WWE UK Championship Tournament

[RoryFice]

 

 

I swear it started with Punk, I mean it probably didn't, but it did. A heel that wanted to be cheered and smarky neckbeards wanting to show they could see past the kayfabe and were cheering the performer rather than booing his character. It's ruined wrestling to a degree.

 

I often wonder how they'd fare at a pantomime.

It's happened forever. The difference is when a heel got cheered WWE used to turn them face and vice versa when a face got booed they turned them heel.

The first time I remember a crowd cheering a heel was on the Raw when Razor Ramon got beat by The Kid. Can't remember ever noticing it before then tbh.

One that's always stood out for me is Power and Glory getting a big initial pop after destroying the Rockers at Summerslam 1990.

 

Haven't watched much WWE, or new wrestling at all for quite a while but might give this tournament a watch, sounds decent.

[rockbus]

 

 

 

 

They defo have a storage facility over here, I'm sure the old blue cage of Hogan/Bossman fame is strangely stored over here.

Really? Any more info? Did we have a blue steel cage match in the UK or something?

Edge and Christian had one at Rebellion 2001, I'm pretty sure that was an old bars cage.

It was indeed. Although the bars were black if memory serves me correctly.

Randomly at the O2, maybe 8 or 9 years back there was a Smackdown taping with a HHH/Orton cage dark match using it.

[Onyx2]

Can't decide which one of the Inbetweeners Dunne looks most like.

 

What a fantastic tournament. Some of the first round matches were a bit iffy but on night 2 everything built to the perfect climax. I can see the final being my match of the year as I couldn't call the finish.

 

What a revelation Cole was. And McGuinness was a good counterpart to him.

 

The one downer was the music. Christ, get CFO$ on them stat. What a shocking selection of bland themes!

 

But if that's the worst thing I can bring up, I think we did alright ☺

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Fucking hell, check out Wolfgang's Shep Ramsey tattoo from Suburban Commando? Maxwell, what is your star rating for that piece of art?

[Accident Prone]

First off, this is the show the year (so far). Whilst I loved the first half of WK11, everything about N2 of this tourney just clicked for me. Probably the best live show I've ever attended through all my years of tremendous BritWres events. I've not watched the show on the award-winning WWE Network yet, but here are my thoughts of the live experience;

 

- I was sat in the east balcony, right next to the hardcam. Right next to the hardcam sat WWE Director of Talent Development, Canyon Ceman. And then to the left of us, sitting in the corner of next balcony (which I assume is the south balcony) sat Cole and McGuiness, with a full commentary table. I've being hearing great things about Cole's commentary and I am not surprised as he looked like he was having the time of his life. He was bobbing about in his chair, big facial expressions, very animated. At the end of N2, when Tyler was celebrating in the ring and the Network portion of the show ended, Cole and McGuiness had a heartleft handshake/hug combo like they were best friends meeting again after a very long time. It was fantastic.

 

- The atmosphere was incredible. The pop for Tyler Bate's comebacks, signatures, poses and just about anything he did was electric. Everyone was over though, tons of chants for just about every performer. The dark match featured that Jesus looking lad and you would have thought Stone Cold himself had walked through the entrance due the monstrous reaction he got. The only negative was that "We Deserve It" chant, which was a bit obnoxious. However, I'll point out that before the show started, the announcer was talking about how big of an event this was, then proceeded to suck off the crowd big time and thanked us for making the event possible, and that's when the chant first came about. So, he basically encouraged it. Still, a bit shitty.

 

- During the Sam/Dunne match, they were brawling on the floor and the ref started up his ten count. I think Sam got a bit lost in the moment as while he was beating down on Dunne, the ref counted to ten and EVERYONE FUCKING NOTICED. Instead of ringing the bell (I initially thought they were going for a double count out finish) the ref had to shout out to Sam to get the fuck back in the ring. Sam seemed a bit pissed off being reprimanded like that and didn't take too kindly to the ref trying to help him to the back after the match.

 

- There was not a single bad match on the show. Every match over-delivered and the Semi’s and Main were outstanding. Every near fall worked, every big move had a reaction, every sick bump and head drop had gasps of air. Incredible performances all round.

