Youtube Thread 2000

[Chili]

8 minutes ago, davertfnewman said:

Just don't buy any jazz mags off Shane Stevens and you're alright.

ART PAMPHLET!!!

[Snitsky's back acne]

3 hours ago, Chili said:

ART PAMPHLET!!!

Rhythm magazines.

[BomberPat]

It would take forever to list off everything Shane Stevens did, but yes, he made the news in the early '00s under one of his many pseudonyms for pressuring a 16 year old into having unprotected sex for his gay porn business. He also spent time in prison in the '80s for soliciting sex from a 13 year old, and there's probably far more instances than that, his entire business in that area seemed to be dodgy as fuck. And, in something that would come as no surprise to anyone who's worked for him in wrestling, he also got in trouble for not paying most of his performers, or giving them dud cheques. 

He also had dozens of convictions for fraud and theft, and would routinely leave hotel and other bills unpaid when running touring shows. A thoroughly dodgy piece of shit.

 

My limited interactions with him come nowhere near the worst you could get out of him, so I count myself lucky that they're just sketchy wrestling anecdotes. He used to run shows in hotels in Jersey, back when it was still a major tourist destination, so they were basically the same kind of shows you'd get at Butlins. After at least a decade of no shows on the island, he ran one, as Regency Promotions, and drew a sizable crowd to a big sports complex with it. It was mostly Midlands wrestlers, and Blondie Barratt's ring, with Stevens working as ring announcer/MC. Very standard "family show" fare, and I got a gig doing some photography for them, for which (naturally) I was never paid.

Channel Islands Wrestling hadn't started running shows yet, but had been a training school for a while, and Stevens booked four of their guys on the show in a tournament. Again, none of them got paid - I can't remember if he actually promised them payment, or if it was always a "paid in exposure" deal. He wouldn't let any of them use the dressing room, and forced them to change in the hallway, because he didn't consider them "proper" wrestlers. They were good enough to work two singles matches and a Rumble on his show, but not good enough to share a dressing room with Joseph Conners. 

Anyone who bought a "VIP" ticket to the show got front row seats, a post-show meet and greet, a poster/programme, and the promise of a DVD of the show to be sent at a later date. Nobody ever received a DVD, and I don't remember there even being anyone there filming for one in the first place. Years later, when we were running shows as Channel Island Wrestling, we would still get people furious at us, because they assumed that we had been behind his show as well, demanding their long-awaited DVD or their money back. 

At the end of the show, Shane did a big speech promising that they would be back in a few months, and the next show would feature former WWE Superstars! Some kids behind me gasped and went "SHAWN MICHAELS!", because I guess it wasn't long after his retirement, and that's as far as they could remember when it came to "former WWE superstar". Shane told me that the star was Dave Taylor, and then later in the evening, after the show, was promising that he was going to run Jersey regularly, and promising Dirty South, the future promoter of CIW, that he was going to feature him as the main attraction and book him against Vader, and in a tag with Kevin Nash. I remember Dirty very earnestly saying to me, "I don't want to wrestle Vader". Still, a big jump from "not good enough to get paid or change in the same room as the proper wrestlers" to "I'm going to book you as the top star with all the WWF names". Meanwhile, I had a bit of a sideline in music journalism at the time, but was wanting to get more into doing stuff in wrestling, and he was promising me interviews with every wrestler you could think of.

Naturally, none of that came to pass, and Stevens never ran another show in the Channel Islands. A hotel owned by the same group that owned the sports facility he ran his show at got a new entertainment manager, and he really wanted to run wrestling shows there, having had success with it elsewhere. His bosses were dead against it because, surprise surprise, Shane Stevens fucked off with a load of unpaid bills and trashed hotel rooms. He managed to talk them round to it by convincing them that they could book local wrestling talent, which means they would just be booked entertainment, and no hotel bills to worry about. At the time, there was a Facebook group where people posted clips and photos of shit low-rent British indie wrestling to make fun of, and someone (I can only assume a wrestler who had worked the show) posted a clip of one of the CIW matches from Shane Stevens' show, featuring an early CIW monster heel who was 25+ stone and in shit gear - a homemade orange prison jumpsuit, and cheap Abyss/Mankind rip-off mask, with long greasy hair, just real shitarse stuff. By virtue of being posted in that group, the YouTube video of that match got thousands of views, and the hotel entertainment manager was able to take it to his bosses and say, "look, these are the wrestlers we'll be using, and so many people are already watching them", with none of the context that people were watching it because it was shit. So they got the gig, brought me in as a referee, and that's how my time in wrestling started.

