The 2013 UKFF UK50

[cobystag]

I don't think I could put it in quantifiable terms. If I want a comedy match, Manson's THE guy. There is no one funnier. I know I'm going to watch a Manson match and be entertained by it, no questions asked. But if I were to book a show or a promoter was to ask me whether I'd want to see, say Dave Mastiff vs Zack Sabre Jnr or Mad Man Manson, Zack would easily win that battle. My preference will always lean towards wanting to watch a competitive wrestling match between the UK's best regardless of it being singles, tag, multi-man. But I will always enjoy Manson and never not look forward to seeing him.

[pitseleh]

Well, surely that makes him a great worker? Pro-wrestling's not always about 30 minute back-and-forth epics consisted of every move under the sun. A jobber can be a better worker than your world champion. I can understand you have a preference but declaring a worker one of the most entertaining men on the scene and not have him on your list seems a little odd.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

That is fair enough. Our lists were reasonably similar. One of the things I considered when working out my list was "Would I want to see all these guys on the same show?". For me getting a comedy match right is a wrestling skill to be valued alongside what most would consider the more traditional wrestling skills. For me what I think of as "Comedy Workrate" is the same as "Workrate"

[Professor Paul's Bin]

Regarding Mad Man Manson, I really am not a fan of his style or work at all. Does anyone else share this opinion? I agree it's nice to get a change of atmosphere when attending a Brit Wrestling show but I just find the bloke dire.

[cobystag]

Well, surely that makes him a great worker? Pro-wrestling's not always about 30 minute back-and-forth epics consisted of every move under the sun. A jobber can be a better worker than your world champion. I can understand you have a preference but declaring a worker one of the most entertaining men on the scene and not have him on your list seems a little odd.

 

If anything it shows the strength of the UK scene. Manson twisting nipples makes me laugh. Zack and MK exchanging kicks makes me love pro wrestling.

 

I have nothing but the upmost respect for Manson and what he does and he adds something to every single show he is on and I love the guy to death (I'm a necrophiliac you see). That's why I felt the need to state that the reason he fell out of my list this year was through no fault of his own.

 

That is fair enough. Our lists were reasonably similar. One of the things I considered when working out my list was "Would I want to see all these guys on the same show?". For me getting a comedy match right is a wrestling skill to be valued alongside what most would consider the more traditional wrestling skills. For me what I think of as "Comedy Workrate" is the same as "Workrate"

 

This pretty much exemplifies why I should never be a booker/promoter as while I love BritWres and several varied styles, my card would be very stereotypical ROH, current PWG, in that it would be very work rate based and while if you love that style of wrestling, you'd love that show but ultimately you'd get burnt out if overplayed and too much.

 

Regarding Mad Man Manson, I really am not a fan of his style or work at all. Does anyone else share this opinion? I agree it's nice to get a change of atmosphere when attending a Brit Wrestling show but I just find the bloke dire.

 

Manson would be #16 on my list if I could. Legit.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Regarding Mad Man Manson, I really am not a fan of his style or work at all. Does anyone else share this opinion? I agree it's nice to get a change of atmosphere when attending a Brit Wrestling show but I just find the bloke dire.

 

Whilst I don't agree I do understand why you would say that Twinn. Manson is more a comedian than wrestler. I don't find Tim Vine funny, others do. Manson is like that, you find him funny or you don't

[king_dezeeuw06]

It's been a really good year for the British scene, there have been some great shows, amazing imports brought in and the UK talent impressing massively. My 4 regular promotions are FCP, Southside, PCW and Rev Pro over the past year and I've also seen a few others less frequently such as Futureshock, Infinity, Progress, 4FW and probably the odd other one here and there.

 

There so much great talent and so little between them that working out an order was hard so I tried to look back over the shows I've been and tried to pretty much just tally down all the fantastic matches for each guy. So the order was dictated by the final numbers I had rather than any personal preference or what was freshest in my head, which I thought was probably the fairest way to do it.

 

So here's my list in order;

 

1. Marty Scurll - I think I had Marty as my number 1 last year and again he has put on more great matches than anyone else over the course of the voting period. For sheer match quality he has been the MVP for Rev Pro and a huge part of Southside with excellent matches against Sha, Zack/Devitt, Spud and most notably his series of matches with Robbie X which elevated Robbie to the next level. He showed he is also equally adept in tag team action as well by being involved with partner Zack Sabre Jr in the best 2 tag matches of the year with Project Ego at Rev Pro and Gresham and MK at Southside, not to mention a great encounter with the Hunters at FCP (someone PLEASE book the rematch). Character / storyline wise Marty's bitter feud with Spud was only bettered by Ego Dragon / Kirby and Ligero in Southside and he has been able to show his range slowly transitioning into his new heel persona after years of solid baby face work and through his time on British Boot Camp. And that's not even mentioning his outstanding work at part of Team UK when DragonGate came over earlier this year. Marty is the complete package as a performer and never lets the promoter of fans down for match quality and overall performance. It's a travesty that TNA haven't taken him over to America yet, but their loss is the UK scenes gain.

