Post of the Year 2015

[PunkStep]

Otto Dem Wanz' brilliant post in the 'Has your interest in wrestling ever been lower?' thread:

 

[WARNING: this is far longer than I intended it to be]

 

Oddly enough, and in contrast to the title of the thread - in 'real' terms, I don't think my interest in wrestling has ever been higher than it is in 2015.

 

I first learned of wrestling as an eight year old primary school child in 2000 - I tuned into Smackdown on a Saturday morning that summer and was enticed by The Rock and Rikishi (I did tell you I was eight...) and despite Mum's protests I managed to procure Fully Loaded 2000 on VHS and tape PPV's off Sky Sports from Summerslam through to Survivor Series that year.

 

I was never allowed to watch Raw is War on Friday (too violent and sexual Ma called it, in hindsight she was probably correct) but this particular PPV streak was cruelly stopped by young Otto failing to understand that Armageddon 2000 was to be broadcast on Channel 4 (I set the video to record Sky Sports 1 where instead of white-hot Hell in a Cell action I got You're on Sky Sports with punters discussing Stan Collymore's move to Bradford). Dad fucked off from the family home before 2001 started and with him went the Sky Sports package, thus started a barren spell where I didn't see a live wrestling show (or footy match) unless it was round a friends or in a pub for several years.

 

I vaguely remember seeing the 2001 Rumble at a mates but by Mania 17 all I had to go on was WWF magazine and Power Slam. I didn't watch what many of us call the greatest WWF show ever produced in full until the Tagged Classic came out on DVD in 2007. Smackdown 2: Know your role and Shut Your Mouth on the PS1 and PS2 respectively placated my interest after the invasion angle came and went, and the last show I remember watching for a long time was Survivor Series 2001, again that was only because a friend of mine let me borrow his VHS (ta Shiv).

 

Interest in wrestling status: Budding, but unfulfilled

 

In 2003 secondary school started and with it came a whole lot of other things to take my mind of the old squared circle until three years later where for some reason, and I genuinely don't remember why (although I do recall buying the December 2005 Power Slam), I got the urge to order Mania 22 live off Virgin Media which led to the start of my second stint of fandom in 2006. By this point I was heavily invested in the internet, and even with our poverty equipment (we only got broadband in December 06, and even then used a Windows ME computer until we upgraded to XP in 2008) and our schools 'only 20 minutes of internet at a time' policy I began to find myself hooked with not only the contemporary goings on, but what had happend in my absent period (some bloke called Brock Lesnar turned up and then left, Eddie Guerrero died and some bloke who everyone hates but is supposed to love became, and still is the WWE champion). Wrestlemania 21 for the Xbox was another purchase contributing to my fandom around this time.

 

'Mania 22 was class and I was hooked again, even inviting a friend over to sleep over and watch Summerslam that summer then persuading my inebriated father to purchase the same event a year later telling him - "you've got to see the size of the Punjabi guy, who also happens to be the World Champion" (postcolonial-era Commonwealth migration represent yo) whilst buying Power Slam every month. This also includes the time I proudly went to Smiths with my first ever paycheck which I got for photocopying and lugging dressing rails around Elstree Studios. I also fondly remember summer nights at my grannies watching RAW live through the John Cena/Edge angle, Edge slapping Cena's dad still ranks as one of the best things I've ever seen 'as it happened'.

 

Interest in wrestling status: Fanatical, I couldn't get enough. The first time I ever really watched wrestling week to week.

 

Benoit happened, but I can't say it put me off at all, I remember a boy in my year telling people in the tennis courts and I didn't believe him but then found out the horrid truth in a Graphics classroom after break that day. My fandom held strong through the exciting Rumble and Mania season which culminated in still probably my favourite show ever in 'Mania 24. I bought the Steelbook DVD of it which I watched through the day it arrived (the day which ended with my prom night) after which I had the honour of going into the sixth form.

