Jump to content

What was your first live wrestling show?


Linus

Recommended Posts

Orig williams show

 

Colwyn Bay leisure centre 1988

 

On the bill

Giant haystacks

Drew Mcdonald

Fit Finlay

boston blackie

mighty Chang

Teenage Tracy kemp

Klondyke kate

Gary Welsh

El bandito

Skull murphy

 

Memories ticket £3

 

Meeting my wos heroes

 

Fantastic to see wos heroes live

 

Got poster signed and still have it !!

 

Skull losing to stacks stacks put him over top rope out for 10 count

 

Boston blackie challenges haystacks

 

Klondyke kate brutal in ring and nice to fans after

 

 

Drew refusing autograph heel style only for me to get him to sighn the poster in glouster 25 years later at a matt jarrett show !!!!!!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That sounds like a British Wrestling Federation show. I think "the ringer" was Tonga Kid. Earthquake later toured the same locations for this promotion. They were in the Sunday Mail a few times as the promoter (Shane Stevens) didn't pay venues.

 

Could well have been. The odd thing was, I didn't think it was Rikishi at the time, but when he showed up back of WWF telly at the end of the year he looked a lot more like the guy from the Magnum than the Fatu I remembered from a few years back. Although that can probably be explained by an excessive consumption of pies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

 

That sounds like a British Wrestling Federation show. I think "the ringer" was Tonga Kid. Earthquake later toured the same locations for this promotion. They were in the Sunday Mail a few times as the promoter (Shane Stevens) didn't pay venues.

 

 

Could well have been. The odd thing was, I didn't think it was Rikishi at the time, but when he showed up back of WWF telly at the end of the year he looked a lot more like the guy from the Magnum than the Fatu I remembered from a few years back. Although that can probably be explained by an excessive consumption of pies.

Yeah it was a BWF show.

I was at the Yoko/"Fatu" show at the Music Hall in Aberdeen.

Even got a Polaroid with the pair of them at the end.....my first time in a wrestling ring! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My parents didn't particularly like our love of wrestling so it was when I started getting in to the independent and international wrestling as an adult I went to NOAH's European Navigation in Coventry in 2008.

 

Mark Haskins, El Ligero, Zack Sabre Jr, Dave Mastiff, Doug Williams, Joel Redman, Nigel McGuiness, Bryan Danielson, Eddie Edwards & Jay Briscoes being the Gaijin on the card.

 

Yone, Morishima, Kenta, Akiyama and the headliner of Shiozaki, Kobashi, Misawa & Marifuji.

 

Amazing show. I have it on DVD somewhere, may get it out.

 

The next shows I went too were a Raw and Smackdown taping in April 2012 (the one where Jericho said Punk was drinking in a pub). Then I've been to something pretty much every month since.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Waw fightmare 1

Norwich sport village

 

Jimmy ocean vs battlekat jr

Dale Preston vs James mason

Table match- Dave waters vs Lee max

Ladder match for cruiserweight title- Jody fliesch vs zebra kid

Jonny storm and Paul Tyrell vs brixton brawler and Danny royal

British title match- Hot stuff vs Ricky knight

Hard-core match- bulk vs poison

Sweet saraya and nikki best vs shenna summers and Julie starr

Falls count anywhere- Robbie brookside vs drew McDonald

World title match- tiger Steele vs Dave waters (who was subbing for pn news who ukp injured during an interview during the first half)

Battle royal

 

Still have the programme, match card and poster from this show too

Edited by jetsetjim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There were a couple of Butlins shows I went to around this time too, but this is the first proper one.

