NotJayTabb

Glad to see some love bein shown to the UK scene at the moment, there's a load of great promotions running at the moment, and there's so much talent available that promotions are able to build up unique rosters whilst still putting on great shows. Look at a company like Pro Wrestling Chaos - growing at an impressive rate, selling out 400 seater shows only a year or so into their existance, and doing it without a lot of big stars. Their big title feud has been between Mike Bird and Wild Boar, both great wrestlers, but not names you're likely to see high on the card for the bigger companies. But by putting on good show after good show, they've built a deserved reputation without needing to spend a fortune hiring big name stars or aiming for the "international dream match" audience. Promotions like HOPE and Attack! have also built up loyal audiences by the consistency of their shows. In terms of UK talent, I'd have to put forward a vote for Martin Kirby as amongst the elite. He's been performing at a top level for a few years now, and I'd say he's been at his peak this year. He's an all-rounder: really compelling face, hilarious stooging goof heel and utterly convincing vicious arsehole. In August, he had a streetfight with referee Joel Allen that was ridiculously heated, all because of how hateful Kirby had been in the build-up. Not only that, the match itself was terrific because of Kirby, who had to convincingly sell the offence of a non-wrestler whlst at the same time managing to maintain his aura of being the actual trained wrestler in the match. As an audience member who had earlier sat through a tedious Chris Hero/Tommy End strikefest slog, it was a real standout performance.

Yeah, Ryder really felt like an older brother being forced to babysit his hyperactive younger sibling. I can understand why, Mojo came across as a lovely guy, but someone who would drive you mad if you spent a lot of time in their company. It did make me want to see him succeed though, and I've actually thought he's been looking better on recent NXT's. I actually think ZZ will turn it around. They've already has Devin Taylor released on the show, and the trailer for next week's show doesn't look too promising for Cal Bishop, so they need one guy to actually break through. He also comes across as a nice chap, naive, but honest, so I can see his being the big redemption story of the show.

If the WWE are so concerned with Reigns getting the positive reactions they want, it probably best not to book him in a tournament final up against another popular face. Even if Reigns was fully connecting with the audience, you're pretty much guaranteeing a split crowd with that booking. Even though he's a directionless character, add me to the list of people happy to see world champ Sheamus. Having endured 7 terrible months of Rollins' run, Sheamus is a huge upgrade - better promo, better wrestler, less likely to try and wrestle like a face on PPV's. Just better.

Battleground 2013 was headlined by a really good Orton/Bryan match that was ruined by a terrible finish, and I think that hurt the overall perception of the show as a whole. Give it a proper ending, and I think it gets remembered as a decent show. As it is, Big Show comes down, knocks out Bryan reluctantly, then knocks out Orton, before sitting on the top rope doing a "Yes!" chant on his own, as if the crowd should be celebrating him ruining the main event. If anyone remembers that match at all, they remember the crummy ending, and not the good work beforehand.

Harley Race and the Collossal Kongs. Not only was Race not able to get the Kongs over (a Herculean task for anyone), even as a kid I wondered why Race was managing these losers. Harley had only managed world champions in Luger and Vader, and in my eyes would only manage the elite. The Kongs were so obviously not on the level of Race's other charges, and it actually diminished Race's aura for me.

Currently working my way through Big Vision's "Before They Were Stars" DVD for Rey Mysterio Jr. Was really looking forward to it, especially as Rey is a top 5 contender for me on the GWE project, but it's got a lot of things going against it. It's largely handheld footage, which is often shaky to the point of being unwatchable. Worse yet, the crowd noise has been overdubbed (so you can't hear any impact when a move is hit) and there is terrible commentary provided by XPW alumni Kriss Kloss, which is ghastly. Matchwise, it's been a bit of a mixed bag. The opener of Rey & El Torrero against Jerry Estrada & Negro Azteca is made up of the rudos attacking Rey's leg with a chair for 95% of it's runtime (with Kloss not realising when the rudos win the first fall). There's a decent Rey/Juvi match and a mixed Rey/Octagon vs KGB/Pentagon tag. Honestly, when Rey working decent underdog sequences againstTom Howard playing faux-Russian is the best part of a DVD so far, it's not a good sign.

