TonyPulis'Cap

While I might not go as high as you have on the match, in doing some WWE PPV catch up watching at the weekend I watched this and was really pleasantly surprised. The buildup/storyline might be dreadful and nonsensical and an easy FF when watching RAW, but taking that away, and viewing this as just a match in isolation I thought it was really good. As discussed, I loved the beatdown before the bell and then thought Finn showed great fire and intensity in his comebacks. Bray the character died for me years ago, but I've always enjoyed him in ring, as he works a very different, physical style to other workers and they worked the size dynamic nicely. I think since his return, while he hasn't much buzz or memorable feuds, Balor has been really good and should definitely be being uterlised more.

Biggest disappointment was not getting to see more of Drew Gulak's slides... Gulak is an absolute highlight for me each week - his delivery and comic timing on his lines are fantastic and genuinely make me laugh. I also thought his feud with Mustafa Ali and the 2 out of 3 falls match they had a couple of months back was great. Excited now for the match they are building to with Tozawa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bftPCKrQfpA This is just a couple of weeks after the big British Uprising show and kept up the FWA’s momentum nicely. On the undercard there is not too many big stories to note, the biggest probably being Alex Shane and Ulf Herman beating the UK Pitbulls for the tag titles. Given the very bloody and intense feud that Shane and Herman get into with The Family that runs for pretty much all of 2003, that’s a big moment. We are in Walthamstow Town Hall, which is a fun venue (I’m biased for having worked there), and one I’m glad that Rev Pro is now running again. The main event is Fleisch putting the belt that he won at Uprising on the line for the first time, with Daniels a late addition to make it a three way. With Fleisch and Williams both being faces, the addition of Daniels means there is an antagonist which helps the structure. At the beginning he is content to sit out while Fleisch and Williams go at it. It’s interesting that the Low Ki/Daniels/Dragon three way from the first ROH show was at the beginning of that year, as Daniels again takes on the role of being the more heelish and looking to take shortcuts. This match is in no way up to that standard, but there is a similar story they are trying to tell. As you’d imagine for the time, the action is fast paced with some pretty spotty selling, but it’s always engaging and you could tell that the UK guys were really starting to look at the style being worked in ROH as well as the X Division in TNA for inspiration. At this time, both Jody and Doug had been across to the US to compete for ROH, with Williams getting a pretty decent push. Doug is largely presented as the most dangerous of the three, being the more powerful but with the technical base, and he is coming off an impressive year when he’s been able to cleanly defeat both Eddie Guerrero and two weeks before this, Jerry Lynn. For most of the FWA’s run he was presented as the ace of the company and I like how in this match Daniels is largely trying to avoid him, which also plays into the feud they were having in ROH at the same time. A criticism would be that Fleisch - given he had just won the title in the big feel good moment at the end of Uprising I - feels like a bit of an after thought at times, although it’s more a comment on his size rather than his ability, that both the other two look to target him. He also still gets in some hugely impressive moments such as the springboard shooting star press to the other guys on the outside. This leads to the key part of the match with him selling a knee injury when landing, to where officials take him to the back and say he can’t continue. This being wrestling of course he ignores their best advice and comes storming back. It’s a decent way of trying to not make him look too weak in losing the title so soon. As befitting his character, Daniels takes advantage of Fleisch being injured to pin him and win the title in a pretty shocking moment. At the time I think a lot of people thought that Daniels being added to the match was just a way of adding cache and in terms of ‘having a good match’ and no-one expected him to win, not least as he wouldn’t be a regular and given Jody had just had his big crowning moment two weeks before. Reading Greg Lambert’s book, Holy Grail, on this period, he says that it was a way of raising the prestige of the title and getting more international eye balls on the FWA, while booker Alex Shane was also working with ROH to get them over for a show in 2003. He also says that it was a move designed to be shocking to the FWA fanbase that was very much a hardcore ‘smark’ audience. Looking back, I think it was a good move – with the FWA not running weekly shows, they didn’t need the title defended on every show and it was smart to try and raise the international prestige of the title. It also meant that the next show at the end of 2002 was centred around finding a No. 1 contender with a round robin tournament. Finally, the storyline of the title being taken hostage by an American was pretty compelling, and crossed companies to being a part of an ROH angle with Doug Williams trying to get it back. Overall, this is a fun match, with lots of action, that wouldn’t look out of place on a 2002/2003 ROH show, although I think at this time, Doug in particular was still trying to find himself, as in 2003/04 he would utilise his technical skills more. At this point I think he (along with a lot of the roster) was trying to work a more high flying/spot heavy style to fit in with the vibe that the company was trying to move away from the more traditional British style that in 2002 was seen as outdated. (*** ¼)

