NotJayTabb

Halfway through an old CZW tape (Aftermath 2003) that I grabbed at random. CZW were my US indy of choice when I first started to explore wrestling outside of WWF/WCW, so it's quite fun to revisit these shows, even if a lot of these guys are a lot sloppier and less talented than I remember. So far, there's been a couple of CZW rookie matches that were actually ok, a really fun hardcore match between Nick Gage and Nate Hatred, a decent match between Jonny Storm and Nick Berk (that the crowd couldn't care less about) and an overbooked mess between the Backseat Boys and Adam Flash/Ian Knoxx (that the crowd loved).

I really feel WCW really dropped the ball when it came to music. Think about how the WWF trained their audience to recognize a wrestler within seconds of their theme hitting to maximise the pop. As soon as crowds heard the glass smash/a car skidding to a crash/"If you smell...", they knew who was coming out and reacted accordingly. In contrast, WCW in 99 has very few memorable themes. Goldberg, Booker, Hogan, Flair, Nash, (surprisingly) Bagwell.....now think about other guys near the top of the card. Could anyone here hum Bret's ring music? Sid? Rick Steiner, Benoit, Luger? I can only remember Macho Man's new theme because I bought a copy of the WCW Mayhem album for £1 in Cash Generator. Basically, the WWF guys had music that made even lower card guys memorable (Gangrel being the prime example), whilst WCW had music that made their stars unremarkable.

Banger Walsh once drunkenly invited my friend and I to his house to look at his collection of memorabilia and to see the old Coventry City dugout he'd bought and had put in his back garden. I kinda regret not going, but I suspect I'd have got there only for him to have no memory of the conversation.

I think at that point, WCW needed to concentrate less on trying to compete with the WWF and more with being a sustainable business. Cut back on the enormous undercard of guys that never made it to Nitro or Thunder - people like Van Hammer or Hardbody Harrison had zero value and were just a drain on resources. Stop overpaying for celebrity guests like Megadeth or Master P, who managed to lure in no viewers. I also think that, rather than try and lure away the WWF audience, WCW needed to consolidate the audience they currently had. They still had millions of viewers who were tuning into Nitro because they weren't fans of what the WWF was offering, which was a lot of character work, but one of the worst in-ring years in the companies history. The fans they had left were probably tuning into WCW because they wanted to watch some actual wrestling. You can see how much the company started to lose popularity when Russo turned it into WWF-lite, and in October 99 WCW still had a great roster in the midcard who could put on good 10-15 minute TV matches. You can still use guys like Hogan, but don't have him wrestle on TV every week, make him a special attraction so that his matches still feel like a big deal. Bottom line in, WCW needed to accept being no.2 (and there's no shame in being Pepsi rather than Coca-Cola), try and run like a real business and try and keep their existing fanbase happy (and maybe appeal to the WWF fans who were bored of a lack of good wrestling on TV)