 

- They almost lost the crowd during Tommy/Neville when a small portion of a backstage interview played over the PA. The only screen in the building is the one on the entrance, which only one side of the crowd could see, so this was obviously a fuck up. BOTCHAMANIA and YOU FUCKED UP chants erupted, but my favourite was YOU'RE GETTING SACKED IN THE MORNING!. Neville and Tommy were pro's though, and they stuck to chokes and chinlocks whilst the crowd got it out of their system. Everything returned to normal when Tommy hit the moonsault to the outside soon afterwards. BTW, on the subject of Tommy End (and Finn), they were both at the PROGRESS show in Birmingham a few hours earlier, which is fucking insane considering Birmingham is a 2-hour drive away if there is no traffic.

 

- There was a group of Scots right at the very top, on the west Balcony, who had  huge signs saying they were going to party when Wolfgang wins (in reference to Wolfie's promo on night 1). When Wolfie lost, the crowd pointed up at them whilst singing "WHERE'S YOUR PARTY GONE?" to the tune of 'Where's Your Momma Gone"? Everyone then applauded the Scots for their good sense of humour in the matter. Talking of Wolfgang, when some of the crowd started a "You're just a shit Kevin Nash" chant, he killed it instantly and popped everyone huge by giving a TOO SWEET hand sign. That's how you get around shit like that. Wolfgang really impressed me this weekend.

 

- What made this show truly special was seeing Trent, Pete, Tyler & Andrews (and Dan Maloney) in this environment. With the exception of Andrews, all these guys had homes in my local promotions. Andrews would drop in all time too, like the West Midlands was his second home in his early years. I've watched these guys grow and develop over the past six years and it's akin to seeing your local band make it big. I'll stress that I don't know any of these guys personally and have scarcely even talked to them (I wouldn't class shouting something at someone while they are wrestling as 'talking'), but they were the main reason I would go shows in my area. It was great having Fight Club Pro, Kamikaze! and Triple X on my doorstep but it was these core guys, not the US imports, that kept me coming me back.

 

Pete was this kid from a rough part of Birmingham that I was quite familiar with. I first saw him (and Andrews) wrestle at a pub right next to my Dad's house in 2010 or 2011. I think it was one of the very first ATTACK! shows. I then saw his name pop on the first few Kamikaze shows and he was the reason I went. He was guaranteed to have the best match on the show and you could see him give it 110% every single time. His turning point when I knew he could be something special was a match with Trent Barretta in early 2014. He had the 'home town kid' aura down to a tee and everyone would get behind him. For that match, Trent constantly under-estimated him and it riled the crowd into a frenzy. It looked like it was his turning point. If you saw Pete on the card, you knew it was worth going to. Then you slowly saw this more heelish persona come around. There was a short-lived promotion in Birmingham called Pro Wrestling Kingdom where I first saw Pete play a heel. And wouldn't you know it, it somehow suited him better than playing the good guy! That bled into his appearances at Fight Club Pro where he became a proper mean-spirited git. That eventually evolved into what you see now. Quite terrific.

 

Mark Andrews I also saw for the first time at that ATTACK! show held in front of about thirty people at a shitty pub in Hodge Hill. But he came equipped with this feel-good charisma and HE DID NOT GIVE A FUCK how any fans there were, he was giving you insane flips and indy goodness and I fucking loved it. I saw him again at another short-lived Brum promotion called New Scene Wrestling in 2011. He impressed big time there as well, especially with the high ceiling. I'd recently began dating my now-fiancé; she'd never even watched wrestling, she only knew it as some theatrical show where cartoon men threw light punches four inches from their opponent’s chin. I took her to this show to see how she'd get along with it all and luckily for us, Andrews and fellow stalwart Eddie Dennis were first. I still mock her to this day about the shrieking noise she made when Andrews hit his shooting star press. It was the kind of noise you'd expect to hear from a reaction to a jump scare. Also, remember how I said I didn't talk to these wrestler guys? Well that's because I learnt my lesson pretty early on, at this very show. During the intermission, Andrews was manning the Defend Indy Wrestling booth, which was new at the time and I bought a t-shirt with glee and so did the missus. We then got chatting to Mark about it being her first show. Now, before the show, we went to a nearby pub first and got a bit sloshed, and I was trying to teach her insider terms in a very stupid attempt to seem cool and in-the-know. Fuck, young me is so damn punchable. Anyway, the following exchange went down between Mark, myself and the missus (slightly paraphrased);

 

Missus: ...It's actually my first every wrestling show!

 

Mark: Oh cool! What do you think of it?

 

Missus: Really great! *points at me* Hey, what was that word you said earlier that would describe someone like me here?

 

Me: Urgh, I don't know.

 

Missus: What was it? *looks at Mark* Would you know?

 

Mark: Probab/

 

Me: (interrupting) A RING RAT!!!!