In other posts on the site I’ve reviewed the main (and best) matches from the show, but just to touch briefly on some of the ones I haven’t mentioned, before we get to the main event… Zebra Kid vs Hade Vansen – this is for the All England Title. Zebra Kid is one of Paige’s older brothers while Vansen is known for being a guy that got a one week push to be an Undertaker Wrestlemania opponent before being mysteriously released the week after. This match is pretty nuts with no transitions to speak of, but all the moves they pull off, they throw themselves into 100% and the recklessness and chaotic nature of it actually makes for a pretty fun match. I’ve always enjoyed the work of Roy Knight (The Zebra Kid) and his brother Zack as they bring an air of chaos to their matches where a lack of polish actually helps them. UK Pitbulls vs The New Breed – this is for the FWA Tag Titles but isn’t really a match, more an angle. Before the match starts, future pirate Paul Burchill wipes out the New Breed who then get squashed by the Pitbulls who even by big man wrestling standards are absolutely huge. Will be interesting to chart the development of Burchill in the FWA, as at the time he was doing mind blowing stuff for a guy his size (although he was benefitting from being a ‘big’ guy in a UK scene where he stood out more). Robbie Brookside vs Drew McDonald – this is pretty boring with largely uninspiring brawling and lots of choking from McDonald. Brookside shows good fire, but it’s not a match where he gets to utilise his technical skills. You also feel that the crowd wasn’t very receptive to seeing these two veteran guys when everyone else on the card is working much more modern spot-orientated matches. Nikita vs Paul Travell – Nikita is the future Katie Lee Burchill, and actually someone that seemed to regress as she got more experience, as at this stage she looked really good, in terms of her execution of moves being crisp and being a great sympathetic babyface for the crowd to get behind. She’s always someone that had a great look – and her run in OVW is actually lots of fun – but for whatever reason it never seemed to click in ring in WWE on the main roster or in TNA. This is well worked in terms of Nikita being the underdog and getting in her hope spots, but maybe the match on the card that would go over better today given the prevalence of inter gender matches on the indy circuit. Ulf Herman vs Balls Mahoney – this is your standard ECW/hardcore/plunderfest with plenty of weapon shots and crowd brawling. Hard to really get invested in – even in 2002 this was tired – although both guys work hard and take some nasty bumps into tacks and with a barbwire baseball bat. At 20 mins it’s way too long but Ulf was a pretty important character in the FWA who became a cult favourite through his fire breathing entrance and copious amounts of swearing in his promos. Finally onto the main event, and a match that I actually found the most divisive and hard to nail down an opinion on. This is a ladder match, and going in the title was vacant due to a title change where Fleisch won the belt not being recognised. Most people probably know Jody – he was the rising star of the UK scene at the time and had won the King of England Tournament at Revival earlier in the year. Flash Barker is not as well known, and was a powerhouse guy with a really hard hitting style. Going into Uprising a key storyline for the year had been the rivalry between the ‘Old School’ who were veterans who didn’t like the new way the UK scene was going – and who Barker was representing – and younger guys like Jody, Jonny Storm and Alex Shane. I guess a bit like the New Blood/Millionaires Club feud from WCW but with the old guys as the heels in this case. It’s a good match up for the main event, with Fleisch being one of the guys the FWA wanted to build around, the linked Old School/New School feud to bring the heat and for being two British guys when there must have been the temptation to use one of the imports. The size difference and the way Jody sells Flash’s big moves like death also gives the match a natural storyline to follow for large parts with Barker absolutely brutalising him with some of the moves. In particular the suplex Fleisch takes on an upright guardrail had me wincing. I really enjoyed the intensity in the match and happily there’s little of the clichéd slow climbing, with the ladder – which takes a while to come into play – mainly being used as a weapon. On the downside however, and this is where I find it hard to rate a match that I enjoyed, higher, but at multiple times there are chances to go for the belt that aren’t taken in order to do big highspots. Until it gets right to the end there’s no urgency to actually climb to get the belt and you