Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 56 minutes ago, Big Benny HG said: look at the young Saraya You will summon Twosheds with talk like that. Quote
Paid Members BomberPat Posted January 12 Author Paid Members Posted January 12 1 hour ago, LaGoosh said: 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. Chances are they just had a single CD for all of their entrance music, and divvied it up backstage before the show. I've been there! 1 hour ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said: 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. Gerry passed away just last week; I don't know anything about whether he wrestled prior to promoting, but I'd never rule out someone performing as a tribute act regardless of whether they looked the part or not. 1 hour ago, Big Benny HG said: 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. This is an odd one, in that there have been Undertaker gimmicks in the UK dating back to the 1960s, and a tag team under either masks or facepaints since the 1970s, and it was in that vein that the Adamses were working, rather than doing a WWF act; usually with Johnny in a mask and Dave in facepaint. Dave once said that even he never knew which one was Doom and which one was Gloom. There's the kind of related phenomenon of British wrestlers just stealing American wrestlers' names - Steve Regal being the most famous, but there have been plenty, including one of the Crabtrees wrestling as Greg Valentine, and Blondie Barratt calling himself "The Rock & Roll Express" - and there's a bit of crossover between the tail end of that and the start of tribute shows, and I think Scrubber Daly falls into that category, where a promoter has seen the name Earthquake and thought, "that'll do", without ever really trying to make Scrubber look or work more like John Tenta to fit the bill. Quote
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 4 minutes ago, BomberPat said: Gerry passed away just last week; I don't know anything about whether he wrestled prior to promoting, but I'd never rule out someone performing as a tribute act regardless of whether they looked the part or not. I'd check, he might be lying. All joking aside, Lincolnshire wrestling threw up some weird shows over the years so he could easily have wrestled on any of those shows but no one I spoke to who'd been around at the time actually wrestled on a show with him, they'd all heard the story though. I've been trying to work out all the venues in Lincoln where wrestling has taken place over the years. The Hospital Social Club seems to be a law unto itself. The people who wrestled there tended to only wrestle there and other people very rarely wrestled there more than once or twice so Gerry could have wrestled there. Quote
CTXRussomark Posted January 12 Posted January 12 2 hours ago, Big Benny HG said: 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. Other than the real Davey Boy you've pretty much described my exact memories of these shows from the early 90s. To this day one of my friends still loves telling the story of how we saw an Asian Hulk Hogan tribute - he thinks it's the funniest thing in the world. I have a photo somewhere of my mum with the UK Undertaker, and autographs from Big Daddy and UK Doink. Those shows came here for years before disappearing in the late 90's. The last one I recall was in 95/96 as Giant Haystacks was advertised but wasn't there on the night due to "ill health", despite the fact we'd just seen him appear in WCW on DSF. Quote
Paid Members Supremo Posted January 12 Paid Members Posted January 12 (edited) Racking my brains, I can’t recall ever seeing many tribute acts, but I was reminded of a brilliant moment watching an All Star show. The door the wrestlers used to make their entrances was the same door punters used to go the bar or the toilet. Mid-way through a Royal Rumble the announcer started a countdown for the next entrant. ”Three…two….one….!” Just as the door dramatically opened, a bewildered old man walked out, obviously coming back from the toilet, getting in the way of the angry wrestler who was stuck behind him. Funniest part was that rather than realise the mistake, the fella working the spotlight ignored the wrestler and continued to follow the old man back to his seat. The actual entrant had to angrily make his way to the ring in darkness, as everyone laughed. Match continued, with a winner declared, but to my knowledge that old fella never got eliminated and is still in the match. Justice for the old man. The Werther’s Original. Edited January 12 by Supremo Quote
SaitoRyo Posted January 12 Posted January 12 I always say my first live wrestling show was Insurrextion 2003, but it was actually a show at Newcastle City Hall before then (not sure on the exact year). Don't remember much apart from a fake Kane being there, someone going through a table (instantly making it the best show in the world in my young mind) and my dad being me some piece of merch, presumably a foam finger or a secondhand figure. I'm guessing it was an All-Star show, but it's a really fuzzy memory, unfortunately. If anyone can help me out, it would be greatly appreciated! Must have been in 2001/02. Quote
