This week in UKFF history; Monday 29/04/13 - Sunday 05/05/13

[Accident Prone]

Bit of a dull day work so I've taken a step into the UKFF time machine for...

This week in UKFF history! I've gone and taken at gander at the week of 29th April 2013, as this matches up with the current week pattern.

So what was the talk of the town during a busy 7 days? TNA announces a UK tour, Cena injures his ankle, Foley doing his comedy show, more TNA chatter, Ryback love, dead promotions, TNA talk, the brand split and wrestling crowds.

But first, it's Monday Night RAW! From Monday April 29th 2013

https://ukff.com/topic/132969-raw-thread-290413/

A seemingly above-average RAW with Cena and Hell No vs The Shield and some typical filler from the likes of Ziggler and Fandango.

A fair few posters really liked the Cody Rhodes v Randy Orton clash, and there is a lot of support for The Shield. Also, Ryback seems to be at the peak of his UKFF fandom with loads of support;

"Ryback looks pretty good in his leathers, too." - d-d-d-daz

"Shield were fun and Ryback looks like a boss in the leathers, like Goldberg." - Forrest

"Ryback looked beastly in his leathers" - Mr Butternut Squash

"RYBACK RULES" - nobby

"Ryback in a beanie just makes me think Bouncer. Wetherspoons Bouncer. That's not to have a go at Wetherspoon's bouncers mind, as I know it's a tough gig." - hallicks

"I'm enjoying the stuff with The Shield lately. I like Ryback's weird staring into space as well. Seems a right nutter/autistic" - King Pitcos

Absolute shame about Ryback. I too pegged him as big mainstream star. The casuals loved him for his look, the more jaded fans loved him because he killed small guys in creative ways, and he made us nostalgic for the days of Goldberg.

- Cena injured his ankle on the previous week's European tour! Bugger! Thus a thread was created for people to hammer on WWE about their booking of the titles, mid-card belts, Cena himself and 50/50 booking.

https://ukff.com/topic/132951-john-cena-injured-on-european-tour/page/2/

"This could be the best thing for the WWE long term as it may force the lazy arsed bookers to actually pen something which builds up a wrestler instead of the annoying stop/start booking that we have been subjected to over the years!" - Mr Tibbs.
 
"I'm actually pretty sick of the WWE title being used to elevate people. I'm even more sick of people pretending that that's the way it should be. Bollocks. People should be elevated outside of the title picture, so that when they actually get around to holding the title they appear worthy of doing so." - d-d-d-dAz

"Tonight they should have Cena come out and go, "I got an injury but I'll be alright" and then continue on with WWE's plans for him. Radical, I know, but it might just work!" - Devon Malcolm

"less likely to of happened in actual wrestling boots no doubt, ditch the trainers I say." - teaboy2000

"My argument is, if he sustained the injury and still worked house shows, then that was probably a way of seeing how well he could work with the pain. Given the fact that he's obviously capable of competing now (albeit less than 100%), why on earth mention it? Is it a way of protecting his aura by having an excuse for a potential defeat? If so that stinks, as it will look like no one can beat him clean." - FrankCastle

I feel like at this point, Cena was starting to shrug off his negative rep with dem wans. Despite steam rolling through Rusev 'Mania, the tide was starting to turn and it wouldn't be long before people saw Cena as 'BIG MATCH JOHN'. Although there are still a few Anti-Cena cockles in the thread, as you can see above.

There's also more Ryback love in this thread too, as he appears to be cooling down after a mediocre first quarter. Poor bloke.