 

I said this with the same enthusiasm as Randy Marsh on Wheel of Fortune.

 

]

Me

Mark's reaction

 

My missus looked at me quizzically. Mark turned 90 degrees to force a chat with someone else in order to get out of the conversation. I then walked away from the merch table, disappointed in myself and rather bemused. I had never even told my then-GF what a ring rat was because it’s a deplorable, useless and mind bogglingly stupid word. The term she was looking for was 'noob', which was brought when we were probably discussing gaming culture earlier in the pub. I have never chatted to a wrestler since that fateful day in 2011.

Andrews grew to be a spectacular high flier in front of everyone’s eyes, and he even dazzled at the shows where there was an inconvenient low ceiling. If there was someone who was going to entertain my non-wrestling fan friends, it was Andrews. I was super pumped when he and Pete toured the US a few years back and then more so when Andrews worked PWG followed by Pete. Great wrestler, great guy and he didn't punch me in the face for being a bit of a knob.

 

The first Fight Club Pro show I went to was in 2012 and afterwards, Trent Severn became the reason to keep going back. Yeah, there was fantastic atmosphere and beer flowing, but Trent was the guy who was going to leave it all in ring and leave you sore from just watching him. The first match I saw him in, at the aforementioned FCP show, Trent beat Davey Richards. I thought "Holy fuck, Davey lost!" and then "Of course, because Trent is a British strongstyle brick-shit-house". Even back then, he knew what style he wanted to perfect and bring to our attention. I would always go to FCP to see Trent beat the shit out of people, and vice-versa, doing so with a shit eating grin on his face. He sorta became the 'nearly' guy as all his peers would go on to tour all over the world and get big opportunities whilst he stayed mainly local. He would face big names and imports, who would usually get on the mic afterwards and put Trent over, and you'd think "C'mon, his time has to be now!". This happened every time I saw him wrestle for about four years. Then the WWE UK Tournament got announced, and I was watching the live announcement at work, when suddenly out swaggers Trent Seven and I uttered a "HOLY FUCK" with a massive grin on my face before realising where I was and calmed my own tits. The fucker had done it! And it's really inspired my 29-year-old self to get the fuck on with whatever I wanted to achieve in life when I was a fresh-faced youngster. I mean Trent Seven was 35, a local hero in a niche, somewhat regional scene, and here he is living the fucking dream. If you do enough hard work and good stuff, people are going to notice eventually.

 

Lastly, we have Tyler Bate. At the end of Bate/Dunne, I had tears forming in my eyes when he won (which I held back with a manly cough and clapping my hands in applause as hard as I fucking could). Tyler was a guy I had literally watched from a true rookie all the way to bona-fide fucking superstar. I would see him on every Kamikaze show, where he'd wrestle in bare feet and get the fuck beat out of him by much bigger guys. And boy did he take his lumps like a man. Every show he was on, you were watching him develop. He often tagged with Dan Maloney as a throwback tag team; they were presented as heels but we immediately took to Bate as someone to cheer on. He has this infectious charisma and when you learn how young he is, he's even more rootable. The amount of time he's probably sacrificed as a kid and teenager to look and act the way he does, you can't help but want the absolute best for him. I first noticed Bate make some real noise as a singles competitor when he feuded with 'SuperCunt' Chris Brookes at Triple X shows in 2014. They had an angle where Brookes was going to shave off Tyler's tache (because he's a cunt) and Tyler fought him off and sent him packing. Then, to put his own stamp on it, he goozled the fucking shaving razor and called for a chokeslam...which he then did. In the middle of the ring. He chokeslammed a fucking shaving razor like it could feel pain. In my eyes, he was a made man from that point on. At FCP shows, he became an instant favourite due to his old-school ring style, chantable name and facial features ("He's got a moustache on his face!" to the tune of "He's got the whole world in his hands" became essential at every show) made him an instant ticket seller for me. He also came out to Peter Gabriel's 'SledgeHammer' for the sing-a-long entrance. He has the whole package. And then to see him battle through four other opponents and win over every single fan in the audience...to go from the lad wrestling in black trunks and bare feet to black trunks and a UK Championship, surrounded by 3000 people chanting his name...God damn, it was like the ending to a movie. A story spanning several years culminating in this moment.

 

Wrestling is the best thing in the world people, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

 

[The Dart]

 

 

 

 

They defo have a storage facility over here, I'm sure the old blue cage of Hogan/Bossman fame is strangely stored over here.