PROGRESS have an insanely passionate crowd. They managed to sell out their next show, 700 tickets, within half an hour of them going on sale. Decided to check out Legacy Wrestling in Royal Leamington Spa last night. Not a huge crowd, just over 50 people, but hopefully they'll start to pick up some steam. They did a lot of things right. The set up was great, the ring well lit with the ringside area darkened, and they seem to be going for a WoS vibe to the rules, with the use of public warnings, no throwing your opponent over the top rope, and even down to the announcements of the hosting Mr Legacy, who announced weights, times of public warnings and times of pinfalls in a very proper manner. All the matches were pretty fun, with a lot of guys I'd never seen before and now would like to see again. The standout of the undercard guys was probably Jack Starz, a Robbie Brookside trainee who was really crisp on the mat and had some brutal sounding uppercuts. Also, the tag team match between the Henchmen and Arcade/Terry Seddon was a lot of fun. The Henchmen (Jim Diehard and Benton Destruction) are probably my favourite act in the UK, two huge bearded men whose motto is "Pumping iron and pounding beers" and have a nice line in cheating and using their considerable weight to keep their opponents down. They picked up the win here after a great looking senton from Diehard. Which leaves us with the main event between Justin "Hammer" Sysum and the Wild Boar, which was really great. Sysum is nicknamed "Hammer" due to his resemblance to Thor, all long blond hair and muscled torso. In contrast, the Wild Boar is not quite so handsome: he's short, slightly dumpy, and isn't blessed with model good looks. He looks like a feral creature, and he wrestles like one too. After a period of Sysum controlling the match on the mat, Boar gets control (and his first public warning) by viciously biting Sysum in the corner. He gets his second public warning, and a real period of dominance, by charging Sysum as he enters the ring, leaving Hammer's leg tangled in the rope. This gives Boar a focus point, and he's all over the leg from that moment, attacking it every chance he can. In contrast, Sysum's selling of the leg is great. He knows he can out wrestle the Boar if he can only get him on the mat, so he positions himself on all fours, keeping his bad leg as far away from Boar as possible, trying to get a takedown. The end was really good too - Sysum uses a 450 splash as his finisher, so when he gets Boar down, he slowly tries to climb to the top, but Boar is able to cut him off. Boar traps Sysum's arms to give him some headbutts, but Sysum returns the favour from earlier by biting Boar in the face, sending him crashing back to the mat and prone to the match winning 450. Really great main event to a really fun show that delivered more than I was expecting.

One of the things I always thought TNA did right was their treatment of the piledriver when Eric Young turned heel in 2009. He started using the piledriver, with the commentary putting over that it was an unwritten rule in the dressing room that people didn't use the move since it could end careers and affect livelihoods. Thought it put over both the move and how ruthless the newly heel Young was.

I'm going to find it hard not to reel off a list of about 40 names here, there's so many really good wrestlers around: Well, not including ZSJ or Mark Andrews, as they're barely in the UK these days: Ligero and Pete Dunne for the reasons given above, I've never seen Stixx have a bad match, Tyler Bate is only 18 and is already so good. He's the charismatic, moustachioed Cesaro. Joseph Conners has improved so much in the past 2 years and is great as heel or face. Martin Kirby was great as half of Project Ego, but he's really shining at the moment. He's a heel who isn't afraid to look like an idiot for the sake of putting others over. Tag team wise, I think the Hunter Brothers and the London Riots are probably the two best teams in the UK. Plus, I'm always a big fan of massive dudes with beards, so I'm always happy to see guys like Dave Mastiff, Damian O'Connor or Big Grizzly appear on a card.

Thanks. Aside from Southside and Triple X, I regularly go to HOPE and House of Pain shows, which run regularly in Nottingham. House of Pain are academy shows for Stixx's training school, so a lot of the roster aren't quite polished yet (and there are a couple of guys you can tell aren't going to get any better), but the shows are cheap, everyone has a good grasp of the basics so the matches are rarely terrible, and there's a few guys who are really good. HOPE have been running two year, they were maybe a bit over-ambitious to start, but they've settled around a core of really good wrestlers (Ligero, Jack Jester, Joseph Conners, CJ Banks) and are putting on some excellent shows. Outside of them, I've been to a few Coventry Pro shows, which were a mixed bag, and I'm going to a Legacy Wrestling show in Leamington this weekend, who've got some guys I really like (Wild Boar, the Henchmen) and a few guys I've not seen, but heard good things about.

I remember in 99 when La Parka ran in to make the save for Buff Bagwell on Thunder, just before Russo came in, and I thought it might be the start of a La Parka mini-push. Instead, they had him "beat" Bagwell in a terrible "shooting on the bosses" angle and he was sent right back to where he was before.

Well, his mum was a WCW tag team champion...

I just hope you're able to gut it out until December To Dismember. It's such a baffling PPV for them to have put out. They only announced two matches in advance of the show, and the rest is full of random lower-midcard matches like Matt Striker vs Balls Mahoney (which is worryingly the second best match on the card). It's like someone decided to put out a Sunday Night Heat PPV. The Extreme Elimination Chamber is awful, a mixture of a terrible bait-and-switch, bad booking, long periods of dead air with only one guy in the ring...just a mess.

