Paid Members Big Benny HG Posted July 18, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted July 18, 2014 The Tenth Annual UKFF UK50  Introduction   What is the UKFF UK50? The UKFF UK50 is the yearly attempt to rank the top 50 wrestlers from the UK wrestling circuit, compiled by the members of the UK's biggest and most active pro wrestling messageboard, the UK Fan Forum. UKFFers come together to debate, discuss, nominate, vote and ultimately rank the best in the British wrestling scene. Yes, believe it or not, this is the tenth consecutive year that we have done this!   Those who try to disparage this project each year by saying things like âThe UKFF is such a tiny proportion of the punters at showsâ and âStupid net fans arenât the ones who pay the wagesâ and even (believe it or not) âIt should be the worker themselves that rank the other workersâ (yes, Iâve heard that one) are missing the point. It is not supposed to be a definitive, absolute, be-all-end-all, undisputed set of official rankings representing the entire British public, it is merely supposed to be a reflection of the collective opinions of the UKFF community. It doesnât pretend to be anything other than that, and hasnât ever pretended to matter in the big grand scheme of things.   With that said, with awareness of the limitations, the UKFF UK50 will still always be the best attempt anyone will ever get to producing a set of rankings simply because, again, it is âthe UK's biggest and most active pro wrestling messageboardâ, and it does represent the largest collective of the type of money-paying customers more likely to go out and see a more-than-average number of wrestling shows in a year, in different promotions in different areas of the country. We arenât just talking about contributors who go and see a show twice a year in the local town hall. Indeed, the general UKFF members who participate in this task have more awareness of the British scene than your average punter, so are more likely to attend shows depending on certain individual wrestlers and particular individual announced matches than simply going because youâve seen a WRESTLING poster in the local chippy. It is that knowledge and awareness of the individual British wrestlers out there that feed into this project and make it work. As such, you absolutely wonât find any other project where the number of contributing members have such a wide starting reference knowledge and strong basis of comparison as the UKFF.   The previous winners have been Doug Williams (2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008), Bubblegum (2009), Martin Stone (2010) and El Ligero (2011, 2012 and 2013).    How does it work? Every year we compile the list via a number of stages. First, UKFFers nominate who they believe is worthy of a place somewhere in that year's top 50. Then, once we have a list of 50 names, we begin to rank them into an order of merit by way of votes. The final ranked list is then revealed. All the way through, UKFFers are encouraged to discuss, debate and justify their selections, sharing reasons why they believe their decisions to be correct, sharing clips from matches, suggesting particular matches that they believe back up their selections and so forth.    Upon what criteria are the rankings based? All the way through the process, nominations and votes should be made based on British wrestlers' in-ring performances you have seen on shows that took place between 1 July 2013 and 30 June 2014. The key points around which the rankings, nominations and votes are based include:  - whose in-ring performances are the most gripping, convincing and enthralling?  - who is consistently involved in great matches?  - 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?    Who is eligible to be included in the UKFF UK50? To be eligible for inclusion, a wrestler must:  - be British or Irish  - have the majority of their appearances on UK shows, for UK promotions, in the UK wrestling scene.   Wrestlers can be either male or female.   Adrian Neville, Bad News Barrett, Sheamus, William Regal, Layla, Becky Lynch, Rockstar Spud, Magnus, Rob Terry, Bram and suchlike are NOT ELIGIBLE. For virtually the entire eligibility period, they have all been full-time contracted roster members for major overseas-based promotions and the majority, if not all, of their work is for those promotions. The UKFF UK50 is intended to cover the domestic British wrestling scene, not WWE, TNA, etc.   On a similar basis, Martin Stone (Danny Burch), Joel Redman (Oliver Grey), Mason Ryan and Drew Galloway (Drew McIntyre) are NOT ELIGIBLE in 2014. Yes, they are free independent wrestlers now, but that was not the case for the vast majority of the 2014 eligibility period.   This same ruling does also apply to Prince Devitt, who remains INELIGIBLE. Despite a few one-off guest star independent appearances between tours with his full-time employer, he was with New Japan Pro Wrestling until April 2014, making up 10 of the 12 months of the eligibility period. I did give Devitt some consideration, given that he has made more UK appearances in the last 12 months than at any time before joining NJPW (and even held UK championships in the year), but ultimately had to rule him out as a full-time contracted employee of a major overseas organisation (which is the same rule that applied to Pac when he started full-time with Dragon Gate).   