TonyPulis'Cap

Yep, that’s the PJ Black you know today from Lucha Underground and the artist formerly known as Justin Gabriel. When he was young and just starting out in the business he came over to the UK from South Africa and trained in the FWA Academy. He would compete on FWA Academy shows through most of 2004, but this is pretty much his only ‘main show’ appearance. I say main show, but this is about as close to a ‘house show’ as one existed for a company that was an indie wrestling promotion. 2004 was the biggest year in the FWA’s history and with its TV deal meant most shows had a higher profile (on a relative scale of course) running buildings that looked decent enough on screen. This event though – from a leisure centre – has a much less polished look, essentially being just for the live attendance. During the summer of 2004, Shane as the now firmly established No. 1 heel of the company would work a series of matches against smaller, young and often local-to-the-area-they-were-running competitors to work some fairly standard ‘big bully heel vs plucky underdog face’ matches. Another example would be his match against Aviv Mayan that I reviewed here: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/41663-alex-shane-vs-aviv-mayan-fwa-live-in-morecambe-04082004/ This match is worked in a very similar format, and if viewed back to back, would reveal a very similar, dare I say identical structure. The Mayan match is much the better of the two. At this stage – and it’s funny to say this given what Black would go on, and continues to do in his career – Mayan seemed a genuinely more impressive prospect with more polish and he is able to elicit a better reaction from the crowd, although to be fair that would have been because the audience were more familiar with him. It is not to say this match is bad – it tells a good simple story, and Black plays his role well – getting in some good hope spots, and aside from one slight slip on the top rope, exhibits some of the athleticism that he continues to showcase today, including a tope con hilo to the outside. Shane for his part mixes in some power moves with lots of pantomime heel spots such as the grabbing of the ropes and manipulating the ref. As he does in most of these matches Shane is prepared to show some ass and Black does get a visual pinfall at one stage. But I think the match would’ve been improved by Shane showing more of the vicious side that he did in the Mayan match and it being a few mins shorter – it tends to meander at times and they repeat sections. After a short flurry, Black misses a 450 splash - which interestingly would be his finisher in WWE - and Shane picks up the win with the One Night Stand. (** ½)

We are back at the Broxbourne Civic Hall, the FWA’s main home, and this is AJ’s first time back with the company for over a year. The month before this James Tighe had put in a great effort against another high profile import in Low Ki, but continuing the losing streak he’d been on, he was unable to get the win. This is another big test for him to try and snap that streak decisively given the calibre of opposition. AJ is coming in with the TNA X Division Title, although this is a non-title match up. Unlike the contest with Low Ki, which had far more grappling and submissions, this is much more all out action with lots of high impact exchanges. It starts respectfully until AJ busts Tighe open nastily when he breaks his nose on his trademark drop down, leap frog drop kick. While this would’ve obviously sucked for Tighe, the sight of his own blood works to fire him up and he takes it to AJ with some real aggression including turning him inside out with a German Suplex. Tighe is so fired up that he actually ends us shoving the ref out of the ring when he goes to make a break. Both men stop to help the ref back in, but this will play into the finish later. Tighe has been so impressive in this FWA re-watch, particularly with his versatility and his ability to change his style depending on his opponent. For the most part he is able to keep up with AJ’s explosiveness hitting some big moves of his own like an underhook powerbomb and a swinging sit down uranage. Styles though, recognising he is getting over powered by a man clearly desperate to get a win at all costs starts to go aerial where he has the advantage and connects with a tope con hilo to the outside, even more impressive considering the guardrails were in fairly tight. With both men throwing everything at one another, and getting increasingly reckless we get another inadvertent takedown of the ref with AJ absolutely wiping him out with a discuss close line. Unlike earlier however, when AJ goes to check on the ref on the outside, this time Tighe kicks the rope into his balls to a chorus of boos. Further showing his desperation Tighe then goes to the outside for a chair only for an attempt to use it getting reversed. Fired up by the low blow AJ smashes the chair into the mat just as the ref is stirring, who thinking that sound was him hitting Tighe disqualifies Styles to more boos. Tighe’s celebrating and shouting “a win is a win” is glorious. The ending is pretty cheap and I can see turning people off, but in the context of the story that Tighe was a desperate man trying to do anything to get a win and it building up to the rematch it works. It also works - whether this is intentional or not - as one thing that has been consistent since AJ started appearing in the FWA is him being on the end of poor officiating and unlucky decisions. Finally, the way the match unfolds allows Tighe’s frustrations to finally turn into him becoming a heel. At times, it breaks down into a bit too much ‘your turn, my turn’, but the broken nose and the intensity they hit each with helps to make it a compelling match. (*** ½)