I was going to say the same thing, but for Regal. It showed a touch of class as he'd wipe his feet before entering HIS ring, always thought that suited his character well. On the subject of Regal: - his little wave he did to the audience when he was the Goodwill Ambassador slayed me - the way he grinds his forearm into his opponents face on a pinfall - they way he'll throw himself whole-heartedly into an embarrassing comedy skit he's given, be in dressing as Burchill's busty wench, doing full Goldust mannerisms during a "switching roles" stip match or throwing some Morecambe & Wise moves into an enforced dance routine I also thought Perfect's gum swipe (which he always hit) showed off the cocky, assured side of the character perfectly. I also loved a gif I once saw on DVDVR, where Perfect threw his towel casually over his shoulder, behind Heenan who stuck a hand out backwards to catch it. Pure class.

Been rewatching the 98 Survivor Series this weekend, and what I really loved her was that Mankind jumped Gill as he was entering the ring. Just the idea that Foley could have easily beaten a semi-retired Duane Gill anyway, but chose to assault him before the bell anyway just struck me as hilariously cruel

Yeah, Sunny was a great heel promo, just the right level of obnoxious to be annoying, but not channel-changingly so. I hated Sunny at the time, and you have to be pretty great at heeling to get a 14yr old boy to boo a hot lady. Part of what made "Horowitz wins!" so great was that his win humbled two of the most arrogant stars in the company. As for hotness, Sunny 100%

I love Regal. The fact that his favorite thing he's ever done in his career was dressing in drag in Vegas is just awesome. Regal talking about how he'd always try and make a change to his appearance to make sure they'd create a new action figure of him was great. As was Barrett joking about how they're the three least-effective King of the Ring winners.

That 'Yeti Nation' was so terrible. Didn't watch Tough Enough, so know nothing about the guy, but he seemed pleasant enough...but that promo was terrible. Highlight of the show was easily Dillinger and Breeze searching for bats. WWE List was awful too, none of the factions seemed like failures to me (OK, maybe the MIA). 3 Count achieved everything you'd expect them to, as well as providing the launchpad for a decent 10yr run for Helms. Really, this list was less "failed factions" and more "enjoyable undercard stables"

I've enjoyed watching the little Kellett I've seen...his match with Brian Glover/Leon Arras is a lot of fun. Every time I think of him, I just remember what Jackie Pallo said about him: "People see him on the telly and think 'Oh isn't he funny, he's fun'...(tone changes) but Les was HARD. He was a hard man"

Yeah, this drove off a number of my friends too. There used to be a bunch of us who would chip in to watch PPV's together, and that EC match was the final straw for them. We'd spent two years getting more and more frustrated as Triple H charmlessly beat a load of our then favourites (Jericho, Booker, RVD), so we were all hoping that Goldberg would put us out of our misery once and for all....then one sledgehammer shot ended all that hope. I'd not seen my friends so deflated since England lost to Argentina in the 98 World Cup. Some of us watched Mania XX the next year out of habit, but the group was halved, and most of them gave up on wrestling entirely.

Turning Paige heel against a not-massively-over Charlotte is remarkably lunkheaded at the best of times (as shown by the pop when Paige attacked Becky and Charlotte 2 weeks ago). Doing it to correspond almost perfectly with the UK tour where Paige is guaranteed to get cheered over Charlotte feels like sabotage.

On the subject of Andy Dalton, there's an Inspire Pro full show on YouTube (the Quick and the Dead), where Dalton has a street fight which is really fun. He's fighting the kind of guy who thinks throwing multiple reverse ranas makes sense in a street fight, but Dalton is so good that the match is still really good.

I may be the only person to think so, but I'm all about corporate champion Sheamus hlding the title until Mania. He's perfect for the role - he gets actual heel heat, he's been long rumoured to be real life friends with HHH anyway, he's got a more "classic" WWE look, he's a better promo and wrestler than Rollins...also, there's no way the eventual Reigns/Sheamus title match wouldn't be a stormer.

I know she was in there with Asuka, but I though Cameron looked much-improved on NXT this week. Thought it was the first time she actually looked natural in the ring in terms of movement and postioning, and I loved her look of terror and confusion after that swank slap-straight-into-an-armbar sequence right at the start. Put into comparison with Eva Marie's big boot/shitty flatliner combo, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Yeah, even really good TNA matches somehow feel a bit off. I've never quite been able to put my finger on it, but I think Jingus has nailed it. I think wrestling in front of the same jaded crowd for years didn't help, moments that should have felt big often felt lacklustre due to the lack of crowd reaction.

