2017 UKFF50! The Final 50!

[Linus]

A great many thanks to all of those that took the time to submit their nominations for this year's UKFF50.  If you're late to the show, you can read all about that here.

I can confirm that an total of 97 individual wrestlers were nominated at least once. The following wrestlers were nominated but did not receive enough nominations to make the list (with last year's position in brackets, where applicable):

Alex Gracie, Ashley Dunn, Ashton Smith (22), Brady Phillips, Damon Leigh, Dave Mastiff (18), Davey Blaze, David Devlin, DCT, Doug Williams, Elijah, Gene Munny, Iestyn Rees (47), Jack Jester, Jason Prime, Jetta, Jim Hunter, Joe Hendry (31), Jonny Storm, Joseph Conners, Karnage, Kenny Williams (27), Kid Fite, Kieran Kelly, Lana Austin, Lee Hunter, Lewis Girvan, Lionheart (33), Los Federales Santos Jr, Lou King Sharp, Mark Coffey, Matt Horgan, Matt Walters, Michael Chase, Mikey Whiplash, Millie McKenzie, Nina Samuels, Paul Tracey, Roy Knight, Ruffneck, Shady Nattress, Simon Lancaster, Spud, Wild Boar (40), Xander Cooper, Zak Knight, Zoe Lucas 

There were a number of wrestlers on last year's list that did not receive a single nomination:

Charlie Sterling (21), James Davis (47), Joey Hayes (34), Martin Kirby (17), Nathan Cruz (43), Rob Lynch (39), Tiger Ali (22)

And the following from last year's list were ineligible:

Drew Galloway [aka Drew McIntyre] (14), Jack Gallagher (15), Marty Scurll (2), Noam Dar (28), Tommy End [aka Aleister Black] (9), Will Ospreay (1), Zack Sabre Jr (4)

So that brings us to this year's Final 50...
  
BT Gunn (42) 
Bubblegum (5) 
Cara Noir [aka Tom Dawkins, Pavo Real] (47) 
Charlie Morgan (NR) 
Chris Brookes (44) 
Chris Ridgeway (29) 
Damian Dunne [aka Chief Deputy Dunne] (36) 
Drew Parker (NR) 
Eddie Dennis (NR) 
El Ligero (11) 
El Phantasmo (NR) 
Grado (30) 
Jackie Polo (38) 
Jack Sexsmith (37) 
James Drake (NR) 
Jimmy Havoc (20) 
Jinny (NR) 
Jody Fleisch (NR) 
Joe Coffey (26) 
Jordan Devlin (NR) 
Josh Bodom (32) 
Kasey Owens (NR) 
Kay Lee Ray (35) 
Kid Lykos (NR) 
Kip Sabian (NR) 
Kyle Fletcher (NR) 
Mark Andrews (8) 
Mark Davis (NR) 
Mark Haskins (7) 
Martina (NR) 
Mike Bird (45) 
Morgan Webster (NR) 
Nixon Newell (16) 
Omari (NR) 
Pete Dunne (3) 
Rampage Brown (13) 
Ryan Smile (NR) 
Sammii Jayne (NR) 
Sha Samuels (25) 
Shay Purser (NR) 
Soner Dursun (NR)
Stevie Boy [aka Stevie Xavier] (47) 
TK Cooper (NR) 
Travis Banks [aka Sgt Banks] (12) 
Trent Seven (10) 
Tyler Bate (24) 
Tyson T Bone (19) 
Viper (NR) 
Wolfgang (41) 
Zack Gibson (6)

What happens now?

1) As with Stage One, send a PM to myself on the UKFF. E-mails/Facebook messages/etc will not be accepted.  Feel free to share your nominations in this thread if you so desire, for the purposes of generating discussion/debate, but I will only count lists that I receive in my PM Inbox.

2) Again, as with Stage One, your PM should contain a list of up to 15 wrestlers. The difference this time, however, is that your list must be ranked in order from 1 to 15 (1 being the best) on who you believe to be the best, based on the criteria we have been using throughout:
 

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 January and 31 December 2017. 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?