We are in Brent Town Hall. Going into this match Doug Williams was over a year into his title reign as the British Heavyweight Champion, although the commentators note he has a partially torn rotator cuff. The result of this is that while FWA Title matches were contested under 2 out of 3 falls rules, the injury means that FWA management have only sanctioned this as a one fall contest. Following his rivalry with Hade Vansen over the All England Title, where there were a number of controversial finishes, Zebra Kid was given the title shot as recognition of being the longest reigning All England champion. He is accompanied to the ring for this match by his (and Paige’s) Dad Ricky Knight. Because of the injury he’s coming in with, Doug, uncharacteristically, goes for a fast start hitting a close line right at the opening bell. Usually Doug is a wrestler that likes to work his way into a match gradually but here he goes to blitz Zebra early. While Williams is the more accomplished technical wrestler, by getting into more of a frenzied match he’s played into Zebra’s hands. That’s his kind of match, and he is able to take control with his kicks and strikes as well as using a chair on the outside; using it to set Williams up on and deliver an elbow from the apron and a DDT on it. As the ace of the company, Williams is able to absorb a lot of punishment, and he starts to unload some of his big weapons, such as the bomb scare knee drop from the top and a double underhook suplex from the top rope to try and get out with his belt. With the injury he’s coming in with though, the commentators are playing up vulnerability in Williams due to the number of gruelling title defences he’s had and his schedule in Japan and the US, and Zebra’s frantic style often has the champion on the defensive. This leads into the final stretch where Williams is down and Zebra Kid looks like he is about to claim the title by going up for his Zebra Crossing elbow drop from the top rope…until he is turned on by his Dad who pushes him off the top rope allowing Williams – not aware of what’s happened – to hit the Emerald Flowsion to retain. This is a fun match and I enjoyed that it was a contest where Williams was forced into more of a frantic brawl which he had to survive. At this stage he was putting on a great run of title defences against a wide variety of different opponents, very similar to the ROH title reigns of Samoa Joe and Bryan Dainelson. The ending of the match was due to build up to a personal grudge match - probably at British Uprising III, between father and son. While the feud would involve many of the Knight family members, fuelled by Zebra's decision to wrestle full-time for the FWA instead of his father's promotion, World Association of Wrestling, outside the ring factors – Zebra Kid being jailed for nine months for drink-driving – meant the storyline which had a lot potential came to an abrupt halt only a few months later. (*** ¼)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXVpOjuh0K0 This is Low Ki’s return to the FWA after first appearing at the FWA/ROH show Frontiers of Honor around a year before this. He’s matched up here with James Tighe who was the break through wrestler of the year in the FWA in 2003, culminating in him main eventing British Uprising II for the FWA Title. Following that unsuccessful challenge he’d been in a slump and on a losing streak. This match feels very much like a Low Ki/Bryan Danielson match at times, but whereas those matches were much more even, Low Ki is able to dominate much more, especially in the opening stretches. There is some great counter wrestling at the beginning, with everything looking like a real struggle and several times Tighe is just able to escape Ki’s submissions by getting to the ropes, including a hanging Dragon Clutch that is applied over the top rope. As ever, Low Ki brings a real intensity to everything he does, and his kicks and chops are really vicious. Anytime that it looks like Tighe is getting the advantage, Ki’s striking ability is what can get him out of a hole – they are weapons that Tighe doesn’t have. Tighe does though have the slight power advantage, and he is able to catch Ki coming off the ropes into a great looking German Suplex before hitting a double underhook into a power bomb for a nearfall that the crowd really seemed to bite on. Once again though it’s Ki’s striking that is decisive; when Tighe, sensing he has the momentum goes for his Tighetanic finisher Ki hits some nasty looking knees to escape before hitting a rolling koppu kick to the back of the head. From there he transitions to the Dragon Clutch and the ref calls for the bell with Tighe passing out. This is an excellent match, almost on a par with the match that Tighe had with Doug Williams, which at this point in company history I think is the best match the FWA has had. This doesn’t have the nuances of that match, but the early grappling into the progression of high impact moves – without it ever becoming spot, spot, spot – means this is excellent. At a couple of moments, particularly when the match is starting to escalate that Tighe goes back to a chin lock that is slightly jarring, but that is nit picking. Tighe continued his losing streak, but looked anything but weak in this one, going toe to toe with one of the best on the independent scene at that time. (****)