"I've only watched Wrestlemania this year, so somebody can tell me, but... why have they got cold feet with Ryback then? The guy is over as hell, looks the business, and he and Henry had a good match so he's no slob in the ring. He's got charisma too, even though I think the little fist pump thing is a bit camp." - Loki

"Ryback was fine up until the Rumble, that's when they truly fucked him and it's a time when they could have truly made him. The booking of the Rumble and Ryback in particular was horrible. A guy like Ryback can't come in at 30 and not win unless you're doing the Goldberg thing at the 2004 Rumble" - ShortOrderCook

"Ryback should have taken the title from Punk in October. People were crying at the time that it would knacker the build for Punk/Rock, but I thought that was bollocks. A strong title win for Ryback in the Cell followed by a shady Punk win at either Survivors or TLC would have still allowed them to gauge reactions to Ryback main events and decide whether he was a useful main event babyface for post 'Mania storylines, and I don't think it would have hurt Punk/Rock and the buyrate one bit." - air_raid

"I don't have a problem with Ryback being a crap promo. If he looks like a roid-fed meathead I'd rather he spoke like that, snorting and panting through the gaps in his sentences like a neanderthal. That all adds to his aura for me" - Arch Stanton

Poor Ryback.

- User LWOLeN went off on wrestling crowds (https://ukff.com/topic/132950-uk-fans/). Apparently, he's been to shows all round the world broke down the crowd into segments;

"But basically its the same everywhere:

- Dads with children ( who love it all)

- Smarks (usually fat, who complain on here about 'workrate' and booking after shows and during the matches) They usually claim 'WWE sucks' while wearing indy wrestling shirts.

- A bunch of fun loving random people

- Gratefull fans who scream, dance, buy lots of gear and stuff, take pictures

- Wannabees (people who feel really cool because they think they know some of the wrestlers 'personally').

- Lots of Yes men who live in the promoters 'wrestling bubble'. Volunteers, trainees etc."

Scathing stuff at the time, I'm sure. I can only imagine the sheer amount of scientific research that must've gone into the infamous equation 'Indy fan + Indy t-shirt = non-WWE fan'. 

- A thread was created calling for the end of the brand split. (https://ukff.com/topic/132995-the-end-of-the-brand-split/) Threads and chats about the brand split were quite common back in the day. I think we've now grown to accept WWE's pattern with the brand split; enthusiastic about the concept for a while before getting bored and ruining the lot.

Weirdly, Pitcos brought up Kofi's status as an example of there being too many belts.

" We've got four singles titles on Raw now as well, only one of which matters. Kofi Kingston's been winning one every six months for about five years and is still pretending it's a big deal, then going home and watching YouTube videos of the month in 2009 where he was almost somebody."

Quite timely stuff considering Kofi's year so far. Other highlights;

"Every year, outside the WrestleMania fallout, the Daft was the most viewed episode of the year. That tells you all you need to know about the brand split. People were into it." - IANdrewDiceClay

"If they did some vingettes for new characters not just new guys but actual gimmicks that might get over like Wyatt Family, Corey Graves etc plus bring in a few familiar faces like RVD, Carlito etc or give gives like Domino/Cliff Compton another crack you might have enough to fill to shows and keep guys separate." - The Cutting Edge

 - TNA announced UK tapings for Jan 2014 (https://ukff.com/topic/132987-tna-uk-tv-tapings-for-january-2014/). Oh, the glory days of the UK being the their biggest market! There's a lot of TNA chatter spread across multiple threads during this week. Makes me wonder where their British fan base has gone, or maybe they've just gone quiet.

"Hopefully gets WWE to sort their shit out and stop taking the Scottish market for granted." - Dazz

"It's times like these I'm glad Tommyboi is banned." - Forrest

"To celebrate we should extend Tommy's ban." - PowerButchi

- Interestingly, All Wheels Wrestling got a mention on the forum, six years to the day that it was brought up in the 'Creating An Alternative' thread.

https://ukff.com/topic/132956-promotions-that-filmed-tv-but-died-on-their-ass/

"I was looking around online today and came across some stuff on TNA's 'All Wheels Wrestling' sister promotion that came to nothing. I completely forgot that they filmed some TV, complete with an Ultimate X when they started out with the project. But the whole thing seems to have just gone ahead and died " - truthofsin

"Jeff Katz' Wrestling Revolution/Retribution shows spring to mind as something taped that never aired the light of day. Shows funded by Kickstarter ($100k raised), filmed for DVD release, and 18 months later still haven't been released" - ClassicsGuy

"I really enjoyed MLW (Major League Wrestling). Not too sure what happened with the promotion but it will be wikipedia worthy." - Professor Paul's Bin.