Really? Any more info? Did we have a blue steel cage match in the UK or something?

Edge and Christian had one at Rebellion 2001, I'm pretty sure that was an old bars cage.

It was indeed. Although the bars were black if memory serves me correctly.

Randomly at the O2, maybe 8 or 9 years back there was a Smackdown taping with a HHH/Orton cage dark match using it.

 

 

 

Not quite.  It was just the same cage they always use these days.

 

[PowerButchi]

 

This bickering about the crowd is terrible.

I often wonder if the people who whinge about crowds ever leave the house to go to shows themselves, and if they do, what do they do when they get there - sit in silence?

 

You're one half of the terrible bickering. Wind your neck in.

[ClassicsGuy]

 

 

 

This bickering about the crowd is terrible.

I often wonder if the people who whinge about crowds ever leave the house to go to shows themselves, and if they do, what do they do when they get there - sit in silence?

You're one half of the terrible bickering. Wind your neck in.

Given I was at the show, I was answering his question as to why the crowd were chanting 'We deserve it'. My reply was respectful, and contained no profanity or personal insult. If you feel the need to treat me differently than others posting on here, given I've been personally insulted on many occasions on this forum, and nothing was said about that, then that's your issue.

[PowerButchi]

Oh fuck off. You and ShaneOMac were having one of the worst back and forths over and over again last night, shit bickering about crowds. "Australia this", "The MC that", Ad Nauseam. No-one gives a toss. And I don't feel the need to treat you differently, but if you feel like being nowty, I feel the want to treat you like the fucking cockend you're acting.

 

Moreover, a lot of people here get personally insulted, myself included. If you can hack it on the board, you can hack it here. You get called out for being a shill occasionally on here, which you actually are on occasion, and everyone knows you are on occasion. You're meant to be a journalist aren't you? Get a rhino hide then.

[ClassicsGuy]

Oh fuck off. You and ShaneOMac were having one of the worst back and forths over and over again last night, shit bickering about crowds. No-one gives a toss. And I don't feel the need to treat you differently, but if you feel like being nowty, I feel the want to treat you like the fucking cockend you're acting.

Hang on, I posted twice. FozzY2K also replied to Shane.

 

Once talking about being at the show and the other answering his question about why the crowd were chanting that. Baffled as to why that's classed as bickering. Pretty bizarre singling me out. I didn't realise that crowds can't be talked about. You say no one gives a shit about it, ironically that's what my first of the 2 posts I made was basically saying.

[Kamaras-Tash]

While we're on about crowds anyone what chants 10 for every count from the ref I hope you die a slow and painful death, fucking bell ends

[HarmonicGenerator]

Lots of great stuff

 

Wonderful post, Accident Prone. I didn't want to quote the whole thing because it was quite long but I really enjoyed reading that. Makes you realise what a big thing this tournament could end up being in BritWres history.

[ClassicsGuy]

Moreover, a lot of people here get personally insulted, myself included. If you can hack it on the board, you can hack it here. You get called out for being a shill occasionally on here, which you actually are on occasion, and everyone knows you are on occasion. You're meant to be a journalist aren't you? Get a rhino hide then.

OMG, not this shit again. Never shilled anything in my life, and no I'm not a journalist. Posted enthusiastically about a few things years ago (misjudged the tone of the board unfortunately) & people incorrectly thought I had other motives for doing so (I didn't). If I was a journalist would that mean it's okay to personally insult me? It's the Internet, it's full of cranks and trolls and I couldn't give a shit - it's words on a screen. But if you're gonna have a pop at least have good reason to. We're all supposed to be wrestling fans, I'm a fan, I go to shows, I have opinions, I like sharing them with people on here. If you or anyone else wants to be a dick to me go right ahead but don't act like you're justified in doing so or act all superior about it. This is basically why I dip in and out of here, because every now and then I get this bullshit. Life's far too short to put up with nonsense.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

I made 3 posts on the subject, one was a couple of paragraphs long because I've been getting heated lately on the subject, the other two were a sentence or two. Hardly "over and over again". I thought the chant was a bit wanky, ClassicsGuy disagreed. Honestly, Butch, you seem more angry than we were about it. It's not a huge deal, I said my bit on it.

 

And anyway, if the point you're getting at is that we should be discussing the entertainment rather than the audience, I get that. Like I said originally, the show itself was a lot of fun, and a good amount of talent. I'm a bit worried about the eventual crossover though.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Must say if ClassicsGuy was in the crowd, then it must have been shit.