Well, I always heard that was a Russo call because they needed someone who looked like Triple H from behind. Even if McMahon made that decision, it's not exactly a major vote of confidence. Not sure if I'm making it up, but wasn't Test pretty tight with Shane? They seemed to be linked together pretty often and I think I always remember reports that Shane would go to bat for him. Personally never minded Test, not much charisma - although he did play a great heel douchebag when he was with Stacy - if you go back and watch his run from the autumn to the end of 2001 as a sort of enforcer for the Alliance then there's some really good stuff. He even has a fairly decent match with Kane on PPV during that period.

NXT also has some corny stuff they do all the time. Usually it's a random wrestler being interviewed by 10 smartphones before either a wrestler walks in or something happens in the background. While I agree that sometimes they can be corny, I do like that in NXT they try a lot harder to give a reason for a camera to be there and then catching something in the background, rather than the 'magic camera' shot we've had for near on 20 years now on the main shows. Agreed that the GM having a completely unnatural phone call to an unidentified random is a terrible trope.

This x 100. No-one in the WWE talks like a human - they talk like robots that have been programmed with stock phrases and buzzwords.

His lawyer released a statement saying Enzo never knew about the accusation until it exploded on social media. Since it's from his lawyer, I'd believe it considering he could get in trouble if it was false. I'd give him a second chance. Dude was a big merch mover and entertaining enough to make people care about 205. He might have drawn a few more eyeballs to 205 Live but his title reign basically killed the show. Not only was he dreadful in the ring, which matters on a program and in a division that is essentially built on 'having good matches', he was also in practically every segment to where the entire show revolved around him. 205 Live has been a really good show since he's been gone.

Like many of us, I'll always be a WWF/WWE guy in terms of the promotion that acts as a gateway into wrestling in the first place, and from 2003-08 I was fully fledged fanboy for ROH, but for me, being in the UK it's the FWA all the way. I first got into them in 2002 around the time they did the Revival show that was on Bravo, which opened my eyes to the fact that there was actually British wrestling which a 17 year old me thought had died at the end of the 80s. I think my time really getting into them 2002-05 not coincidentally was the time I was at university and when I started to find out about indie wrestling in America and wrestling in Japan. At the time I loved the look and feel of the FWA shows - and while some of it is very much 'of it's time' and hasn't aged perfectly - as I've been going through my rewatch (as I've been chronicling in the match reviews here on PWO) there's still so much to love. I loved the gritty feel of it, and the effort the company put into the story lines and everyone's characters. They were real trailblazers for what the booming UK scene of today has become and so much of what works now came from their direction. Because of it I will always have soft spot for the holy trinity of the FWA - Doug Williams, Jody Fleisch and Jonny Storm - and still love to this day when they appear on UK shows and mix it up with the younger talent out there. I was at Rev Pro at the York Hall on Friday, and am all in on the domestic scene here, but so much of the legacy of the FWA runs through it, going right back to when they ran the York Hall for British Uprising back in 2002. Towards the end 2005/06 - I haven't got there in my rewatch yet, I'm still on the rise at the moment - the shows started to suffer from creative burnout and a lack of funding and company infrastructure but for that short peak, I was all in, so engaged by what they were doing and fully behind them in their quest to get mainstream attention. I love BritishWres today, and I think like many others of my age that do, that is the legacy of the FWA.