I know that Fritz Von Erich is a guy with a terrible reputation outside the ring, but I've never heard much of an opinion given of his work inside the ring. I watched some of his work in Japan a year or so back, and I was really pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed his matches with Baba and Jumbo. He just seemed like a big nasty bastard, who was happy to bust people open, take cheapshots and knows he's got one special weapon (the Claw) that is really easy to apply, and will just try and wear guys down with it. The only match of his I've seen in the US is the retirement match against Bundy, which I also enjoyed, and just wondered what the consensus on him is as a worker? Just to copy in what I wrote about the Baba/Jumbo matches when I watched them: Fritz Von Erich vs Giant Baba It's 1966, it's 2/3 falls and it's in glorious black and white. Fritz attacks early, including a vicious punt to Baba's upper chest, and the bell hasn't even sounded. Fritz batters Baba, and goes for the claw early, but Baba moves and starts working over Fritz with some good looking blows of his own. A big chop gives Baba the first fall early, but Fritz grabs him in the claw from the mat as he tries to climb off. As this is between falls, Fritz feels no need to release the hold, leaving a barely standing Baba prone at the start of the next fall. Fritz goes for the claw right away, but Baba fights with all his might to keep it off. I love the way Fritz will interject with a boot to take Baba's focus off the claw before attempting to reapply it. Baba gets rammed into the ringpost, and is left bleeding and beaten on the floor as Fritz goes back on the attack. The result of this is that the crowd goes mad everytime Fritz misses a blow or Baba gets on offence. Baba comes back to life and starts stalking Fritz around the ring, but Von Erich cheap shots and regains control. Back inside, Fritz gets the claw in the centre of the ring to win the second fall. We cut to the third fall to see Fritz throwing someone outside the ring, but Baba takes over on him and throws him over the top rope, causing Fritz to retreat into the crowd. God, I love this match so far. Fritz is awesome at cowering off when Baba is on offence. They brawl on the floor, and Baba gives a chair to the claw hand to neutralise that threat. Von Erich retruns the favour by leathering Baba in the head with the chair, at which point the referee gives the fall to Baba by DQ. That doesn't seem to make sense, seeing as how Baba used the chair first, but that appears to be the decision. Great match. Fritz Von Erich vs Jumbo Tsuruta Fast forward 9 years to 1975, and Fritz still hates Baba. We know this as he gets into a brawl with him at ringside, and spends most of the prematch yelling at him. Indeed, this actually works against him right away. You know that terrible spot you get almost weekly on Raw, where a wrestler will allow himself to be distracted by a rival, leading to him being rolled-up for the loss? We essentially get that end to the first fall, only better as rather than roll Fritz up, Jumbo just decides to beat him up for two minutes and pin him, which gives the fall to Jumbo's power rather than the element of surprise. This, of course, riles up Fritz before the second fall, and he focuses his attack....on Baba at ringside again. Eventually, he decides to focus on his opponent. Fritz is wise enough to know he can get a great reaction by just threatening the claw, so goes for it early and often, eventually locking in a stomach claw before Jumbo makes the ropes. Fritz repeatedly wears Jumbo down with the claw in the ropes, which means that, when he gets it mid-ring, Jumbo is unable to escape it, and this evens up the falls. Jumbo is now split open from this assault, so Fritz zones in on the cut like a shark. Jumbo is weakened with bloodloss, so starts getting escorted back to the locker-room, but he ain't going out like that, breaking free and going back into the ring. Of course, he's still no match for a fit Fritz, and he ends up getting battered again before a load of trainees and Baba himself come to his rescue. Not a great match, but great wrestling that really sets up the Fritz/Baba match nicely... Fritz Von Erich vs Giant Baba ...and here is is from one week later. They've even brought in two refs, one Japanese and one American for this, which appears to be last man standing. Typically, Fritz assaults Baba before the bell. They trade blows outside the ring, before a bloodied Fritz claws Baba and pulls him into the ring. I love the image of Fritz, blood pouring down his face, clutching Baba by the face. A few solid chops by Baba eventually frees him. Baba stomps the claw hand and then rams it into the ringpost, and suddenly Fritz has to beg off from the assault of Baba. Fritz just about survives being counted to the mat, and applies a stomach claw to Baba. The count stops on 9 when Fritz is just about sat up, which really feels like it should be a loss to me. Fritz re-claws him, but Baba slips to ringside to escape it. Baba survives being rammed into a table, and a missed Fritz blow allows him to go back on the offensive, chopping away at Von Erich. Fritz gets chopped from the apron to the floor, and these ten counts are getting closer and closer. Fritz gets sent to the floor one last time and that's it, as he fails to beat the count. Being a gracious loser, he sneaks in one final stomach claw before leaving. Really fun match, they built up the tension mastefully with the falls.

