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GRADO is the best entertainer in British Wrestling in aeons and aeons and I will repeat the sentiments of Alan regarding him. The stuff with Cabana is tremendous. I think, for me, the appeal of GRADO is that, with all great gimmicks he is just extenuating his own personality a notch. Marty Scurll just doesn't do it for me; I find him so unlikeable, to the point if I am at a show he is on I will just go to the bar and chat. He is the only wrestler ever in years and years that has that effect on me. Like Alan touched on, the UK is such a great melting pot of talent and imports at the moment. In the next couple of months alone I will be seeing Ultimo Dragon and Jushin Liger for the first time as well as the likes of Steen, Masters, Bob Holly?!, Johnny Kidd~!, Kharma, Uhaa Nation, D-Lo, Shannon Moore, Davey Richards and the The Pope. Don't get me wrong, I will happily see import free shows; I just love the randomness of the people brought in to work the U.K at the moment. In anyone's opinion, out of the current crop of UK guys who do you think could slot in nicely in NXT with a reasonable chance of being called up and getting a mid-card run on the main roster? For me I'd go with Dave Mastiff and Rampage Brown due to their respective 'looks'.

A different slant on this; does anyone feel they have too much audio content that the like and enjoy to listen to, to digest? I for one love to listen to all types of podcasts from the standard Meltzer output to some of the fine podcasts that a number of you on this board do on a regular basis as well as numerous others. I try and listen to between 1-2 hours or so a day. The advantage of audio over video is of course you can listen to it whilst commuting, working out / running amongst a host of activities which tends to make it more accessible to me on a daily basis than watching things does.

For me CJ Banks has come on leaps and bounds over the last 5 or so years, he is very crisp indeed but to me he is lacking something intangible for me to place him in the top tier of current UK workers. I haven't seen enough Mason and Dynamite stuff to really comment, but I do have to say that Rampage Brown has impressed me physically, he has a good brawling style but again I don't have him in my top tier of workers. Dean Allmark is a glaring omission from my original post, and who I definitely see as a current UK top tier guy. He and Ligero work an insane amount of shows during the summer for Dixon, and just last month Ligero did a TRIPLE shot on show for Dixon in the Blackpool area.

I thought I'd start this thread because I believe there are a host of great workers currently working British Indie scene. Currently, in my opinion some of the best workers plying their trade in the UK are: El Ligero, Martin Stone, Kris Travis, Dave Mastiff, Zack Sabre Jr, Johnny Moss, Martin Kirby, Joey Hayes & Noam Dar. I think the guys listed above are all great workers who can tell a great story in a match and have match quality that is very good. Have any of the non UK posters on this forum been exposed to any of the current British guys work outside of the ones that have been brought in to WWE via NXT or in Zack Sabre Jr's case worked in Japan? My U.K MOTY from 2012 was also the best match I have ever seen live which is El Ligero vs. Akira Tozawa from Preston City Wrestling's Guild Wars card on June 2nd 2012 which I'd rate at ****1/4 and it showcases what a criminally underated talent El Ligero is. (PCW have released this via YouTube if you want to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mKyrOCR2i0) I know that another great talent is Jack Gallagher who is working and training over in Japan currently who I didn't at the mention at the beginning of this post, that some of you may interested to keep an eye out for. At the moment I'd say the best talent in the UK is a shade or two below the top tier talent elsewhere in the world, but I still feel that a lot of them are completely under the radar to most people. I am happy to recommend other matches which showcase the rich talent that the UK currently has to offer if anyone is interested.

Great show, really enjoyable especially the Star Ratings vs. Age discussion that raised some interesting points with people like Christian, Rey Jr. etc.

Yuki Ishikawa v Kazunari Murakami - BattlARTS 11/26/00 I think that this is the first time I have watched any BattlARTS and this was a fun match. It goes about 11 minutes in length and is full of stiff kicks and even stiffer punches by both guys. I know that they try and promote this as a shoot, so it surprised me that the action spilled to the floor and into the front row for a minute or two; I would of thought that would shatter the illusion of it being a genuine shoot especially this being in the era of PRIDE etc. Not withstanding, I don't feel that took anything away from the match whatsoever and actually for me; made it more enjoyable. It's my first exposure to both workers that I can recall. Kazunari Murakami played the stereotypical "shooter" role with the kickpads and stiff kicks. Ishikawa looked more of the part of the wrestler and delivered a number of stiff punches during the match that connected hard with Murakami. In the end Ishikawa won via rear naked choke in a fine encounter. (***1/4) I found this match via the Japanese 2000-2009 best matches spreadsheet that is being pimped out elsewhere on PWO.