Johnny Kidd was having great matches as far back as 1981 with Johnny Saint and Steve Casey and then had an absolutely terrific tag team match in IPW:UK, teaming with Doug Williams against Chris Hero and James Mason in what was billed as his 'retirement' match in 2016 - so a nice 35 year time span there give or take a few years. Hell Johnny Kidd had a match against Mike Quackenbush in Chikara in 2017 so it might be 36 years, but I've not seen that one. No reason to suggest it wouldn't be great though.

There's this tangible sense of danger with him wrestling, but there's also this idea that we're cheating something too, in watching, that we're getting something we're not supposed to have. It all feels like it's running on borrowed time and like any match you watch could be the last. Maybe in two years that feeling will be gone, but for now, he'll simply can't be just another guy because no one else on the roster feels anything like that. WWE's created a world where no match ever feels important. Every Daniel Bryan match feels important right now. This reminds me a bit of when Shawn first came back in 2002 and the feeling I had when he was wrestling pretty sporadically up to I'd say post Mania against Jericho in 03. Of course he then would become a regular performer for years and years to come after, but for the first 9 months or so after the HHH match at Summerslam 02, you did think that he only had a small handful of matches left in him.

While I'm not a fan of a lot of modern WWE announcers and not sure how great a Byron Saxton would be even if he was allowed to freestyle more, you have to think that a large part of the issue is the rules and rigid format that all the announcers are constrained by. WWE have got to where they are in the industry by being on top of every detail and instilling a professionalism into everything, but at the same time, that means the TV product, and especially the announcing is so over produced, lacks any spontaneity and has little room for anyone's individual characteristics or personality to shine through. As some have already highlighted, there are so many tropes to WWE commentary now, with seemingly almost half their time spent shoehorning a wrestlers nickname into a sentence or cramming in the latest buzz words that they've been told to use. I've been a big fan of Nigel McGuinness since he's been on NXT and then 205 Live, actually because he doesn't come over as too polished and still says things and delivers analysis that are very unique to him and that you wouldn't normally hear on WWE TV. If he ever gets that promotion to say a RAW or a Smackdown then I'm sure it would only be about 6 months before he sounded exactly like a Tom Phillips. I've said it before, but for all his faults, Mauro at least sounds different to everyone else. You can find him very annoying - I happen to enjoy him - but at least he has a passion that comes through. I also thought his call of Almas/Gargano at Takeover was fantastic, being a crucial part of building the drama of that contest for me.

Thought the ending of Smackdown was tremendous, with Anderson taking the bullet for AJ, and then AJ in turn desperately trying to do the same for his mate but just not having the strength to do so, all while a maniacal serial killer type enjoys making him watch as he hurts him. Corey's line about the mob hurting you by going after your friends and loved ones was his best call in a while. On their review of the show on Post Wrestling, John and Wai likened Nakamura to a Yakuza boss hunting down his target by going after all his friends first, and I love it. Nakamura as the crazed heel is so far so good. Overall, while not having any particularly inspiring in ring stuff this week (which isn't always needed on a weekly TV show) I thought Smackdown was really good for the storytelling and segments building up matches.