I'm quite lucky, in that I've got 5/6 decent indies operating within a one hour drive from my house (thought my favourite of the bunch, Triple X Wrestling, have been on hiatus since the end of 2014). The largest of them is a company called Southside Wrestling, who regularly run shows at a leisure centre that's only a 5 minute walk from my house, where over the past three years I've seen them bring in guys like Sabu, X-Pac, Devitt, Super Crazy, Beretta, Jannetty...even an unadvertised Chris Masters match. Anyway, last Saturday they ran their annual Speed King tournament, where their cruiserweight title is put up for grabs. Really puts the champion at a massive disadvantage, as he has to enter the tournament to retain his title, with six first round matches leading to the winners competing in a big 6 man elimination match to decide the winner. This years tournament was a whole heap of fun. Of the opening round matches, four were perfectly fine (Justin Gabriel vs Robbie X, Matt Sydal vs El Ligero, Will Ospreay vs Martin Kirby and Kenny King vs Jimmy Havoc), and two were really fun. The opener was Pete Dunne vs the Amazing Red, and it was the best of the first round matches. Had no idea what shape Red would be in, but he looked in pretty much the same shape as his last TNA run and put in a good shift here. Dunne has really upped his game in the last 18 months to become one of the most consistent guys in the UK - he had a match against Zack Sabre Jr last January that was the best match I've seen in person - and he's worked hard to get into shape after developing a bit of a potbelly last summer. Marty Scurll vs Flash Morgan Webster was a fun sneaky heel vs underdog clash, with Scurll trying all manner of heel chicanery to put Webster away before getting caught with a flash pin. Last time I saw Scurll was a few years back in his "Party Marty" gimmick, but he's now grown a beard, put his hair in a topknot and re-invented himself as a villain, complete with an umbrella as foreign object and a load of nasty arm work and digit manipulation. The main event 6 way was really fun. You had 5 faces (Ospreay, X, Ligero, Red and Webster) and one heel (Havoc), but it worked really well with the faces all busting out highflying moves and Havoc trying his best to just batter them out of midair. He even broke up a tower of doom spot by kicking the guy doing the powerbomb in the gut, and shoving all the other off the ropes to the floor - massive heel heat for that. He ended up eliminating four guys by himself, until he was only left with El Ligero. Ligero is one of the hardest working guys in the country - on Saturday alone he worked 4 matches due to appearing twice on another show in the afternoon - but 12 months ago he was a guy I was really getting fed up with, as it felt like he was getting to the point of just going through the motions. In the past six months though, he's been back to his best. I've seen him working goofy comedy bouts with local academy workers, work streetfights and brawls against much larger guys and put on really gripping matches against other high-flyers in the UK, and it feels like the old spark is back. That he's so beloved by the fans here, and Havoc is so hated, made the closing moments of this match incredibly heated. Havoc came THIS close to winning via countout after hurling Ligero through the merch stand, and there was an audible sense of relief in the crowd when Ligero got in at the last second. When Ligero picked up the win with a tornado DDT, the crowd went nuts, and a massive feel good ending to a day of good wrestling makes the whole day feel worth it.

He's finished chemo now, and is in training for his comeback. I saw him at a show a month ago, and he was able to get physically involved - nothing serious, just superkicking a heel - and he's talked about hopefully returning to the ring before the end of the year. He's also submitted a video for Tough Enough.