3) Obviously, you can only vote for wrestlers included in the list of 50 shown above.

4) You can vote for less than 15 if you like, but definitely no more. If possible, please also include your reasons for giving these wrestlers the ranking you have. This could be just a sentence to justify their selection or point out particular matches, promotions or shows upon which you have based your decision. As with previous years, I'll be using some of these comments in the eventual write-ups.

5) Make sure you get your PM in to me by 23:59 on Sunday 31 December 2017. Votes received after this deadline will not be counted.

Now go!

[Sir Steve Redgrave]

Surprised Joe Hendry and Joseph Conners didn't make it. Neither would be on my personal list however they have both had busy years.

[Guest]

By my count I lost 9/15 names. Will start my work on this this week 

[janb]

Well Hendry has spent most of the year working for WCPW, a promotion that a lot of Britwres hardcores turn their nose up at, and ICW (again a marmite promotion). And has done so as unlikeable heel taking away those entrances everyone loved, so not necessarily a surprise. I'm sure he is learning from the responsibility/opportunities WCPW have given him but it feels like his career is in a bit of a holding pattern, yet to break out further into England for example.

With Conners it has become the done thing to dislike him, which is not without justification I hasten to add. Dull indie Triple H reputation. The WWE thing gave him exposure but thats not always a good thing, as people think "oh maybe he isn't as good as I thought he was", it also somewhat derailed his domestic career as he lost the higher profile WCPW gig (at least for a while) and bounced around the smaller indies. His Southside work as the guy who refuses to accept he lost the title has been fun, and he had some very good matches with CJ Banks in Tidal but with the stink on him and the strength of competition I'm not surprised to see him miss out here.

 

Notable amongst the absentees for me are; Ashton Smith, so good but only working in the North West means a limited number people of see it; Jason Prime, again you can tell this is not a WCPW watching audience, and North East/Yorkshire graps doesn't get much attention but this guy is so good with star quality, and perhaps his recent PROGRESS debut will be the start of a breakout 2018; Kenny Williams, funny year for Kenny, really impressive showing at PCW Kris Travis tournament but doesn't seem to have kicked on and still trapped in Scotland; Charlie Sterling, another weird year, super talented guy, making waves with OTT but lost a lot of momentum in Britain; Martin Kirby, again if this was a what culture poll result would be very different, WCPW did a great job with him that other companies have failed to do, just a comedy act in PCW, did some good stuff in Chaos but has largely flown under the radar this year, possibly the best mind in Britwres, if this was the States he's the sort of guy you'd expect to hear had got an agents job with WWE/Impact or creative in ROH or something.

[Guest]

Bar Grados heel turn moment at icw, I can’t think of anything of note or real entertaining memory of him this year. His focus has been elsewhere given news of his mums passing this week, so he interested in reading the reasonings for why people voted for him when they submit their list 

[Jon-Carr_92]

Grado more or less wrapped up on Total Global Impact Xplosive Force Wrestling as well. Hadn't really noted him elsewhere lately. The WOS Special last year had obviously been setting him up as the star for the revival that was cancelled. So that might have factored in had that happened in the end. Plus he finished with ICW in July. Hope he's holding up alright.

Thing with WCPW is/was (since they're Defiant now after the Cultaholic lot left) was as much as Prestigous Joe Hendry is an interesting call, does it not seem they have more heels than faces?

Tiger Ali had a cracker with Kenny Omega in January in 4FW. It's on YouTube in an act of promotional genius as it was his first match since the 6 Star Main Event vs Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom. They originally had Cody Rhodes booked, but he had to cancel a few days before the show to attend the funeral of Elijah Mainville who was the fan who signed an honorary deal as his Drax Shadow persona in the States he endorsed as Stardust and they pulled off something impressive getting him in at the last minute as a replacement. Terrific match and he makes him look a million dollars. The crowd is phenomenal. Not been able to make 4FW at all this year for various reasons, but hope to correct that for next year. He was announced for the UKCT but transpired he was only ever an alternate in the end. He did wrestle a dark tag match on Night One. So at the least, he got to wrestle. It certainly is odd with him as you mentioned last year @Linus that he hardly gets around in the UK for someone who's had work in Mexico as 4FW have sent guys to work on Ultimo Dragon's Toryumon DragonMania shows in the past. They have brought him over a few times and had the pleasure of meeting him 3 times and he's always been an absolute gent. Also had work in Japan where he has done a couple of successful excursions. Same goes for all of the 4FW guys as they really should get booked wider than they do.