I thought the semi's were OK (just about), but the final was dreadful. I have no idea what they were going for with the moonsault that missed but was meant to hit and then a rough as hell and awkward DDT which had the worst combination of looking terrible but also looking really dangerous that meant the ending of the match got no reaction. As I think others have mentioned, given they had spent two years building up Kelly Klein's undefeated streak, the fact it ended like that basically makes the whole streak null and void. Don't understand the booking of the tournament at all - from everything I can tell Sumie Sakai seems like a lovely person, but I always thought that using Emma to put over Deonna Purrazo in the final would've been the way to go. It also would've been a really good match probably!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ub707DChaU This was a pretty legendary match in the fairly short history of the FWA and one which was heavily built to as a hook for the new FWA TV show. Shane was now firmly the focal point of the promotion, transplanting his off screen role as the company’s managing Director onto TV and looking to take the company to the next level with him at it’s centre. In storyline terms, a guy looking like Jack Xavier – stocky and wrestling in a shirt and shorts, a Mick Foleyesque figure – was not what he wanted in the FWA. Reflecting the intensity of the feud, I love the beginning of the match as we jump right into it the action with Xavier jumping Shane from behind and hitting him with a sick chair shot that busts him open immediately. We also see some intelligent babyface work from Xavier with him taking out Shane’s security guards (including the future Martin Stone/Danny Burch) with chairshots and then leaping onto them and Shane with a somersault plancha. Xavier’s intensity in the early parts of the match are great and he battles Shane across the seating area on the stage and then hits a pretty mental looking tornado DDT from the stage to the floor! Last man standing matches can often get drawn out with lots of breaks in the flow, but the intensity and fire that both guys bring and the fact that the match doesn’t outstay it’s welcome at a shade under 15 mins means it doesn’t fall victim to that. Added to that, both guys take some massive bumps. After Xavier’s initial flurry, Shane is able to take control by hip tossing Xavier off the bleachers to the floor below and then hitting a series of sick chairshots to the head that are pretty hard to watch with 2018 eyes. Xavier played a great babyface and his facials (as well as also getting busted open himself) really get across his fighting spirit. Shane also plays his desperation well, explaining why he needs to up the violence by setting up a table on the outside, although in another brutal looking bump he ends up getting speared through the ropes by Xavier with both men crashing through it (think Edge vs Foley from Wrestlemania 21, only without the fire). Given all the punishment they’ve taken in the match, some might feel that Shane ultimately getting the win with his One Night Stand finisher might be underwhelming, but it works in the sense that both – especially Xavier – have taken a lot of abuse and the cumulative impact of that and the fact that Xavier looks to be getting to his feet before being taken out by a belt shot by All England Champion Hade Vansen. This is the start of an alliance and the transition of Xavier into a feud with Vansen, leaving Shane to continue his storylines with Doug Williams and Steve Corino. This is an excellent match that holds up to this day, with a great pace for a LMS match. Even in defeat, it was a match that also got Xavier over as a guy the fans were happy to rally behind. (****)

With 2004 seeing the introduction of the FWA’s new weekly TV show, it meant that matches from live events that were not a signature show and wouldn’t have often been part of a home video release were now being seen as part of TV tapings. It also meant much greater storyline development on smaller shows. This is a case in point. This match is from the Morecambe Dome, which before demolition was a great venue for wrestling. It’s domed roof kept in the atmosphere and it was a venue that translated well on camera. It was to become the Northern home of the FWA, which previously having been a Southern/London based promotion was trying in 2004 to become more or a national touring company. As we’ll explore in greater detail as we get into 2005, being a seaside town, it was also a venue that was home to much more of an ‘old school’ crowd with kids and families that were coming to see more traditional shows with clear good guys and bad guys. This was very different to the other audience that the FWA was largely catering to, the internet savvy ‘smark’ fan. On the one hand it leads to some really interesting shows with different atmospheres and a creativity in story lines to try and appeal to multiple audiences; in the long run however it was to produce a disconnect in the product that some of the more hardcore fans would eventually struggle to reconcile with. At this stage though in 2004, the momentum of the FWA was continuing to grow and they were putting on some of their strongest shows – the quality of this match reflects that. It’s a match that mixes so many classic wrestling storyline elements; David vs Goliath; cocky heel vs underdog; established name vs rookie and the result is a simple but highly effective match up. Shane was now the No. 1 heel in the company, and feuding with multiple different wrestlers simultaneously; Doug Williams, Steve Corino and Jack Xavier. Aviv Mayan was the star pupil from the FWA Academy who was now performing on the main cards for the company. In this match he plays his role as the fiery underdog to perfection. The opening exchanges see Shane stooging nicely, with Mayan not letting him into the ring until Shane is able to take control with a big boot. Because of his size and power, at any time it looks like Mayan is getting on top, Shane has the weapons to just cut him off with one move. Throughout the match Shane heels it up wonderfully, using the ropes for leverage and when the ref goes to check, raking the eyes, and given the make up of the crowd it works to really build the heat. He also sells Mayan’s fire by trying to get away from him through the crowd at one point, which gives Mayan the chance to score with a hurucanrana off a wall and onto the floor. Back in the ring, Mayan misses a moonsault and gets hit with a two handed choke power bomb for a good nearfall before the ref (a very young version of current Rev Pro promoter Andy Quildan) gets bumped. Shane goes for a chair but it rebounds on him when Jack Xavier comes in and puts Mayan on top for another good nearfall. I enjoyed that just as you thought Shane had survived the banana peel, he continues to get distracted by Xavier on the stage and gets rolled up for the shock defeat. This is a really fun little match – just classic wrestling storyline 101 and nothing over the top. It also worked nicely to build up the Shane vs Xavier Last Man Standing Match that was a couple of days after this. (*** ¼)

