always fun. I attended most shows from When Thunder Strikes which I believe was April 2001 untill Vendetta 2003, after that I lost interest. Most shows were amazing and I left feeling exhausted at all the chanting I'd done. I feel the FWA missed some big opportunities though, such asKeeping Alex Shane babyface - people always talk about what a great heel he was but as a babyface he had so much more potential, he had the radio show, was very personable to fans and had the larger than life appearance of a Hogan or Big Daddy. He turned heel because he thought the online community hated him so much but anyone who was at Revival will tell you he was a huge star that night and could have crossed over to the main stream.When he did turn heel they dropped the ball not having him and Ulf work a program, it made no sense that he was suddenly working with Jack Xavier, I assume it was because Shane knew Xavier would bump his ass off for him and make him look great.They also dropped the ball with making a womans division, they didn't seem bothered about woman's wrestling untill Alex and Nikita started dating, but then they had her constantly working with guys which made no sense as she wasn't a Chyna style woman but quite normal in size, they brought Sweet Sarya in but the program never took off, again I think the rumour was that Nikita was scared of getting stiffed and knew none of the guys would hurt the bosses girlfriend.I didn't see any of the comeback they attempted a few years ago but apart from free shows at conventions I don't think it went anywhere, shame.

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I loved the FWA at the time. I just picked up a copy of Noah Limits 2 off here which I've been trying to track down for 7 years and I'll have to check but I think that completes my FWA collection now.I found the FWA through the Talksport show which a mate had told me about and up until that point my only experience of any indy wrestling was the names on Promotion Wars/EWR. I was always gutted that I never made it to an FWA show at it's peak but I did manage to get to a few at the end with Blackpool Rock in 2005 being my first ever British show (and only my 2nd ever live wrestling show) I met Stixx/Nikita/Simply Luscious outside the venue which was cool and I even got to hear Jonny Storms proper theme before he had to switch to the Milo one.Anyone know what happened to Dan Head? At one point wasn't he being groomed to be the biggest babyface in the country then when the FWA went he didn't seen to have anyone behind him with the same support. Did he just give up right away? Would've thought he'd have had at least a bit of name value being the top prospect in the academy of the biggest company in the country.*Edit - The New FWA was OK but it got off to a bad start in honesty.They tried to do a one show transition which didn't work. It was good seeing Jody Fleisch back in a headline act role for the comeback (where he belonged in the FWA) despite him being a midcard level guy everywhere else but then he disappeared completely. I thought the transition should've lasted a couple more shows so it actually felt like the FWA was back but thats just me. The other thing was Martin Stone, the man who killed the FWA after months of bashing it started as a face with no explanation, then did the same thing he did everywhere else. He turned. I don't think I've ever seen him work more than 2 shows in one place without turning. He's worse than Kane and it killed him for me by about the 6th time.

Edited by diamond_dust
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There were things I loved about the FWA, the set up was great, the storylines were mostly engaging and it was wonderful at the time that they brought over all this indy talent which we could only see otherwise on badly copied tapes.They certainly created in my opinion a lot of what british wrestling is today in terms of what the workers and promotions try to produce. Many of today

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One thing I found funny in Lamberts book was how Alex Shane basically talked Lambert, Sanjay Bagga and various others into being FWA regional promoters. Which meant they paid for everything and then Alex walked off with half the profits.I think the skinny guys all came from Mark Sloan, when he ran the FWA the emphasis was more on wrestling a more American Indy style and less on physique and mike work, that all came when Alex took over....I think.

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But to the extent of paying for everything and then still allowing them to take 50% of any profits? I never knew the likes of TNA and WWE would do that, but surely the chance of decent profit with those names is waaaay bigger then the FWA.

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Paul Burchill was amazing. He had this grand entrance where he would walk out slowly, stop and then charge to the ring before going in to a squash match where he would execute all these high flying maneuvers.The music videos promoting various events with the music from Citizen Smith were really good.What wasn't so good were the worked shoots starting with the one with Hade Vansen where the organization attempted to have us believe Hade Vansen was cutting shoot promos and showing up uninvited and interrupting matches.

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The Simmons double turn is still one of my favourite things I've seen in wrestling, just great.Turned sour for me when Alex kept annoying me on MSN messenger and comments made by Hade Vansen and Duke of Danger after BU3. Never went to an FWA show again after that.A great little thing whilst it lasted, but they never had any true idea of where to go next, they hit their ceiling, languished, went up north, became shit, came back and were shitter and now those initials are ruined forever. Their necessity to push the FWA guys only annoyed me too, especially as there was fucking great talent out there that deserved a go. I remember many of us pushing for Swiss Money Holdings to come over every month and getting laughed at, then seeing Alex's face in Blackburn after Hero and Claudio tore the house down when he realised 'I missed a trick there!'

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For me I dont think Alex Shane gets half the credit he deserves. He pretty much brought British Wrestling back into the livings rooms of the mainstream through his radio show.

Good Lord, Ian.
Well he did. I wouldn't have given a flying fuck about it. Tommy Boyd who got it a special on Bravo wouldn't have given a toss either. Future British wrestling heavyweights like Daniel Edler, Greg Lambert, Sanjay Bagga and Dann Read may not have been promoters had they not attended that TalkSport supershow. I'm not a superfan of Alex Shane as my post above suggested, but he shone a light on the British scene at a time when it was on its arse. He just couldn't follow up his ideas with anything practical in the longrun. But he deserves at least a bit of credit for that initial boom in 2001/2002. Edited by IANdrewDiceClay
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Highlights for me:Juventud Guerrerra leaping off the locker room roof in the Newport city Live ArenaSteve Corino appearing "UNANNOUNCED" in Newport of all places!Regular imports ruled! And FWA did it long before everyone else started to do so.FWA kickstarting British wrestling again and getting some of the buzz back.I did used to enjoy FWA live shows, more so than the TV show.

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But to say it was mainstream is a bit out there.

I didn't say it was. I said it put it into the homes of the mainstream. I.e. getting it on national radio. I was on mainstream telly once when I was talking about Roy Keane becoming the new manager of Sunderland on some news broadcast outside the stadium. Doesn't mean I was mainstream, though. Edited by IANdrewDiceClay
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