 

After this it must be said that my interest in wrestling started waning. Taking on four A-Levels (neek yes I know), disovering alcohol, playing footy three times a week and working part-time at John Lewis I only just about had enough time to lament about how crap Liverpool were doing (these were the dark Hicks and Gillet days) and left hardly any room for wrestling on Otto's agenda. I did keep up with storylines via wwe.com and wrestling-forum (this is where you may all stop reading and send me angry PM's) during this time and I did still order and watch Mania 25 live. Perhaps encapsulating my apathy however, I don't even remember enjoying the HBK/Taker match that much and sure enough, by the time 2010 arrived I had no clue what was happening and only caught the last hour of Mania 26 via a dodgy stream after Snakebite Sunday in Watford Walkabout. My first year of uni saw a similar story, in addition to the girlfriend I'd acquired, the study and social pressures meant wrestling was pushed out as something I had time to enjoy or even take a cursory glance at online.

 

Interest in wrestling status: Cooled off. Wrestling had been usurped by other interests, namely shagging my first proper girlfriend and enduring university exams and drinking sessions.

 

In the summer of 2011 however something did catch my imagination, CM Punk's famous pipe-bomb promo. I'd heard the fallout from MITB online and was so intrigued I bought my first (and so far only) wrestling related t-shirt - the black and yellow Punk Nexus number which was on sale on Shopzone. I believe the more sought-after "Best in the World" edition was about to be released hence the bargain, I still actually wore the thing outdoors including to university seminars by the way...

 

Six months later and after enjoying Survivor Series 2011 I absolutely loved Mania 28 and got into the Rock's comeback huge, after second year exams I found an xtremely-great way of obtaining shows old and new enabling me to familiarise myself with the stars and characters of yesteryear and today. Even on my year abroad in Spain I kept track, watching Mania 29 on delay after an MDMA fuelled Elrow rave on the outskirts of Barcelona (Ricardo Rodriguez's voice makes fucking horrible listening on a comedown it must be said) and first visiting the hallowed pages of the UKFF when I should have been writing assignments.

 

Whilst I haven't consistently watched Raw or Smackdown during this time I've never failed to keep in touch with developments (as much as these even occur nowadays) via the web or forums. The UKFF helped immeasurably with making me take a look at old-school/classic stuff with a different eye, all those guys like Rude, Savage, Steamboat etc were just "guys that were Rock or Austin for people who watced during the 80's" when I couldn't have been more wrong in that they had their own special attributes and needed to be appreciated as having such.

 

Of course, the development and acquisition of the Network has pretty much ignited my fixation, I can watch basically anything I want to and in addition to the PPV shows (which despite the negative sentiments almost always deliver) and NXT (the best episodic show in wrestling in terms of character development and storytelling if you ask me), I can relive those halcyon days of TLC 1 and Kurt Angle's mong brother costing Undertaker the title back in the day. Mania's 30 and 31 were absolutely boss too and Summerslam 2014 was a welcome relief from post-graduation unemployment/signing-on monotony at the time. Who doesn't love Brock Lesnar when he performs like that btw?

 

Interest in wrestling status: Cautiously coming to terms with the fact that wrestling is in fact one of my biggest interests

 

So looking to the future; I've just bought tickets to my first live wrestling show (NXT Takeover: London) and I can't wait to see Bayley (who I have a complete schoolboy crush on), Finn Balor, Samoa Joe (liked him since his poster appeared in PS) and the rest.

 

To wrap this up, and without wishing to blow smoke up rears, the contributions by many of you on here and the humour, knowledge and insight these boards radiate keep me coming back for more not just on the ukff.com site, but for wrestling content I'd skipped over or neglected too. I'm truly grateful we can harness the internet to indulge and share our common passion no matter how jaded, cynical or unsure we are about the way things look.

 

Here's to another 15 years!

 

Otto

 

PS The several pints of lager I've imbibed tonight may have had something to do with the length and content of this post

PPS SCG radio is boss

[tiger_rick]

Second Otto.