I’m a huge fan on the Indies when a storyline/rivalry crosses over different promotions. It adds a sense of realism and that there is a wrestling universe (rarely the WWE universe of course) where everything is interconnected. It enables you to feel wrestlers characteristics and motivations much more strongly. Over the past 15 years or so one of the best examples was the Raven vs CM Punk feud. I won’t go into too much of the detail, as I think there’s a fair amount of familiarity with it, but Punk’s straight edge lifestyle and Raven’s more ahem ‘colourful’ drug and alcohol past made them perfect opponents. Generally the FWA was decent at incorporating imports into storylines and not feeling throw away, however this match is fairly stand alone. Punk would complete a few more times over the coming tour this was a part of including challenging Doug Williams for the FWA Title, and Raven would return for a more prominent role in the company in 2005, but this feels mainly an attempt to tap into an over feud, between two talented ‘name’ guys to draw eyeballs. Before the match we see Punk walking through the building into the bar area and cutting an excellent promo on the vices of the fans (and Raven of course) and the poison they are putting into their bodies. It’s a really good promo and already shows the charisma and presence Punk had. The less said about how my fellow Brits come across during their time on screen… The version of the match that I’ve got access to is the version shown on the FWA’s weekly TV show on The Wrestling Channel so it’s fairly disjointed and cut up and it’s hard to get a sense of the real flow of the match and the story being told. Like a lot of their matches we get some stalling on the outside from Punk to begin with and then Raven getting on the mic to try and taunt him into losing his cool. Both look to try to take it to their type of match – Raven by trying to take it to the outside, while Punk wants to make it a more technical match. Having seen some of their ROH matches, this lacks the intensity of those contests and feels fairly paint by numbers – something which may have to do with the fact that I think their feud was starting to wind down. As mentioned, the ad breaks in the match and the clipping makes it hard to get a full sense of how good it is (and reflects my match grade), but what we get is still entertaining, carried by the rivalry and the charisma of the two. Pretty shockingly Punk ends up winning cleanly with the shining wizard following no cheating and/or no heel shenanigans. (** ½)