Most of the others that missed out from last year haven't been as active as they have been or just mainly focused on one location/promotion. But not entirely a bad thing like you say as there's room for new blood on the list.

As I mentioned in the nomination thread, I try to base my list on the people I've seen throughout the year and take it from there. A few of my picks made the list which is good, so I'll have to get my 15 in order. I've been to a few good shows this year. Got to go to Progress at long last and Chapter 51 gave me my nominations for UK Match Of The Year easy.

[air_raid]

7 hours ago, Sir Steve Redgrave said:

Surprised Joe Hendry and Joseph Conners didn't make it. Neither would be on my personal list however they have both had busy years.

Yeah, Conners sure bored the shit out of loads of fans all over the country.

[firstnameunknown]

4 hours ago, Jon-Carr_92 said:

Tiger Ali had a cracker with Kenny Omega in January in 4FW. It's on YouTube in an act of promotional genius as it was his first match since the 6 Star Main Event vs Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom. They originally had Cody Rhodes booked, but he had to cancel a few days before the show to attend the funeral of Elijah Mainville who was the fan who signed an honorary deal as his Drax Shadow persona in the States he endorsed as Stardust and they pulled off something impressive getting him in at the last minute as a replacement. Terrific match and he makes him look a million dollars. The crowd is phenomenal. Not been able to make 4FW at all this year for various reasons, but hope to correct that for next year. He was announced for the UKCT but transpired he was only ever an alternate in the end. He did wrestle a dark tag match on Night One. So at the least, he got to wrestle. It certainly is odd with him as you mentioned last year @Linus that he hardly gets around in the UK for someone who's had work in Mexico as 4FW have sent guys to work on Ultimo Dragon's Toryumon DragonMania shows in the past. They have brought him over a few times and had the pleasure of meeting him 3 times and he's always been an absolute gent. Also had work in Japan where he has done a couple of successful excursions. Same goes for all of the 4FW guys as they really should get booked wider than they do.

You put this better than I could but yeah, Tiger Ali is by far one of the most underexposed guys on the UK scene. I’d love to see him in, say, Progress with a less regressive gimmick as he’s incredibly talented.

[Rosler28]

Not enough women here.

[CAREBEAR LUVVA]

7 hours ago, air_raid said:

Yeah, Conners sure bored the shit out of loads of fans all over the country.

Is Conners being a massive bore becoming an accepted thing now? I've been saying it for ages, but it always seemed like people really rate him so I just assumed I must be missing something. Absolutely baffled how he's got the amount of work he's had this year. Sure he's a solid hand in the ring and all that, but there are plenty of other equally capable wrestlers who are also a hundred times more entertaining and memorable.

On top of that, he looks like Susie Dent from out of Countdown. You won't be able to unsee that one. Sorry.

[Guest]

20 hours ago, Rosler28 said:

Not enough women here.

I didn’t nominate viper or KLR as they where both out the country for extended periods of time and didn’t leave me with a memorable moment. Bar those two we barely get 2/3 other women wrestlers on shows up here 

[Guest]

21 hours ago, Rosler28 said:

Not enough women here.

Charlie Morgan, Jinny, KLR, Kasey Owens, Martina, Nixon, Sammii & Viper makes 8 which doesn't seem too bad. Bit disappointed my Nina Samuels nomination wasnt enough to get her in, 2018 for sure - watch that space

[Linus]

9 days to get your votes in! Looks to be a runaway winner at the moment but it ain't over til Los Federales Santos Jr sings!

[Linus]

Thanks for the votes so far, 40 of the 50 have at least 1 vote! And when you send your votes in it would be SUPER COOL if you could put a brief reason why - no pressure, though!

[Linus]

Two and a half days to go! Don't let your favourite get nil points!