[Undefeated Steak]

+1 forOtto. Cracking post.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Wonderful post by Ian in Random Thoughts comparing WCW and Newcastle United

 

Newcastle are Eric Bischoff. Were on top for a while during the period of 96 and 97 before ultimately fucking it up royally. And even when they were good, it was all out attack and sod all to protect them on the counter. I suppose that makes Kenny Daglish Vince Russo. Once the Radicalz left (Ginola, Ferdinand and Beardsley) he brought in The Natural Born Thrillaz (Paul Daglish, Jon Dahl Tomasson and Ian Rush) as replacements.

 

Alan Shearer is Sting. Stayed around forever and eventually saw the company relegated. Peter Beardsley is DDP. Because they both facially resemble a pork scratching.

[tiger_rick]

Yeah, that's brilliant.

[Glenryck Pilchards]

Keith Houchen's reaction to UK Kat Von D getting a gold tooth:

 

 

Fucks sake, you need to have at least two of your back teeth gold before you've earned the right to have such a visible gold front tooth.

[Ian 86]

1PW - Hat Guy style

 

 

I personally had a very on-off association with 1PW when it came to my fandom, in that I attended all of their early shows, enjoyed them for what they were, quickly got bored when every show was exactly the same, stopped going for ages, found all the sleaze and ridiculous cult-like following incredibly amusing, then started popping back to catch occasional shows from the various incarnations of the group over the last few years of their existence.


Background
That first show, ‘A Cruel Twist of Fate’, was a really enjoyable, actually quite good, one-off show. Again, at the time I just lumped it in with the likes of ‘Revival’, the first GWF show, ‘TWC International Showdown’ and the upcoming ‘Universal Uproar’ as a one-off exhibition-style supershow and accepted and enoyed it as just that. I wasn’t expecting it to be a full-time promotion, with storylines, feuds and developing characters at first; like those other ‘supershows’ I just took it for a rare chance to see the international stars. I remember being really impressed with the production values, for some reason particularly the lighting on the ring, which I recall noting being exactly like a TV show. It all looked very expensive compared to what I’d been used to in British wrestling. As the show was going on, I couldn’t help but think that this was exactly the type of show FWA wished they were.

It seemed to be coming at the right time, too. Supershows had been done, notably the ‘International Showdown’ Coventry supershow earlier in the year, but hadn’t been overdone by that point. Similarly, the chance to see the likes of US indy stars like Styles, Daniels, Low-Ki, Joe, Lynn etc. on British shows was nothing new, but in most cases you’d only get one or two per show, usually fighting some Andy Local. This was also before the supershow model moved on and the likes of TNA, ROH, PWG, Dragon Gate, NOAH, etc. started running their own ‘full’, ‘proper’ shows over here. The chance to see a lot of international stars on the same single show, actually facing each other in genuine matches just like you’d see in proper TNA or ROH, was actually therefore a big deal and something special. You also have to remember that The Wrestling Channel was on the go, with more people than ever knowing who these US indie stars were.


Friday 30 September 2005
As had been the case with ‘International Showdown’, the stars being brought in for 1PW were also rented out to other promotions in the days immediately before and after the show. So, my first 1PW weekend actually began in Middlesbrough Town Hall on the Friday night, as WZW presented ‘Last Chance’, a fun show that included Raven, D-Lo Brown, Alex Shane, Iceman and Dutch star ‘Tremendous’ Emil Sitoci, as well as now-noted kiddy-fiddlers Jay Phoenix and Highlander. A clearly worse-for-wear Sandman was also there with Raven. He didn’t have an official match on the show, but was selling gimmicks and did a run-in at the end of the night to save Raven and Iceman from the Scottish deviants.