The biggest story coming out of British Uprising II was arguably Alex Shane turning heel on Ulf Herman. In 2004 he would become the No. 1 heel in the company, with them now being open on air about Shane being the Managing Director of the FWA alongside being an in-ring competitor. There is a pretty good promo that Shane cuts where he explains why he turned on Herman, sighting him – with his use of weapons and fire and his swearing in interviews - as a detriment to getting a TV deal. The Shane/Xavier rivalry and the associated segments involving Doug Williams and Steve Corino show how far in 2004 the FWA would use the internet and ‘shoot’ angles to push its storylines forward. This match for example stems from an interview Xavier gave in which he criticised the company for pushing him TOO much. Hmmm… but the gist was that he felt he was being shoved down people’s throats and that was the reason some fans had turned on him when he had beat Homicide at Uprising II. In response Shane said that he should be grateful for the ‘push’ and that the reason some of the fans were beginning to turn against him was because of his lack of drive and lack of fire. I’ve never been a fan of talking about ‘pushes’ and ‘getting over’ on wrestling TV and that whole ‘the rest of this stuff is fake, but this is REAL’ rubbish, but back in 2004, this appealed to a lot of fans, and hadn’t been done in the UK before. The FWA was a company appealing to a hardcore, internet fanbase, and did mean that you could feel genuine animosity and believability in a lot of the angles they were presenting. This is the storyline of the match, with Shane saying that Xavier needs to show fire and impress him, or risk losing his spot on the roster. I enjoyed him trying to fire him up with slaps and spitting at him, but then retreating when Xavier goes on the offence. As we’ll see in 2004, these too have good chemistry, with Shane using his size and playing the cocky bullying heel, and Xavier being the every man babyface able to take lots of punishment, however it’s clear that this match is setting the table for future matches down the line. They spend a lot of time brawling on the floor and up to the ramp way, and there’s not a huge amount to get invested in, but things pick up when Shane takes a really nasty looking tornado DDT off the apron and through a table. At that stage it looks like we might get a double count out, but Shane ends up winning the match with his feet on the ropes. It’s obviously a cheap finish, but I do like the storyline in terms of Shane running his mouth about Xavier not having the fire and needing to step up as he’s not on his level, but that when he does he has to resort to cheating to be able to defeat him, It’s a fairly standard match overall, but as I say, sets the table nicely for their last man standing rematch which was one of the most well regarded matches in the company’s history (***) As I’m yet to be able to find a copy of the match, for now I’m going to add a note on the Doug Williams vs Steve Corino match on this show for the FWA Title. As previously mentioned, this comes from another of the shoot style angles the FWA was running with; Corino coming out of the crowd unannounced interrupting a match earlier on in the show. Corino and Shane have a face to face confrontation around the fact that Shane wouldn’t book Corino on the FWA vs ROH show the year before and was blocking him from appearing. We then get an interruption from Doug Williams saying that Shane told him he could take the night off but that he wants to defend the title against Corino. In an interesting way of getting to that match, Williams says that if he doesn’t get to defend the title then the fans can sue Shane for false advertising, which as just as well, given the lack of funds in the FWA coffers… As I say, I haven’t been able to find the match outside of a highlight video to do a review, but it’s hard to imagine it not being pretty good, especially given the great matches Doug was regularly putting on at this stage. The bigger point is that this is the start of a 7-8 month build to Williams vs Shane.