 

2. MK McKinnan - I believe MK was my 2nd place last year and like Marty he retains his position. MK took the mantle of main man in FCP from Trent Seven and justly deserved that spot carrying the FCP title through a series of incredible matches with Eddie Edwards twice (title win and THAT epic ladder match), Adam Cole, Prince Devitt, Samuray Del Sol and a dramatic send off for Rockstar Spud. He also finally started to show his real class outside of FCP transferring his Wolverhampton form into both Southside and Rev Pro in particular 2 great matches with Mark Haskins (in SWE) and a hatrick of scorching matches with Zack Sabre Jr (2 in Rev Pro, 1 in SWE). He also was part of one of the best tag matches of the year with Gresham against the LDRS is SWE and also a surprisingly great tag match teaming with Trent against the CZW odd couple of Alex Colon and Greg Excellent in FCP. Not to mention appearing in both America and Japan, in particular he had a blinder with fellow FCP team mate Trent Seven taking on Ishikawa and Shinobu for Big Japan. MK is still only 21, so imagine how good he can be if he continues to develop like he has over the past couple of years.

 

3. Martin Kirby - Martin Kirby just missed out on my top 15 last time, but there was no way he could possibly be omitted this year thanks to his fantastic feud with El Ligero and the series of brutal storyline driven matches they have had in Southside. Working across so many promotions he has shown his massive range, comfortable able to play heel, baby face, comedy, straight man or evil villain when the situation calls for it. His work in both singles and tag (funnily enough with El Ligero) in PCW has been outstanding with matches with The Young Bucks and Dean Allmark particularly standing out and his Rev Pro work with Project Ego is always of the highest quality with fantastic tag matches with The Hooligans, Hunters, Swords of Essex and most notably the incredible tag match with the LDRS. I think there has been times when Kirby has been viewed as a side kick or somewhat living in the shadow of his tag partner Kris Travis, but this year Kirby has blown that idea out of the water and shown that he is every bit as good as his Project Ego team mate. I'd say Kirby was the MVP for Southside over the past 12 months and a huge plus to everyone else he works for.

 

4. El Ligero - So much of El Ligero and Martin Kirby

[Big Benny HG]

The final reminder of UK50s gone by:

 

2006

1 Doug Williams

2 Darren Burridge

3 Jonny Storm

4 Spud

5 Jody Fleisch

6 Pac

7 Robbie Brookside

8 Darkside

9 Alex Shane

10 Majik

11 Martin Stone

12 Jay Phoenix

13 Hade Vansen

14 Aviv Maayan

15 Jack Storm

16 Andy Simmons

17 Terry Frazier

18 James Tighe

19 Ricky Knight

20 Sha Samuels

21 Falcon

22 El Ligero

23 Ross Jordan

24 Dave Morales

25 Johnny Moss

26 Stixx

27 Iceman

28 Stevie Knight

29 Stevie Lynn

30 Carl Conroy

31 Dragon Phoenix

32 Ashe

33 Phil Powers

34 Curve

35 Conscience

36 Ashley Reed

37 Bubblegum

38 Dragon Aisu

39 Johnny Kidd

40 Leroy Kincaide

41 Drew Galloway

42 Red Lightning

43 Seamus O'Shaunessy

44 Wolfgang

45 JC Thunder

46 Kid Richie

47 Chris Whitton

48 Paul Travell

49 Charlie Rage

50 Dan Head

 

2005

1 Doug Williams

2 Jonny Storm

3 Robbie Brookside

4 Alex Shane

5 Jody Fleisch

6 James Tighe

7 Ricky Knight

8 Johnny Kidd

9 Spud

10 Stevie Knight

11 Zebra Kid

12 Aviv Maayan

13 Drew McDonald

14 Steve Grey

15 Martin Stone

16 Jack Storm

17 Phil Powers

18 James Mason

19 Majik

20 Darren Burridge

21 Mark Belton

22 Andy Simmons

23 Justin Richards

24 Dragon Phoenix

25 Hade Vansen

26 Jay Phoenix

27 Mal Sanders

28 Stevie Lynn

29 Drew Galloway

30 Ross Jordan

31 Mark Sloan

32 Dave Morales

33 Paul Travell

34 Carl Conroy

35 Ashe

36 TJ Cain

37 Eric Canyon

38 Iceman

39 Andy Hogg

40 Damon Leigh

41 Dirk Feelgood

42 El Ligero

43 Conscience

44 Terry Frazier

45 Jack Xavier

46 Bulk (UKP)

47 Joey Hayes

48 Heresy

49 JC Thunder

50 Stixx

 

 

Really glad to see some healthy debate going on in here regarding what people look for in 'a wrestler' and good to see differing opinions on individuals. Will be interesting to see those debates continued into the later rounds, since...

 

...You have just over FOUR HOURS before the 2013 nominations stage closes!! Nominations received after 23:59 TONIGHT will not be accepted!!

[Liam S.]