You know who else I nearly ruled-out this year? Zack Sabre Jr. Given his status as a regular with Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan (including multiple reigns as GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion) he came close, but ultimately I felt he still had a significant body of work as a regular roster member in multiple British promotions throughout the year to say that he just fell on the right side of the line. So, Zack Sabre Jr. remains ELIGIBLE for selection this year. Some may disagree, but themâs the rules...   I can confirm, however, that, former 4-time UKFF UK50 winner Doug Williams IS once again ELIGIBLE for selection this year after an absence of 5 years.   There's probably others I've forgotten to specifically mention above, but the same rules apply and it should be simple enough for you to determine whether someone is or isn't eligible under this criteria. If unsure, ask me either in this thread or in a PM.    Who is allowed to take part? Anyone who has a UKFF account. Obviously, you must have actually seen the wrestlers you are nominating/voting for in a British match within the eligible period (e.g. live show, full matches on the internet, TV, DVD, etc).    There hasnât been a SHIT LIST for a few years now. Iâm starting to think itâs never coming back⌠See the Stage One rules below, then⌠   Where can I find out about the previous UKFF UK50 projects? The 2005 UKFF UK50 threads have now been deleted and so can no longer be viewed.   The 2006 and 2007 results threads were moved into the UKFF Gold forum and so are available to view at your convenience.   The 2008 and 2009 threads were not moved into Gold, and so they have also unfortunately also expired.   The 2010 (including all the drama surrounding the last SHIT LIST) and 2011 threads are both available in UKFF Gold.   The 2012 and 2013 versions are not in Gold, but can still be viewed on the main forum for the time being until the Mods cull older posts.   So, for the tenth time, here we go⌠  *****************************************   2014 UKFF UK50 - Stage One (Nominations)   As always, Stage One is the nomination stage. UKFFers nominate British wrestlers they feel deserve a place, any place, somewhere in the list. The 50 with the most nominations make it in, the rest don't.   As always, to take part in this Stage I need you to:   1) Send a PM to myself on the UKFF. E-mails/Facebook messages/Tweets/etc. will not be accepted. Feel completely free to share your nominations in this thread if you wish, for the purposes of generating discussion/debate, but I will only officially count lists that I receive in my PM Inbox.   2) Within the PM, please nominate up to 15 wrestlers that you feel, based on the criteria described above and matches that you have actually seen, deserve a place, any place, somewhere in this year's UKFF UK50. This doesn't of course, necessarily mean that it is your own personal 'top' 15, just 15 people you would like to see in the 50. All names are a single nomination, carrying equal value, so there is no need to rank your list of nominations in order of merit (i.e. the name at the top of your nominations will be treated equally with the name at the bottom of your list). You can nominate less than 15 if you like, but definitely no more.   You don't need to include your reasons for nominating these wrestlers within your message to me during this stage. As you will have seen from past years, I do like to use your quotes when doing the results write-ups, and some people put a lot of time and effort into their comments. However, since this is merely the nomination stage, there is no guarantee that your nominated wrestlers will get through and I don't want you to waste your words - save them for the final round. If you do wish to give your comments at this stage, you'd be best off sticking them in this thread - just a sentence or so to justify their selection or point out particular matches, promotions or shows upon which you have based your decision.   3) With that same PM, you may also nominate up to 3 wrestlers for the separate SHIT LIST. Yes, itâs back!! Well, in a sense. I wonât do a full Top (Bottom?) 20 or anything, but will unveil the 5-or-so most-nominated âSHIT ARSESâ in no particular order at regular intervals when the main UKFF UK50 is being revealed based on what I receive. Again, this should be based on matches you have actually seen within the 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014 period, but you should nominate people who you feel display the absolute opposite to all of the ranking criteria given above. These are the worst of the worst, the ones who are the complete opposite to those you have included in your main 15 nominations.   As above, your SHIT LIST nominations do not need to be ranked in any sort of order. You donât have to nominate anyone at all if you donât wish â itâs entirely optional. If you do wish to include SHIT LIST nominations, though, it would be great if you would please also include a few lines on the reasons why you have nominated them, such as descriptions, stories, experiences, etc. The funnier the better. As the SHIT LIST wonât feature any more voting rounds, this is your only opportunity to comment.   No Ronins or Gilligan Gordons, thanks.   4) Make sure you get your PM in to me by 23:59 on Friday 1st August 2014. Any received after this deadline will not be considered, so donât bother asking.    