2013 is going to be Daddy's year! *crosses fingers*. I know both sides of the argument have been exhausted so I am not going to add anything; however I BET if I stood in a random town/city centre and asked anyone over the age of 35 who the first wrestler that pops into their head - I'd say 80%+ would say Big Daddy in the first instance. That is the level of fame culturally he has.

Excellent. Thanks.

This is the first time this has dawned on me. They then starting working more with Smoky Mountain and Memphis during this time too. I wonder what triggered this change in philosophy?

Hi Guys, I was wondering who uses twitter and if anyone wants to post their username? I like twitter for talking wrestling in small chunks on the fly with like minded people. I will start the ball rolling; @allanblackstock

Does anyone know if it was Memphis that used the invisible wrestler gimmick that Ross touched upon the Austin Podcast? Also does any footage exists of the Bob Cook and his yellow trunks incident? I have a morbid curiosity to see it. Again a fun show, which seems to be the case the majority of the time with his podcasts.

My current favourite five: 1. Jerry Lawler - I am finally exploring more and more of his less famous Memphis stuff; such as mini feud with The Snowman in 1990 in Memphis which I thought was tremendous. 2. Bryan Danielson - The most consistent worker in the WWE in forever. His match with Cena at Summerslam cemented him to me as someone who belongs at the top of the cards in WWE. 3. Aiden English - One appearance in NXT so far, but what an appearance. Don't even know if he can work a lick or not; all I know is he entertained me massively and can't wait to see more of him. 4. El Dandy - Thanks to you fine guys my eyes have been opened to the epicness that is El Dandy. His work vs. El Santanico is tremendous. 5. Brock Lesnar - Ever match he is in has me on the edge of my seat; I anticipate his matches more than anyone else at the moment. He always has his working boots on, and his style is so believable, which to be fair isn't that surprising.

Looking forward to this. Thanks guys.

Dave's just grumpy at the moment due to his broken foot.

In my opinion, I'd stump for Hogan vs. Warrior at WM VI

I'd love it if you had an .rss feed for this show. I use a podcatcher app on my devices that checks every 4 hours for new podcasts and downloads them automatically. Without that certain podcasts could fall through the net. However as I really enjoyed Wrestling With The Past #1 I don't mind manually looking for new episodes via soundcloud or this board.

Just discovered your podcast guys and will have a listen over the weekend. Subscribed via my podcast catcher app so looks like you have another listener.

Please do share. Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales defeated The Wild Samoans (Afa and Sika) in a two out of three falls match, 2-0 at Showdown at Shea on August 9th 1980.

I think Luger peaked from a working perspective in 1989-1990 but I think he was at his hottest in 1997.

Thank you for taking the time to reply guys. The sites posted back are exactly what I am looking for. I hope other find this thread useful as well.

I was wondering what sites you have bookmarked and like to visit which are Pro Wrestling centric? TOP Tier (for me anyway) are: - History Of WWE - http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com - Wrestling Classics - http://www.wrestlingclassics.com - Kayfabe Memories board - http://www.infinitecore.ca/superstar/index.php?a=cat - The Mid-Atlantic Gateway - http://www.midatlanticgateway.com/Lobby.htm - Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline - http://www.wrestlingobserver.com I used to visit Quabrada / DVDVR but not sure if they have much new content any more. Anyone else care to recommend any other interesting sites for reading history, news, multimedia, research etc. etc.

For me I'd say Bob Backlund - From headlining many MSG sellouts to working with Herb Abrams.

No specific match jumps out for me I am afraid but I was a big fan of his team with Slater pre WWF run. I thought the angle where him and Slater beat down Flair and collect Harley Race's bounty before Starrcade '83 was phenomenal.

We all know how good Royal Rumble 1992 was; but the one thing that is hardly ever commented on is the piledriver spot that Haku and DBS do; it's a thing of beauty and looks as good as any piledriver spot I have ever seen.