After the slightly disappointing reception that British Uprising II received in October 2003, it incredibly took over five months for the FWA’s next show - New Frontiers. While that could’ve had a significant impact on the company’s momentum, it is arguable that across all metrics; attendances, visibility, storylines and in ring quality 2004 was the strongest year in the FWA’s history. However, by the time the year was out, the company was already on the path to its untimely demise. The biggest news going into 2004 was that the FWA had secured its first ever national TV deal, a weekly one hour slot on the newly established Wrestling Channel. For those outside the UK that may not be aware; The Wrestling Channel was available through pay TV on Sky and, at least initially, was a hardcore wrestling fans wet dream. The channel went after pretty much every bit of non WWE owned footage they could find and made deals with company’s across the world. This was something not even American’s had. On a random day, you could easily sit down for several hours watching the channel and take in a weekly TNA PPV, followed by an ROH event DVD spliced up for television, then action from the likes of New Japan, NOAH, CMLL, World of Sport, CZW, MLW, 3PW – a crazy line-up. As part of their line-up you also then had the FWA. This was seen as a big break for the FWA in their desire to break the mainstream. As noted, the need to create engaging television, meant the company creating more compelling storylines and much greater character development, and also saw the look of the on screen product become much more polished. However, as I’ll chart, this need to create a TV quality product would ultimately be one of the key reasons for the company’s demise; like many other wrestling companies before and since - the costs of filming TV ended up being more than the money coming in and after less than a year, their weekly show had been cancelled due to the lack of money to produce it. As Greg Lambert, who was part of the creative at the time, makes the comparison, there were many similarities between the FWA and The Wrestling Channel itself. Both were companies being pushed forward on a dream, but without the financial backing and infrastructure to support it. As many others in the wrestling industry have found, The Wrestling Channel wasn’t able to attract the amount of sponsors and advertisers it needed in order to cover the costs of the expensive footage it was acquiring. As the channel went on it was forced to cut down it’s hours it was on screen, drop some of the companies it was featuring and include more cheap old action movies to pad out the schedule, before it eventually ceased operation after around there years. But for now, back to March 2004, and the start of the biggest year in the FWA’s history. New Frontiers was to act as the company’s first TV taping. After the fire incident at British Uprising II, the company were now banned from the York Hall, so needed a new London venue, so we are in the old Brent Town Hall, which was just in the shadow of Wembley Stadium. Attendance was around 700 for this show. Despite not getting the big blow off with Jody Fleisch, Jonny Storm’s heel run in 2003 was one of the highlights of the company, with him getting great heat from the crowd. He is now very much locked into his persona here and great as the cocky, flashy Essex boy with the shit eating grin. His opponent X Dream is not someone I’m familiar with at all, but was a young German high flyer making his debut for the FWA here. A quick perusal of Cagematch reveals that he didn’t go on to make a significant name for himself in the business after this. As we’ll see, I believe he only returns for one more match in the FWA. Which is a shame as he performs very well in this match and gets over impressively with the crowd. He showcases some great high flying here, looking fairly well polished and honestly wouldn’t look that out of place in today’s X Division or on 205 Live. This match is a pure, unapologetic spotfest for most of it, but as you want in one of these matches, all the moves are hit cleanly and it sets a rapid pace. Storm brings the personality to the match, working in some tropes that maybe tired now – the crisscross into the chinlock for example – but that at the time get a really good reaction. He also tones down some of his own high flying to help get the crowd behind the guy they didn’t know coming in. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention that this is for Storm’s XPW European Title, still being reportedly carried around in a brief case and now a year and a half or so after that company going after business. If you are looking for nuance and psychology then this is probably not the match for you, but in terms of an all action, go-go-go contest, then there’s lots to enjoy. (*** ¼)

Intrigued to watch this match now, given the positivity of your review SLB, when compared with others I've heard/read that were far more negative. Always good to get a different range of opinions on something.

Would recommend his match with Drew Galloway for the title at Slammiversary 2016, then any of the matches from the series he had with Eddie Edwards, again in 2016. I think that year he also had a fun match with James Storm where he was trying to hold all the titles at once. Not quite sure about last year, but 2016 was a really strong year for him, he was pretty much the MVP of the company that year.

Could definitely get behind this. While I can see why you could get upset about her blocking the armbar a couple of times, in the end it just made it even more worthwhile when she did finally get caught with it, I thought it was a glorious ending, as Ronda sadistically just waited for Steph's fingers to be prised apart one by one while the look of sheer terror on Steph's face for what was about to happen was fantastic, Both women were incredible in this one. And Stephanie's always been a miles better performer than Shane.

I've also always quite liked No Way Jose. I think it is a valid point to say the character may not work on the main show, but he's fun, and deserves this chance. He'd work great in a tag team I think.

Hey, I'm an Ember supporter too, so lets make that two of us at least! I think some criticisms of the gimmick she had in NXT were fair - I'm not sure quite what they were really going for, and probably neither were they - but as a performer, she has consistently been really good in pretty much all her matches. I thought in particular her match with Asuka at Takeover Brooklyn was fantastic. I love her selling as well - in the matches against Asuka and the one with Shayna at Takeover Philadelphia. Over the last few months they had moved away quite a lot from the whole mysterious part of the character to where she was basically just a fiery babyface. For people that may not like her, I'd recommend watching the last NXT TV show of the year for 2017 which was more of an end of year review. There's a personality piece they do on her that was great and she comes across so well. I'm rooting for you Ember!

great line!