davertfnewman Posted January 12 Posted January 12 I have similar experiences of UK versions of WWF stars. A mate of mine told us that he'd been to a wrestling show the night prior and that Hawk was now wrestling on his own as the Legend of Doom. I'm sure if the money was right and the drugs were good, Hawk would've popped over to do a few shows during his singles period, but it was indeed Johnny South. Another mate told me he saw the Undertaker wrestle as a good guy circa 1993. Matches up to the WWF version but it was an impersonator. I saw him on a later date as a heel instead getting beaten by Doc Dean. I believe it was a guy called Hitman Hobbs who was a tag partner with Pete LaPaque in the Rockers (which technically wasn't a ripoff because LaPaque was in a biker team called the Rockers years ago), who the ring announcer attributed a bunch of names to such as "the Mouth of the South", even though LaPaque is from the East Midlands. UK Undertaker had to do the stoic gimmick while also trying to do cheap heat, including muttering at someone booing him "Shut up, you fat bastard!". Got beaten soundly by Doc and then was dumped out later in a Royal Rumble. Also saw the British Bushwhacker. Frank Casey spoke glowingly about being that character in Simon Garfield's book, as if he was trying to convince himself. More interesting was that he was in the main event in a comedy match against the Gay One, a guy called Al Vippond who had to be about sixty. He came out to "The Stripper" in a gold tinfoil outfit and feather boa, tried to thrust his hips at the ring announcer's arse, took the gear off and had a rainbow stripes bodysuit on. Subtle. Mixed in some Goldust-like mannerisms before Goldust was even a thought. Quote
The British Bushwacker Posted January 12 Posted January 12 11 hours ago, Statto said: Plus the fact that Frank Casey was doing the gimmick concurrent with their peak in WWF - remember seeing it a bunch in 90/91 sort of time. Point of order though - he was British Bushwhacker, for the alliteration. Sounds like a man of impeccable taste. Quote
RIDDUM_N_STYLE Posted January 13 Posted January 13 Only ever went to a couple of these types of shows, one at Everton Park Sports Centre with my cousin and our dads that was memorable for two things, Davey Boy being in the main event and my cousin losing it cos she thought our dads had left us The other was with another cousin at the Liverpool Empire that turned out to be Yoko’s last match, teaming with Valentine and both of us thinking how sad it was seeing the big man looking so huge compared to his early WWE run By the time I next went to a ‘leisure centre’ show it had some actual talent on, namely Frankie Sloan and one time NXT UK talent Joseph Connors with the only ‘tribute’ being a heel group giving Two Sweets to any dork that asked for it Quote
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted January 13 Paid Members Posted January 13 9 hours ago, davertfnewman said: ore interesting was that he was in the main event in a comedy match against the Gay One Burst out laughing at this. No way was that his actual name. Was he announced as "The Gay One"? Quote
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted January 13 Paid Members Posted January 13 46 minutes ago, LaGoosh said: Burst out laughing at this. No way was that his actual name. Was he announced as "The Gay One"? He was Gooshy and if you want to keep on chuckling this Tuesday morning he would also tag with The Gaylord Steve Peacock. Quote
westlondonmist Posted January 13 Posted January 13 46 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said: He was Gooshy and if you want to keep on chuckling this Tuesday morning he would also tag with The Gaylord Steve Peacock. I suppose HUSTLE had to get it's inspiration somehow? Quote
Paid Members BomberPat Posted January 13 Author Paid Members Posted January 13 (edited) Al Vipond was indeed "The Gay One"; by 1993, he must have been getting on, as he was wrestling in the early '70s, and didn't exactly look fresh-faced in photos from the end of that decade. He was basically doing an even less subtle gay panic Adrian Street deal, with more comedy and a lot less talent. A newspaper report in the '70s described him as a "Jimmy Savile lookalike", and from what I've heard that isn't where those similarities end. Apparently he died in prison. Edited January 13 by BomberPat Quote
The King of Old School Posted January 13 Posted January 13 (edited) Only one I remember going to would have been around 1993 or so when we were visiting grandparents in Cheshire, the local town hall had a show on so we went. Only thing that I vividly remember is a bloke coming out called "Andrew The Giant" in a similar black singlet to what Andre wore, he was probably around 6 foot, and was no taller than his opponent. Can't remember much if anything else from the show. Never went to another one though. Edited January 13 by The King of Old School Quote
Paid Members Statto Posted January 13 Paid Members Posted January 13 2 hours ago, LaGoosh said: Burst out laughing at this. No way was that his actual name. Was he announced as "The Gay One"? Unless I'm mistaken, prior to taking on the chav gimmick Darren Burridge was "The Gay One" Baxter Burridge as late as like 2002. Quote
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