 

WWF @ Birmingham, England - NEC - October 8, 1991 (12,000; sell out)
Jim Duggan pinned Typhoon after hitting him with the 2X4
The Big Bossman defeated the Mountie via count-out
Ric Flair pinned Kerry Von Erich
Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty defeated Paul Roma & Hercules when Michaels pinned Roma
The Undertaker defeated Roddy Piper via disqualification
Tito Santana pinned the Barbarian
WWF Tag Team Champions the Legion of Doom defeated the Nasty Boys when Road Warrior Hawk pinned Knobs
Davey Boy Smith pinned Earthquake

 

I don't remember a great deal of it. I got a Rockers poster and a WWF belt, which looked nothing like the actual belt because it was based on the one they'd stopped using about four or five years earlier. It was a weird thing, where that belt design meant nothing to any kid who got into wrestling during the UK boom, but we wanted it because it was an official WWF wrestling belt. I'm sure they were still selling the same ones until the attitude era.

 

I was sat in that bit of the arena that's next to the curtain, so it was too high up to touch any of the wrestlers' hands. Except Andre, who was managing Bulldog.

 

Looking at the card, it's absolutely incredible. Maybe not in terms of workrate points (I doubt there was a "quality slice of almost Japanese-style" action to be found... thanks booker man!), but it definitely hit the spot for characters that connected. To a fan at the time, especially a kid, there's someone who means something in every match there. Well, probably not Tito vs Barbarian, because one was a shit Berzerker and the other hadn't been on telly since I started watching it... Had he? This must have been around the time the El Matador vignettes were going, and that is my first memory of him. The other matches were full of top drawer names, though. Apart from that one and Rockers vs Power and Glory, I'd have happily accepted anything on that card as a main event when I was eight. Mind, I loved the Rockers, and Power and Glory were in the blue trading cards so I'd have probably not minded that headlining either.

Edited by King Pitcos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

Absolutely, that is a belter for the big colourful characters era. In terms of playground favourites, getting to see the British Bulldog, the Texas Tornado, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Big Boss Man and Legion Of Doom..... it's superb.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One Night Only. Went up with next door neighbours, Papsy, zaki and their Uncle Steve. Big crowd of us as met up with their family in Leicester on route.

 

Right next to the aisle, screamed "fatty fatty boom boom" at Vader as he walked down to the ring.

 

Bought a Goldust and Bret figure, don't have them now but remember they were softer snd more rubber like than the ones I had when I was 5 or 6, and we were all insensed when Shawn went over Bulldog, what an atmosphere.

 

You know, I've never watched it back, might have to now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine was 5 days after WrestleMania X in "beautiful" Telford, myself an 11 year old Hitman fan with no knowledge of the Mania results, having been told by my old man all the way in the car "Well, it's the wrestling, but you probably won't see any of the ones that get onto TV." Oh, Raid Sr, you were quite the japester.

This was a real kick in the balls for me. I lived in Birmingham as a youngster, and fucking MOVED to Telford about a month after this show. The fact I'd just missed the WWF was heartbreaking as my new friends told me about it as they walked around in that yellow Razor Ramon shirt.

 

 

 

First ever was the Birmingham NEC house show in November 96. Shawn Michaels was my favourite wrestler, and was hoping to see him work his magic in a great main event title match. Instead he dropped the belt at Survivor Series right before to Sid, who defended the title in a match at my first ever show with Faarooq that went 90 seconds.

 

On the plus side, I got to see the only ever Bret Hart Vs. Mankind match.

I was there. I was very happy that Sid had lamped Shawn. At the time, I perceived Shawn to be a massive gaylord and I wanted to see him get lamped. I was very happy to see Sid do a powerbomb, because that's all I wanted from him.

 

I was very impressed with Undertaker vs Vader on the night, with them having not worked together on telly yet.

That was a good match. Bulldog and Owen Vs. Furnas and Lafon I enjoyed to. The first half of the card, as you mentioned, was horrific. How about Stone Cold Vs. Aldo fucking Montoya coming back from intermission with the crowd totally behind Austin? At least as I remember it...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

 

 

I was at the Yoko/"Fatu" show at the Music Hall in Aberdeen.

Even got a Polaroid with the pair of them at the end.....my first time in a wrestling ring! :D

 

Could Yoko even move at that point?

Barely. He did the absolute bare minimum and got the win with a leg drop.

 

After the match he just sat in the middle of the ring waiting for us to jump in and get our

Photos.

