Paid Members Callum1993 Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 I went to two of the shows in the early 2000’s here in South Wales. Can definitely remember Kane, Undertaker, Rock and one of LOD being on the cards. I think both times they advertised a Steel Cage and a Ladder Match and neither of them happened. I do remember them selling knock-off merch though because I definitely came home with a plastic Kane mask. Quote
Paid Members I Bent My Wookie Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 1 hour ago, Gus Mears said: and shouting "Arriba!" after each move. Ligero? Quote
Paid Members I Bent My Wookie Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 (edited) 1 hour ago, Gus Mears said: Double post. Edited January 12 by I Bent My Wookie Quote
Paid Members garynysmon Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 I lived in Orig Williams territory so all but one of the wrestling shows I attended in my youth were littered with tribute acts. There was one pretty good show at Llandudno in approx 1994 which included Giant Haystacks (bucket list) on the card and randomly Neville Southall as the guest of honour, but other than that they were almost always ‘a Tribute to the WWF’ 8 wrestler, 5 match cards with a tag to finish. In fairness I actually believed that Shaun South was actually Road Warrior Hawk. And while I thought the ‘British Bulldog’ was fooling no one at Holyhead Leisure Centre in 1992, it turns out it was actually Johnny Smith who tagged in Japan with Dynamite Kid for a while. But later on into the Attitude Era; some of them were really bad. You had the Boston Blackie and his Flintshire accent trying to be the Rock, the aforementioned ‘Dudley Boy’ and a 5’10 Kane. In around 1999 at Beaumaris Leisure Centre we had Orig on commentary being piped through the PA system trying to lead a chant of ‘Mankind, Mankind’, clearly confused why the fans were chanting ‘Foley, Foley, Foley’ for his rotund masked rip-off. Quote
Paid Members garynysmon Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 (edited) 2 hours ago, LaGoosh said: That's a weird one considering that a) the Bushwackers aren't some top line act that are fondly remembered by most wrestling fans. Tbh, given the popularity of the WWF in 1992, I’ll die on the hill arguing that even today more people in Britain know of the Bushwhackers than most current active WWE wrestlers. Other than Cena when do WWE wrestlers appear on normal TV shows over here? How many of us have had “Ooh the wrestling, are Papa Shango and the Bushwhackers still around?!” Edited January 12 by garynysmon Quote
Snitsky's back acne Posted January 12 Posted January 12 4 minutes ago, garynysmon said: Tbh, given the popularity of the WWF in 1992, I’ll die on the hill arguing that even today more people in Britain know of the Bushwhackers than most current active WWE wrestlers. Other than Cena when do WWE wrestlers appear on normal TV shows over here? How many of us have had “Ooh the wrestling, is Papa Shango and the Bushwhackers still around?!” Seconded. My mate is a casual fan at best. Bunged on the 1992 Royal Rumble a few months ago. He came round while it was on, we were chatting and he caught The Bushwhackers making their entrance. He said 'The Bushwhackers!! I fucking loved the Bushwhackers!!' and we sat and watched their entire match. Once it finished he went "Loved that! The Bushwhackers were great!". Quote
Paid Members Gus Mears Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 18 minutes ago, I Bent My Wookie said: Ligero? That's almost certainly where I unknowingly ripped it off given I worked shows with him at that time. Thankfully where the similarities ended! Quote
The Dart Posted January 12 Posted January 12 I never went to one. I didn't go to any proper British Wrestling shows until 2001 and I think by then, the tribute shows were dying down, although not completely dead. I wish I'd been to one though, just for the laughs if nothing else. But I wish I'd gone to any British Wrestling in the 90s (I did go to one in about 1994, but I cannot remember a single thing about it, other than being there) I did however go to 2 shows that did have the UK Undertaker on, one in Croydon, one in Ipswich. As terrible as I'd expected and it's even worse when it's on a show where the rest is normal. If it's a full tribute show (and openly promoted as such) then I think it's kind of fair game, even if it is crap. But when you go to a normal show, with normal wrestlers, some of which are really really good, then out comes that shite for one of the matches.......ugh. Quote
Paid Members BomberPat Posted January 12 Author Paid Members Posted January 12 if I had been able to run a follow-up show to the show I ran a couple of years ago, I wanted to book Blue Kane vs. UK Undertaker. Quote
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 2 hours ago, Carbomb said: Knowing wrestlers, either he or the production crew did it as a rib to pop the boys in the back. At every All-Star show I went to they always had at least one wrestler come out to "I Feel Like A Woman", Gina G or The Brood theme. I don't even know why I went to them to be honest. They were always rubbish. I think I was such a huge wrestling fanatic back then I was happy to sit through any old shite. The only good match I ever saw was Doug Williams vs Kerry Cabrero (whatever happened to him?). Probably because it was the only one where they actually wrestled and did cool moves rather than doing endless crowd work which at that age bored me to tears. Quote