Saturday 1 October 2005
The main day itself saw my mate Martin and I arrive in Doncaster ridiculously early for, well, no real reason at all. I don’t think we’d appreciated how quick it would take us to drive down from Thirsk. I think this might have been the show where we accidentally wandered into an ongoing pre-show Q&A session we hadn’t bought tickets for, but no-one was around and we just stayed. Someone asked AJ Styles a question about his thoughts on FWA, and you could tell from his answer he might have thought this actually was an FWA show. I remember we also wandered over to have a look at a real shitty bowling alley over on the neighbouring leisure park, and may have wandered into Doncaster centre and back (though might be confusing that with return visits over the coming months) before ending up in the upstairs bar in the Dome (Ice Bar? Ice Breakers? Something like that). What I did note was that just about every single recognisable ‘hardcore’/travelling wrestling fan you’d see at all the shows across the country was there. They probably noted the same about us, to be fair. Goldberg Jacket Guy was there. Asian Elvis was there. The Geordie Pauls were there. We spent some time chatting with Gadge, Gribbo and Bagga, who had also given a lift to former UKFFer Oliver Scott (now wrestling in the south-east as Oliver Peace) who had hilariously shared with them his vision of a Chris Benoit vs. Kenta Kobashi match which would be like, and I quote, “CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP (... and he went on...)”.

There was a pre-show Battle Royal for “A 1PW Contract” that was for floor ticket holders. We had tiered seats so didn’t get to see that – though everyone that did see it thought it was, and again I quote, “the shits”. Darren Burridge apparently won, which surprised me at the time as, while I thought he was talented and entertaining when I’d seen him in FWA and FutureShock, there were much bigger UK names around that I’d naturally assumed would be ahead of him in the queue. I thought the idea of a “1PW Contract” was funny, since I’d just assumed they would just be a group that would run occasional supershow-type events a couple of times a year and then probably disappear just as quickly.

The Raven vs. Sandman vs. Tommy Dreamer hardcore 3-way was just loads and loads of fun. You have to remember that this show took place right at the height of the ECW nostalgia buzz, coming right after the first ‘One Night Stand’ PPV and in amongst the ‘Hardcore Homecomings’, the DVDs, the books, etc. It was perfect timing, and it was very much something that everyone wanted to see. Was it an all-time classic match? Absolutely not, but it didn’t disappoint, and was exactly what I wanted to get out of it. I’d never been to an authentic ECW show, but this at least for a moment made me feel like I could pretend I was in the middle of one. It was cool.

The AJ Styles vs. Abyss main event was also very well-timed too, since those two had been tearing it up as part of their feud in TNA, at a time when TNA wasn’t completely laughable. It felt like it was a genuine TNA main event, transplanted right here for us to enjoy in person. Really good match, too, even if it did end somewhere close to midnight.

The opening tag of Jody Fleisch & Jonny Storm vs. Jerry Lynn & Chris Sabin was a good, fun, fast-paced, spotty indie opener, but the British trios ‘Adrenaline’ (WTF?!?) bout with Ross Jordan, Ice XVII, Stevie Lynn, Spud, Shabazz and James Tighe was a bit of a mess. Tracey Smothers vs. Blue Meanie was pretty horrendous in terms of an actual match, but ridiculously entertaining in terms of character and daft fun. There was a D-Lo Brown vs. Sterling James Keenan match on there that was pretty basic, but fine. I’d never heard of Keenan before so wasn’t that into it, and my main memory of the match is the two guys sat immediately behind us in the stand (which I think later turned out to be future referee and staffer Ricc1PW and mainly DPW promoter Dave ‘Toga’ Jagger, who had dyed his hair blue as a tribute to Meanie) heckling D-Lo Brown incessantly by chanting “JOBBER” at him. D-Lo took the mic afterwards to address it, stating “I might have lost today, but I can go somewheretomorrow and win, whereas you’ll still be fat”. That prompted about 1,500 people chanting “YOU FAT BASTARD!” at him...