[Chili]

As a return pop and entrance, this was pretty great, a real time makes the heart grow fonder (for one night) pop. Everything else is hilarious mind you. The big silly jacket, the fact he took every steroid within orbit of Connecticut before the big day. 

 

[tiger_rick]

Just Sheamus putting the clover leaf on Gary Neville.

 

[Devon Malcolm]

Even though they inexplicably missed the 'That's Amore!' bit, this was lots of fun to watch and listen to. Maven's done some great stuff on his channel, really pleased for him it's been such a success.

[Devon Malcolm]

The whole video's good but the bit where D-Von talks about how 'wazzzzup' started was great.

[Snitsky's back acne]

Fan cam match from a WCW show in December 1992:
Shane Douglas and Ricky Steamboat v Jushin Liger and Kensuke Sasaki
 

 

[davertfnewman]

You can tell that match is from Philadelphia because Shane hasn't even gotten in the ring and the fans are reminding him of when they tortured him in '89 with the "Johnny sucks Shane's dick" chants and banner against Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express.

[Chili]

I mentioned it in another thread but I really like the story of Bobby Heenan just really taking a liking to Mikey Whipwreck when he turned up in WCW and was just really nice to him.

 

[davertfnewman]

"You could tell he was shady, but he could never be shady and get away with it, ESPECIALLY with Gorilla, but you could also tell he was good!"

Perfect summation of the Brain as a character. I remember when I started watching in '91 my mom commented "I know he's supposed to be cheering on the bad guys, but he's really funny too!". At that point, I noticed it too and he was the best heel commentator ever, with Summerslam '91 and Royal Rumble '92 being two of his high points.

[The Gaffer]

It's great to hear D-Von Dudley by himself. Bubba's more unbearable than ever these days in his always-working elder statesman role, essentially just roaring about how, y'know, they're the Dudleyz and they're the best, and people thought they couldn't but they did and THAT hurt let me tell you kids. 

[air_raid]

12 hours ago, davertfnewman said:

At that point, I noticed it too and he was the best heel commentator ever, with Summerslam '91 and Royal Rumble '92 being two of his high points.

Forgotten a little is how funny it is watching him melt down when Flair loses the career-ender to Mr Perfect on Raw. Great example of how censored swearing can often be far funnier than actually hearing the words.

[wandshogun09]

Saw a clip from this doing the rounds on one of those ‘On This Day’ Twitter accounts.

It’s the Raw the night after Royal Rumble 97, where Gorilla Monsoon sets up the Final Four match for the next PPV.

Fantastic episode during a completely chaotic time in the run up to WrestleMania 13.

The reason for this post though is just to say I absolutely loved every interaction Austin and Gorilla had around this time. Thought they had great chemistry whenever they had a segment together. Austin calling him “son” and then Gorilla glaring at him and going “I’m not your son” is my favourite bit of this. Also chuckled when Gorilla finished his bit on the microphone and went to walk away without shaking Vince’s hand and Vince grabbed his arm and got all pissy about it. Weirdo.

Edited January 21, 2025 by wandshogun09

[Chili]

It's a shame Gorilla just got too ill and couldn't really carry on, but I also don't think I'd like to see him taking a Stone Cold stunner either. Just doesn't seem right.

That confrontation he has with Vader about a year prior is absolutely brilliant and I think well adored around these parts. I love how realistic Monsoon was in the role, never one to be violent, but in this situation where he knows he's an older man but in a vulnerable situation he starts telling Vader to back the fuck up and eventually chopping back at Vader, like it's a reflex reaction as a former wrestler to defend himself. The pop for it is fantastic. I always viewed Gorilla as like a Grandad type for some reason so seeing get properly pissed off was striking and great. One of the best angles RAW ever did in my opinion, just completely shocking. I thought he'd done Gorilla in for good.

 

 

Edited January 21, 2025 by Chili