I agree the above match is a lot of fun, and it always made sense to me. After the flash pin on Knox, the match is pretty even until the second RKO member (Helms or Nitro) gets pinned, at which point 5-3 is a lot harder for the heels to come back from. It felt like they portrayed the second elimination was most pivotal, as the whole match would have been different if RKO had equalised. Maybe an odd choice, but I always loved the opener to SurSer 09, with Miz/Sheamus/McIntyre/Swagger/Ziggler vs Morrison/Finlay/Hardy/Bourne/Benjamin. It felt like a real drive to actually push new stars, with three members of the heel team standing tall at the end. 3/5 of the face team were guys who had been around a while and were popular, but never going to be world title contenders, so using them to put over fresh guys made sense. McIntyre and Sheamus both got two eliminations, which made them look great, whilst the only members of the face team to eliminate anyone were Morrison and Bourne, the two with the most potential on their team. Miz, Sheamus and McIntyre looked like world beaters coming out of the match, and the fact that 4 of the 5 heels went on to hold world titles and it would have been all 5 if Drew Mac hadn't married a nutter) shows they were right to give these young guys a chance.

On the above point, you can point to how postively received the Owens vs Sin Cara and vs Kalisto matches were, as opposed to facing Cesaro or Ryback again. They just felt fresher. You've got lower-carders who can actually go doing nothing, there's no reason why we can't get 6 minute a ADR vs Fandango, or Owens vs Sandow, which would feel so much more interesting.

Bella Twins on commentary Booking matches on TV that I'm expected to then get excited about on PPV a week later (done just this month for the Team Barrett vs Team Neville 6-man tag) Dolph Ziggler in any capacity A tag division that seemingly can only have two teams pushed at a time - the champions and the no. 1 contenders. Why have the PTP gone from all-conquering tag champs to being unable to win since the Dudleys return? Also, I know this can't happen anymore since Cena lost the US title, but: constantly teasing that Heath Slater will answer the US Open Challenge, which never gets paid off.

ICW have been doing a UK tour before their big sold out show in Glasgow next month, so I went to the Nottingham leg last night. It was a lot of fun, really helped by a boisterous crowd, and there were some really good matches along the way. Viper vs Kay Lee Ray was a good opening match, Trent Seven and Jack Jester was really fun, and the main event of Big Damo vs Drew Galloway was excellent, and got really exciting towards the end. If I had to make one complaint, it's that there was maybe one clean finish all night, with two matches going to non-finishes. By the second half, it was getting harder to really get into the matches, as you knew the chances of a clean finish were minimal. Possibly a show that's more fun to experience live than on video, the atmosphere was really integral to it being a good night.

Two top tips for battle royals/Royal Rumbles: 1) Never charge at an opponent who is next to the ropes. 9/10 he's going to duck and send you crashing out 2) If you've narrowly avoided elimination by landing on the ring apron, get into the ring as quickly as possible. Don't point to your head to show how smart you are or make a "Phew, that was close" gesture...that guarantees elimination.

I agree. ECIII is a better promo than Rollins, and he's been carrying himself more like a champion this year than Rollins has. You don't see ECIII constantly losing things and running round with his comedy sidekicks like Dastardly and Muttley trying to catch the pigeon. ECIII also wrestles like a heel, whereas Rollins is often guilty of wrestling more like a face (see the Cena series). Of course, this is comparing one of the best runs on TNA with the worst non-Ziggler run in the WWE, but it is a rare thing TNA have done well.

I'd love to be able to include Dave Taylor, but I'm not convinced I could justify it. More than anyone else, Taylor has always struck me as the most quintessentially British wrestler to make it to TV in the US. There are men who look like Dave Taylor in every pub in Britain, men you just look at and you know are hard as nails. I loved his brief WWE run where he turned up looking like your mate's hard dad in an ill-fitting singlet, scrapping with pretty boy teams like Londrick (men like Dave Taylor will always refer to it as "scrapping"), but I'm not going to be able to justify a placing on that. I've enjoyed some of his Reslo stuff as "Dancing" Dave Taylor (a very ill-fitting gimmick), but there've been other guys on the same shows I've prefered who wont make it either, so I can't see him making the cut.