Anyone suspected of using dual accounts or other unfair methods to weight the list or make mockery of the spirit of the project may be excluded at my discretion. There's always knobheads who try to get their shitarsey Johnny Kickpadz mates into the main list, but they are usually unsuccessful since they are outweighed by the amount of âproperâ nominations.   As always, any nominations, votes or comments that I receive will be treated completely confidentially. For the purposes of maintaining space in my Inbox, I usually have to delete your messages as soon as Iâve taken the detail anyway.   The 50 wrestlers with the most nominations after the deadline will make it into the 2014 UKFF UK50. The rest will not. If there are a tied number of nominations for the last few places in the 50 (there usually always is every year), we will have a mini-stage to determine which of them make it in.   Please feel free to now use this thread to discuss and debate who is worthy of nominations this year. Campaign for your choices. Share videos of your selections' best matches from the year. Try to convince others that you are correct. Provide evidence as to why you believe you are right.   So, finally, to summarise what I need you to do:   - Send me a PM  - 15 Nominations, plus a further 3 for the SHIT LIST if you so desire  - By 23:59 on Friday 1 August 2014   Thanks in advance for your continued participation. As always, please feel free to ask any questions you may have, either in this thread or by PM.So, then, over to you, UKFFers...  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcrpearson101 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Had to dig out my username and password for this lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patiirc Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Had to dig out my username and password for this lolDreadlock insanity!Benny. Hell to the yeahStupid question, maybe asked by some one else. Masters is considered a reg now? right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro Red Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Had to dig out my username and password for this lolDreadlock insanity!Benny. Hell to the yeahStupid question, maybe asked by some one else. Masters is considered a reg now? right?He isn't British or Irish though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Big Benny HG Posted July 18, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 18, 2014 No Masters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windoesnot Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Well the top of my shit list is the easiest choice of any top 50 so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patiirc Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 No Masters.Cheers dude, some one had to ask it, may as well be me like Well the top of my shit list is the easiest choice of any top 50 so farBattle Squad Awesome isnt it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted July 18, 2014 Awards Moderator Share Posted July 18, 2014 Great to see this back again, and with the return of the shit list too! This should be fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Southside crew Posted July 18, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted July 18, 2014 I have done a complete 180 and am really glad that the shit list is returning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PowerButchi Posted July 20, 2014 Moderators Share Posted July 20, 2014 I'm gonna be plugging James Mason like a mother fucker. I'm going to be putting over touring workers mainly as IT don't think they get enough due. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Big Benny HG Posted July 21, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 21, 2014 Right, I've tidied up the initial post/introduction/rules after the forum modifications destroyed it. Â Thanks for those who have already nominated; some good stuff coming through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 I'm gonna be plugging James Mason like a mother fucker  Good stuff. I've nominated and voted for Mason as the #1 guy in this thing for nearly ten years now and he gets nowhere every year.  England's Kurt Angle. Nowhere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Quentin Posted July 24, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted July 24, 2014 Always my favorite thread of the year, this. Can't see past Ligero for the top spot if only because he works everywhere and never has a bad match but there's so much talent around these days that numbers 10 - 50 are anyone's guess. Didn't think we'd ever see a shitlist again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PRINCE2356 Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014  No Masters.Cheers dude, some one had to ask it, may as well be me like Well the top of my shit list is the easiest choice of any top 50 so farBattle Squad Awesome isnt it  I went for Battle Squad Awesome as well due to that appearance at PCW (Looked like they had turned up for work experience), Other two were Babyface Pitbull and Sparx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Gordon_The_Gopher Posted July 24, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted July 24, 2014 No Ronins or Gilligan Gordons Shitlomatic immunity!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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