MLW bouncing back out of nowhere was a very nice surprise considering their origins.

Also hidden away in that thread, I found out that AWW (Birmingham based promotion who I used to train with) had a TV deal in place! Without Alex Shane's help! Probably.

"I don't know if it counts but Birmingham's AWW had its TV deal cancelled before a single episode was broadcast, due apparently to changes in management at the TV company who were scheduled to screen their shows. I think they may have filmed an episode or two, but never made it onto television again." - darkship

"AWW 's tv deal was cancelled after red tv decided to change to a music channel and then died soon after, no episodes were filmed but a lot of money had been invested In production and venue hire before the contract was cancelled. It was shaping up to be a good show before it got cancelled, they had a roster announced of mastiff, spud, bad bones, el ligero and Doug Basham who I believe was going to be debuting a new rick rude esque gimmick." - Dan Williams

DOUG FUCKING BASHAM. 

-More TNA discussion going on this weekend, with another thread based around them (as well as one comparing them to WCW 2000 which didn't get much traction, as there's only so much TNA chat that a forum can handle);

https://ukff.com/topic/132975-what-can-tna-realistically-do-to-improve-their-rating/

"TNA are as far as they're going to get at the moment. Barring a major change in pop culture, there's no wrestling 'boom' period coming any time soon and that's what it would take for them to lift their rating, in my opinion."  Daaaaaad!

Weird that one considering there is a boom period for non-WWE wrestling and TNA hasn't really see big benefits from it.

"And with their being a billion hours of WWE TV per week already, I think the average wrestling fan couldn't be bothered to add 2 hours of TNA to that too." - LaGoosh

"Outside being given an astronomical amount of money to put into it, there is nothing they can do. They will be around the 1.0 region until Spike or Panda pulls the plug on it. The name value they have is tainted with the average wrestling fan and they aren't on the radar of the casual fan, so they are in that position where they have the same people watching it every week and are unwilling to spend any money on them outside of watching it for free on TV. If you have 1.5 million people watching and only 6,000 of them buy your pay-per-views then something internally is wrong." - IANdrewDiceClay

"Honestly? I think there's nothing they can do. WWE can put out shite at times and still get by because their brand is so strong. TNA don't have, and I don't think ever will have, that strength. Also, they have a history of burning the fans whenever something's getting good and so they're going to leave and not come back." - PowerButchi

"If Hogan's not getting a 2.0, Jay Briscoe isn't either. I'm not saying there's not some decent talent out there, but it's not like there's a Stone Cold nobody's noticed just working NWA Wildside" - Loki

And some more choice observations from the UKFF's brain trust;

"OOutside of poaching Cena, there's fuck all they can do IMO" - HeavyT

"Knockouts wrestle whilst naked ;-)" - Rosler28

"The TNA Knorks-Out Division?" - Dirty Eddie

"Get some Chinese and Russian wrestlers and promote in those areas" - SuperstarNeilC

And lastly, there was a Mick Foley stand-up show on tour this week, so queue this review;

https://ukff.com/topic/127231-mick-foley-stand-up/page/11/

"I thought Foley's 'act' was sharper and more engaging this time round, but fuck me, you don't half get some bellends at these gigs. Barely 2 minutes went by without some attention-seeking arsehole trying to 'get themselves over' (shudder) with a 'hilarious' chant or heckle. CM Punk fans are the worst - the worst, Jerry." - Magnum

So there you have it! The week of the UKFF, Monday 29th April 2013 - Sunday 5th May 2013. The more things change, the more they stay the same.