He looked terrible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

WCW at the London Arena in 2000. The card was apparently:

 

Norman Smiley defeated Brian Knobbs

Bam Bam Bigelow defeated the Wall

Dustin Rhodes defeated Terry Funk

WCW TV Champion Jim Duggan defeated Fit Finlay

WCW Tag Team Champions Big Vito & Johnny the Bull defeated Ron & Don Harris

Vampiro defeated WCW US Champion Jeff Jarrett via disqualification

Booker T & Curt Hennig defeated Ric Flair & Lex Luger

 

I don't remember a lot about it really, other than Lex Luger's music played and he took about 10 minutes to come out, and the crowd chanted USA when Duggan was out which I found irritating at the time, but in retrospect, of course they did. This was also at a time when I needed glasses but hadn't done a thing about it, and we were a fair way back so I could basically see fuck all unless I really squinted. I do remember that Acclaim did a bit of publicity for the new ECW computer game and were handing out leaflets and foam fingers outside, which me and my mate briefly misunderstood as a real ECW invasion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

an Orig Williams show at Rhyl Coliseum in what must have been 1997 or 1998, early '98 because the only tribute on the bill was the Undertaker rather than the Mankind, Austin, Rock, X Pac and Kane stuff that came a little later. 

 

I can only remember a handful about it, but I remember there was a Hulk Hogan cardboard cutout at the door and after asking the box office guy which way me and my dad were supposed to go, we received instructions to look out for a "grey usher" who immediately appeared and told him to piss off. Johnny Saint opened the show which made my dad piss himself laughing because he assumed that Johnny Saint would have been about 100 by then, but at the time I didn't have a fucking clue who he was and when we got home the first thing my dad told my mum and grandparents was that Johnny Saint was there which was met with a chorus of "fuck off, Johnny Saint? really?" type responses. I can't remember who he wrestled, Gary somebody? did a few All Star shows as the Riot Squad with somebody called Tarantula who wrestled under a mask. He kept getting bothered by a plant in the crowd who was at every Orig show I ended up going to doing the same schtick.

 

The referee Deano/Dino was pretty popular and again, did all the Orig shows I went to but I remember being thrown by the fact none of the refs that night or any night went to the mat to count. The commentator looked a bit like Richard Keys.

 

Only other things that stick out are the wrestling Power Ranger jumping all over the place and doing polaroids at half time which I wasn't allowed, the Undertaker's match and Boston Blackie winning the rumble as the main event, which I remember sort of sent us home not exactly on a high. If he'd have been dressed as The Rock like a few years later it might have been different.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first show was a card at my local leisure centre in 1993. I have very vague memories of it but I do recall that it featured an Undertaker tribute who I got a polaroid with during the intermission.

 

My first proper show was the following year, when the WWF came to the NEC in Birmingham with "The Hart Attack Tour". It's basically the same card that WyattSheepMask got in Hull except for one swap around. 

 

WWF @ Birmingham, England - NEC - September 17, 1994 (sell out)

* IRS pinned the 123 Kid

* Alundra Blayze pinned Bull Nakano (w/ Luna Vachon) 

* Mabel pinned Bam Bam Bigelow  (I remember that face Mabel and heel Bam Bam did a show of respect and shared a handshake following this match, not sure if they did this every night of the tour)

* Shawn Michaels & Diesel defeated Lex Luger & Razor Ramon via DQ

* Jeff Jarrett pinned Doink the Clown (w/ Dink)

* The Undertaker defeated Yokozuna in a casket match

* Bret Hart & Davey Boy Smith defeated Owen Hart & Jim Neidhart

 

I still have both my programme and Razor Ramon dog tag I got from this show around the house somewhere.

 

Does anyone else recall that the Undertaker made an appearance on CBBC while the WWF was over for this tour? He showed up one evening prior to the lead in to Neighbours. It seems to have been lost to time as I've never seen any footage of this appear on youtube, but I know I didn't imagine it. 

Edited by Mattyc
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...