Steve Corino vs. Al Snow was atrocious, though. They did this incredibly slow, incredibly long, incredibly boring match to absolutely no reaction, then Corino went and did a fake knee injury angle that absolutely no-one bought, but still lasted an eternity. An interview I read later with Corino saw him inexplicably state that every single person watching that match had been worked by the angle, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. My mate had got bored of the match, wandered off to the toilets, gone to the bar, looked at the merch tables and then came back over 15 minutes later incredulous at the fact the match was still going on. Despite all this, you could maybe at least let them off if they were trying to build and develop the match into a dramatic conclusion... but instead they then threw away everything they’d forced us to sit through the prior 40 minutes by turning the final stretch into a comedy match with absolutely no relevance to anything else they’d been doing, pulling out every tribute WWE finisher they could to get a laugh. It was so, so shit.

Erm, what else was there? There was Low-Ki vs. Iceman, where Low-Ki basically beat the crap out of the Brit for 15 minutes (and hilariously, given he was one of the very few Brits in a match against an import, Iceman came out to ‘Born in the USA’. That was later revealed to be the sound guy’s error in the James Dixon book), and an Austin Aries vs. Doug Williams match that I have no recollection whatsoever of ever taking place...

... and while I thought this had been a really good show, that in a nutshell was the main problem with this first version of 1PW, both with this initial card and with what was to follow over the next year – there was so much, so many names, so many matches and so many hours that you just couldn’t take it all in, remember what you had seen and, really, care what you’d seen. Especially when they continued this model with the bi-monthly weekenders with effect from this point, all with cards and line-ups just like this, it all started to blur into one. It was overkill.


Sunday 2 October 2005
The next day, as Herbie alluded to, I was up in Newcastle for ‘Main Event Wrestling – Northern Bash’ in a sports hall built on top of Eldon Square shopping centre that I’d never previously even known was there. Raven, Sandman, D-Lo, Aries, Doug, Jonny, Spud and Ross Jordan were all on that show from the 1PW card, as was the man who would later become Sheamus. Further then-IWW guys on the show included Red Vinny, everyone’s favourite sexual predator Jay Phoenix and what might have been the first time I’d seen Mad Man Manson. Rounding off the card were also a whole load of absolutely shite IWF guys, like Bobby Jackson, Liam Atkinson, Assassin, Jed Masters, RD Wood and Damocles who all looked dreadful, so the show as a whole was a bit of a mixed bag. My main takeaway from the night was the opening 6-way, which was the first time I got to see a local high-flyer called Pac, whose appearances had been mainly limited to IWF at that point, who was green but spectacular. Based on his showing that night, 3CW brought him in soon after, which led to him going to IPW:UK, then PWG, then Dragon Gate, and so on, as he impressed the right people at each stage.


1PW Going Forward
While one-off supershows are absolutely fine as an attraction, exhibition-type thing, it absolutely doesn’t work as a long-term plan for an entire promotion. There were no storylines, no feuds, no consequences – nothing mattered other than something being a ‘good match’ and a chance to see the stars you’d only previously seen on TV or DVD. Once the novelty of seeing the international stars live had worn off, and all the meaningless ‘good matches’ just started becoming a blur, there was nothing of any substance to make you need to see the next show apart from the promise of more of the same. And that was it, every show was exactly the same. After that first ‘A Cruel Twist of Fate’ show, I attended the weekenders in January, March and May in 2006... and that’s where I jumped off. Nothing was new and there was no ‘hook’ left anymore to draw me back. I knew I wasn’t actually missing anything by not being there, since I’d seen it all. As nothing had any real meaning, it also meant I knew I could just go back in, say, a year’s time if something did catch my eye and not have missed out on essential storyline or anything.

One thing that did impress me about those early 1PW shows was how quickly they got the DVDs out. These days, we are used to promotions getting shows out on-demand within a few days of the event, but back then it was really something that they had the DVD of the last show ready to buy at the next event. Unfortunately, that was the only good thing to say about the early DVDs, as they were appalling. Poor colour, poor saturation, poor contrast, poor sound-mixing levels and a picture quality that looked like the show had been filmed on a mobile phone (which was more of a problem in 2005/6 than it is today, obviously). You’d get some, like the first show, which were put onto a professional dual-layer DVD disc, then others that had the entire 5 hour show compressed onto a regular DVD-R. They apparently improved (they must have done, they ended up in HMV), but given the abysmal state of their show on TWC a little later I wasn’t taking any chances.