If Im honest Im surprised how highly rated MK is. I saw him Vs Samurai Del Sol and I hadnt seen him live for a while and I was disappointed to see how 'flabby' he'd gotten, he's not in terrible shape by any means but when you're stepping in to the ring with the amazing talents that he has the opportunity to work, you'd think the kid would put the time in at the gym.

 

And as for the in ring action, for me he always seemed one step behind. He did well and I enjoyed the match but was carried all the way through. Like Marty said in that video a few weeks back, of course MK is having great matches he is in there with some of the best wrestlers in the world.

[AshC]

Upon what criteria are the rankings based?

- who is able to tell the best "story" through their performance?

- whose performance is able to capture the crowd's interest and make them emotionally invested in the match?

- who actually makes pro wrestling enjoyable to watch with their performances?

 

I've nominated Little Legs. And why not? He ticks those boxes massively.

[pitseleh]

If Im honest Im surprised how highly rated MK is. I saw him Vs Samurai Del Sol and I hadnt seen him live for a while and I was disappointed to see how 'flabby' he'd gotten, he's not in terrible shape by any means but when you're stepping in to the ring with the amazing talents that he has the opportunity to work, you'd think the kid would put the time in at the gym.

 

And as for the in ring action, for me he always seemed one step behind. He did well and I enjoyed the match but was carried all the way through. Like Marty said in that video a few weeks back, of course MK is having great matches he is in there with some of the best wrestlers in the world.

 

I find MK pretty poor if I'm being honest. I've seen three matches from him and everything about him just screams 'indy wank'. Poor look, zero charisma, okay on the mat but seems to lack everything else that makes up a good pro-wrestler. I hate to sound so negative about someone who's so popular here and I'm willing to sit through a few matches that make me change my mind on him, but right now he's just reminds of your typical indy kid in kickpads.

[cobystag]

If Im honest Im surprised how highly rated MK is. I saw him Vs Samurai Del Sol and I hadnt seen him live for a while and I was disappointed to see how 'flabby' he'd gotten, he's not in terrible shape by any means but when you're stepping in to the ring with the amazing talents that he has the opportunity to work, you'd think the kid would put the time in at the gym.

 

And as for the in ring action, for me he always seemed one step behind. He did well and I enjoyed the match but was carried all the way through. Like Marty said in that video a few weeks back, of course MK is having great matches he is in there with some of the best wrestlers in the world.

 

I find MK pretty poor if I'm being honest. I've seen three matches from him and everything about him just screams 'indy wank'. Poor look, zero charisma, okay on the mat but seems to lack everything else that makes up a good pro-wrestler. I hate to sound so negative about someone who's so popular here and I'm willing to sit through a few matches that make me change my mind on him, but right now he's just reminds of your typical indy kid in kickpads.

 

I know I'm biased as I rate MK very highly (as given with his inclusion in my 15 and the write up) but after the matches he's had in 2012/3 the guy absolutely does deserve contention as to be one of the 50 best in England. Honestly while I have my list of 15, I'm stuck as to the ranking as I could make solid arguments for 6 on my list to take the #1 spot, MK included.

 

While I could again list the incredible matches he had against the likes of Eddie Edwards, Zack Sabre Jnr and Mark Haskins it wouldn't put to bed the argument that he's having such good matches due to his opponents as they are three fantastic wrestlers.

 

I don't know if you've seen the SWE tag match from August pitseleh? MK with Jonathan Gresham vs Zack & Scurll -

 

The sections between Zack and MK are glorious and just a taste of what they've been able to do inside the ring together.

[I Bent My Wookie]

As someone that is looking to get back into training and really isn't in the greatest shape right now himself I always am quite fearful of saying something about a wrestler I could only wish to be as successful as on the British scene as MK so I'll pick my words very carefully here.

 

Not for one second do I doubt he's a great talent, but when wrestlers should be promoted as imposing characters that are different to everyday human beings, his physique right now just seems like he's bulked up to a weight he wishes too but hasn't put the gym work in at all. His arms aren't particularly huge even for his size and after the forum's all day bashing of Kassius Ohno's current shape, MK does come across as a bit flabby and just lacking of any tone. I'm sure as he gets older, gets more bookings he may improve it, but I personally just feel if I was in front of hundred(s) of fans numerous nights a week, I'd want to be in the best shape I could. May just be a confidence thing on my part.

[moofasa]

-

[air_raid]

In before the edit.........

 

Am I too late,

Maybe we can agreee thAT BRitwes is the healthiest its been for a good while.your top ten should include Ligero, Travis, Alllmark, Spud, Scurll Sabre, GrADO, haskins kirby and another of your choice maybe you could grade them by a quarter of a star.

 

Have a Bret Hart approved beating of a red headed stepchild and know that when you wake up, you're not fit to lick their boots.

 

ps i think your a cunt if that's not clear.

 

pps Toilet rapper you rapped in a toilet give up now before you hurt yourself, you'll never be over with me give up now. Toilet side motherfucker!

 

 

....................................... wow. What do you say to that???