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 I'm pretty sure I saw Ricky Knight as a Road Warrior at some point during the 90s, but I dont remember seeing anyone else. I do have a related question though. I did some ring announcing for NBW in the Lincolnshire/Nottinghamshire area and the N of NBW stood for Norton. In this case not Graham but Gerry. Now Gerry was a terrible liar. He would lie directly to your face within earshot of someone else and then turn to that person and lie to them while directly contradicting everything he had said to you while you could still hear. He was a faker of heart attacks, someone who hit a copper when he got pulled over, ended up on a tag, and ended up on the Jeremy Kyle Show twice where he lied both times and surprisingly the DNA test proved she was his daughter. Gerry wasn't a young man and he had claimed to me and others that he wrestled as the UK Undertaker in the 90s. I know there were a lot of UK Undertakers, but does anyone know if he did in fact wrestle at all? I would say that Gerry was not built like The Undertaker, Imagine him more as a bad Christopher Biggins tribute act but without the homosexuality as the proven DNA test clearly proves. Quote
Paid Members Big Benny HG Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 (edited) Though I remember seeing the posters in town centres, I never went to any of the full-on 'A Tribute to the WWF' shows, with fake Kanes, DX, Rock, Austin, Jeff Hardy, etc. That said, some of my very first live shows were just before that period, and they were definitely starting to lean that way. I saw the infamous UK Undertaker a few times (and got an in-ring POLAROID photo with at half-time on one occasion), as well as the aforementioned Legend of Doom. Those two were probably the two most recognisable gimmick-type characters on the posters at the time. Clear memories of the ring announcer trying to start "R! I! P!" and "L! O! D!" chants over the PA system during their matches (as well as in the obligatory night-ending Rumble). There was also a Doink the Clown (who I also got a Polaroid with), who had been renamed Happy Humphrey The Wrestling Clown the next time I saw him. Maybe Stamford had sent him a letter. I think was Blondie Barrett in face paint and a clown suit. A lot of comedy in his matches, like tickling his opponents etc. to which my dad's laughs were probably the biggest reaction I ever saw him give to anything wrestling-related. There was also a guy going round calling himself The Barbarian, and wearing the same facepaint and gear that the US one was sporting at the time in WCW etc. He was actually a WOS alum who also used the name Tarantula (based on the big spider tattoo on his torso). Others I saw around that time that weren't necessarily 'tributes' but definitely 'heavily influenced' included Tiger Kashmir Singh, who was going around in copycat Hulk Hogan red and yellow (and coming out to 'Eye of the Tiger'), and Rory Campbell, who had the Rowdy Roddy Piper kilt and blue trunks. He'd later get sent down for noncing. There was also a 'UK Earthquake' who wasn't in fact a John Tenta tribute, but an alternate name for Scrubber Daly, and an 'Undertakers' tag team who had nothing to do with the WWF one, or even our UK one, but were Dave Adams and his son Johnny Angel in spooky facepaint under the names Doom and, yes, Gloom. Oh, and the real Davey Boy Smith. Edited January 12 by Big Benny HG Quote
Paid Members Big Benny HG Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 (edited) 48 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said: I'm pretty sure I saw Ricky Knight as a Road Warrior at some point during the 90s, but I dont remember seeing anyone else. Ricky did indeed work on occasion as the 'Animal' to Legend of Doom's Hawk, as can be seen on this poster from an All Star show in 2000 that I nabbed from the local library on the day Yokozuna died: Funny that Ricky appears on the same poster twice (with his tattoos giving him away), and look at the young Saraya and Roy/Zebra on there too. What a weird period that is. Actual Bushwhackers, Actual Greg The Hammer Valentine and (well, what was supposed to have been) Actual Yokozuna sharing a poster with a Fake Undertaker and Fake Legion of Doom. Edited January 12 by Big Benny HG Quote
Ro_y Disco Posted January 12 Posted January 12 (edited) The first wrestling show I went to was a tribute show in Buxton’s Winter Gardens in the early 2000s. I absolutely loved it. There was a floor-level cage set up around the ring at the start of the show, but the first match was just a normal match, so they ignored the cage completely. Then, the second match was a cage match. As I recall it, The Dudley Boy did a classic Bubba Ray oversell as he was caught and thrown from the top of the cage. I marked way harder for everything than I should have as a 16/17 year-old in a room full of young children and families. Especially Kane’s entrance. The advertised TLC match ended up being a wallpaper pasting table match. Something weird went down in the main event battle royal and a wrestler who wasn’t in the match got in the ring and started a real fight with another wrestler. They “eliminated” each other and the match resumed after a few awkward and confused minutes. Edited January 12 by Ro_y Disco Quote
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 (edited) I'm going to guess that not a single one of those gimmick matches listed on the poster actually took place on the show itself. Hardcore at its BEST!!! Edited January 12 by LaGoosh Quote
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