Of course, it all started going wrong for them pretty soon, owing money everywhere and falling out with everyone. They fell out with the DVD production company (good). They fell out with Powerslam magazine over unpaid advertising bills. They fell out with The Wrestling Channel due to their own stupidity (they were apparently on a deal where the fee they would be paid for programming would depend on the rating that programming would get. Completely failing to understand how TV ratings are worked out, they made themselves look laughable when they accused TWC of LYING to them when it turned out several weeks of their show had officially ZERO viewers, meaning they didn’t get paid at all. “You must be lying. I was watching it. My mate was watching it. Some guys on the 1PW forum said they were watching it too. LIARS!”. Lol). The ridiculously defensive, aggressive, narrow-minded, blinkered attitude of both the 1PW staff and their cult of followers was something I found absolutely hilarious. Other UK promotions had had loyal followings, but nothing like this (in fact, FWA’s fans were more likely to criticise and complain about the promotion online, due to the constant disorganisation). Observers would point out logical and constructive criticisms of 1PW shows and the 1PW product, only for people to blindly defend the promotion and look completely ridiculous.

It was January 2007 when the final nail hit and they had to cancel their planned show, which was to feature the Great Muta and other AJPW stars, on a few days’ notice (leading to Muta famously describing the UK as “a dangerous place to do business”). RQW and 3CW stepped in to save the day, as Muta was added to one of the former’s calamitous Bethnal Green shows and a 3CW team ran the original date as a 1PW tribute/farewell show.

They did relaunch a few months later and ran again that April, but I guess that’s a story for another time...

 

[Duke]

As someone who isn't part of the Britwres scene, I'm so grateful for posters like Hatguy who take the time to write interesting and detailed posts on the subject that make someone like me more interested. Consistently great.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Thirded for that post (presuming Duke seconded it). Great stuff again from BBHG.

[Duke]

Nah, sod im.

[Lenin]

 

I loved Parker.

 

Leader on the pitch. The one fully-fit season my mob got out of him, he was my favourite player. Him and Modric together was my favourite "engine room" of any Spurs team since the turn of the century. During the 10 wins/1 draw unbeaten run (ended by fucking Stoke) I lost count of how often he was my man of the match, I was most upset for him when we came 4th and Chelsea won the Champions League because Scott deserved to say he had played every week in a Champions League-qualifying team. He was the worker, did all the work that was never lauded on Match of the Day. After 30 minutes he looked like he'd ran a marathon, at half time like he'd fought in a war, after 60 minutes like he'd died in one. One of my defining memories of that season, funnily enough, was in our most painful defeat, the 2-5 reversal at the Emirates. To be honest we shouldn't have been 2-0 up and as soon as Sagna scored I knew what was going to happen, but as Van Persie turns inside before letting loose his shot for the equalizer, Scotty comes sliding in, doing anything to try and get something in the way of the ball, and the replay shows his head drop as the ball sails through the air and hits the net. He's DEVASTATED. Every team should have a player that cares that much about the team, because that's how much we, the paying fans care. But hey, fonder memories.... Scotty wins the ball, holds off two or three tackles, gives it to Modric. Modric takes it 20 yards, feeds one of the wingers. A winger or over-lapping fullback whips it in, goal. Every week.

 

I miss you, Scotty.

 

 

What a glorious post. This has made my night.

[air_raid]

Cheers pal. Means nothing to non-football fans, natch.

[PunkStep]

-1.

 

Just kidding, despite the content it's a cracking post

[air_raid]

Despite the content? I mention your men administering the annual drubbing!!

[Lenin]

Cheers pal. Means nothing to non-football fans, natch.

True. No one understands the passion of a football fan but it was just a class post. Love it