Paid Members Bus Surfer Posted May 31, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted May 31, 2019 Forget your Pete Dunne's and Walters, the real MVP has arrived.  Here's hoping he gets a full time gig. He's paid enough dues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TildeGuy~! Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 He’s all over the place, was happy to see him refereeing the Rev Pro Title matches in New Japan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted May 31, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted May 31, 2019 I was honestly surprised when I saw he'd worked the tapings - maybe they just don't give a toss because he's "only" a referee, but normally RevPro is one of WWE's blacklist promotions. For him to work RevPro and NJPW and NXT UK is politically kind of interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Bus Surfer Posted May 31, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted May 31, 2019 Yeah seems like the tide is with him at the moment. Really hope he gets a full time gig. He's been working his bollocks off since he was 15, so it's great to see him get to where he is after all the hard work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members chokeout Posted May 31, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted May 31, 2019 25 minutes ago, BomberPat said: I was honestly surprised when I saw he'd worked the tapings - maybe they just don't give a toss because he's "only" a referee, but normally RevPro is one of WWE's blacklist promotions. For him to work RevPro and NJPW and NXT UK is politically kind of interesting. Whats the deal with RevPro and WWE, never heard about that before? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted May 31, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted May 31, 2019 33 minutes ago, chokeout said: Whats the deal with RevPro and WWE, never heard about that before? It varies all the time with how WWE treat their UK contracts - at one point they could work anywhere so long as it was cleared by WWE, then it was anywhere but a set list of promotions (of which RevPro was one), then any booking that fit a list of WWE's demands (e.g., that they had a medical professional on hand), then just a set list of WWE's acceptable promotions, and so on. RevPro not being allowable has been one of the constants, though - largely because of their relationship with NJPW. RevPro aren't able to book NXT:UK talent - Quildan was complaining about this on a podcast since before the NXT:UK brand was launched. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members mim731 Posted May 31, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted May 31, 2019 23 minutes ago, BomberPat said: RevPro not being allowable has been one of the constants, though - largely because of their relationship with NJPW. RevPro aren't able to book NXT:UK talent - Quildan was complaining about this on a podcast since before the NXT:UK brand was launched. It wasn't always like this. WWE even name-checked Rev Pro at the press conference when they launched the UK tournament in late 2015, not sure what happened in the since time, but I assume the NJPW relationship is a major part of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted May 31, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted May 31, 2019 6 minutes ago, mim731 said: It wasn't always like this. WWE even name-checked Rev Pro at the press conference when they launched the UK tournament in late 2015, not sure what happened in the since time, but I assume the NJPW relationship is a major part of it. It's absolutely the NJPW relationship, and the gradual marking out of territory as to who gets to work with who. In the early days of "WWE UK", Fight Club Pro held a six-man tag of The Elite vs. British Strong Style, which would never happen now. More recently, Toni Storm was pulled from a match in STARDOM against Bea Priestley because Bea's signed to AEW. It's an ever-changing set of rules and exceptions to rules that makes a UK promoter's job an absolute nightmare, but - aside from the one constant that WWE bookings are prioritised - it feels closer to a CMLL/AAA relationship where you can work one but not the other, and working for one will generally rule out you working with a partner company of the other...but then you get two or three steps removed in terms of partner companies and it gets more confusing. For example, PROGRESS and WXW, both very much on Team WWE, are running a show with SMASH Wrestling in Canada over Summerslam weekend. But, that same weekend, OWE - a partner company of AEW - are working with SMASH as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daaaaaad! Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 18 minutes ago, mim731 said: It wasn't always like this. WWE even name-checked Rev Pro at the press conference when they launched the UK tournament in late 2015, not sure what happened in the since time, but I assume the NJPW relationship is a major part of it. I haven't listened to Andy Quildan's podcast so I could be dead wrong on this, but I'm pretty convinced there was a key point at which RevPro basically had to decide whether they were going to lean into their WWE relationship (their footage has been used on NXT and WWE TV at times, and there was definitely some sort of relationshp there) or into their relationship with New Japan. Obviously they made their decision and are seeing the relative merits and demerits of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Accident Prone Posted May 31, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted May 31, 2019 New Japan not having a clause in their working agreement which lets them buy-out Rev Pro probably helped Andy choose which side he was going in on, to be fair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamTH17 Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 4 hours ago, Daaaaaad! said: I haven't listened to Andy Quildan's podcast so I could be dead wrong on this, but I'm pretty convinced there was a key point at which RevPro basically had to decide whether they were going to lean into their WWE relationship (their footage has been used on NXT and WWE TV at times, and there was definitely some sort of relationshp there) or into their relationship with New Japan. Obviously they made their decision and are seeing the relative merits and demerits of it. They've certainly made the correct choice as well. Good on Quildan for sticking to the partnership that brought RevPro into a proper spotlight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 Was surprised when I seen him, he got a farewell at Progress Wembley show so thought he was away on the other side. May have just been a short notice needed a ref tho, since that taping have seen Chris Sharpe who works as a ref for nxt uk reaching its trying to build a database up of trained refs, so they may have just been caught short with the Scottish refs they use being unavailable for the tapings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted May 31, 2019 Awards Moderator Share Posted May 31, 2019 Who is the ref pictured in @Silky Kisser's photo? A dozen posts and no name! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrodyGraham Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 Chris Roberts. He's probably the most well known ref on the British scene and was a default heel in Progress. He quit Progress earlier in the year to work a lighter schedule. He's since shown up just about everywhere else including New Japan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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