wonder if it might have worked better as a NO DQ match, where all the tables and chairs they do use could come into play, and allow them to work a more natural match around the sequences they were doing. Which leads onto the biggest and most famous spot of the match and arguably one of the most famous spots in BritWres history. This is where Jody vaults and springboards from the balcony at the York Hall into a moonsault to the floor below. It’s insane and perfectly hit and even now, having seen it dozens and dozens of times down the years still amazes me. However, it’s set up by Flesich going into the crowd to set up the ladder to climb up, while Barker follows him and stands there waiting. It’s such an amazing spot but the sad critic in me just wishes they could have found a more organic way of getting there. That really sums up my feelings for the match as a whole – there’s plenty of big bumps, excitement and drama, with some runs in that fit with the bigger companywide feud, but at times you get taken out of the moment by the big spots not feeling organic and people giving up the opportunity to go for the belt when they have clear openings. (*** ¼)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t260w0Z-qBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgy1hrQ1NDs You feel like if Twitter and gifs had been around in 2002 that this would be the sort of match that would engage some of the debate that came following Ricochet/Ospreay, although, it’s a match where for all the faults people might have with lack of selling and transitions, it's a match where both are always trying to win with less instances of posing and stand offs. Coming into this match, AJ was just starting to build his reputation having been the breakout name alongside Low Ki (who would come appear for the FWA the next year) of early TNA and also ROH. Jonny meanwhile, alongside Jody Fleisch, was very much the new hot thing on the UK scene. Over the years Jonny would become much more of a well rounded wrestler and much more proficient on the mat and with the traditional British style, however at this stage, he was most definitely go, go, go. While Jonny gets to showcase his flying, AJ dominates a lot of the match with his high impact style. Styles has always been a guy that to me that can wrestle ‘bigger than he is’, that is to say, he is able to compete with guys that are bigger than him to where he is not viewed as an underdog because of his ability to take it to them. Likewise, when he is up against other cruiserweight or X division guys, his vast arsenal of high impact and nasty looking moves as well as hard striking and kicks means he works really well on top. This match is no different – Jonny as an elastic and wiry competitor takes a lot of punishment that results in him eliciting a lot of sympathy from the crowd and gets them on his side even though many would instinctively want to cheer AJ with his cool moves and take no crap attitude. If you’ve seen a Jonny Storm or AJ Styles match from around this time then this has pretty much all of both of their greatest hits – rewind rana, moonsault DDT, wheelbarrow DDT, leapfrog over the guardrail into a super kick – but as with everyone that night, they hit everything pretty much flawlessly. Towards the end of the match there is a pretty unnecessary ref bump, which I assume was to help protect AJ who was losing as it gave him a visual pinfall, but looking at where the booking went, it did allow them to build a rematch the next year on the basis that AJ could legitimately say he had the match won. Looking at where their respective careers went, you can clearly tell that AJ was the more polished at this stage, with the more professional look, but the strength of the match is the way you can easily get behind the way it’s presented as a dream match between one of the US’ best young high flyers and one of the UK’s. (*** ½)

I’m going to be repeating myself here with the matches from Uprising I, but this is another match with a very early 2000s feel to it. This was one of the big selling points for the show and the main event of the first half. Doug was the UK’s premier technical guy at that point, in terms of someone that was blending the WOS style with a more modern/Japanese orientated move set and Jerry Lynn was really hot at this stage, given he was getting a lot of rave reviews for his work in TNA in the early days of the X Division plus he still had the ECW cache. The result is the fans chanting for Lynn before he’s even come out. The beginning of the match is worked like your classic Lynn/RVD opening sequences with lots of quick transitions into a stand off. It all looks quite dated now, but at the time, the crowd are lapping it up. It also shows that while Doug is the bigger more technical guy, he’s wrestled Jonny Storm and Jody Fleisch a lot and so is able to keep up with Lynn’s more fast paced/cruiserweight style. As the match progresses, Doug tries to slow things down and works in a number of submissions which is much more his strength, whereas Lynn is always looking to up the pace. Both have some big impact moves in their arsenal, and Doug continues to evolve his style by incorporating more suplexes and throws that are consistent with his judo background. There’s lots to enjoy in the match, although you never feel it properly escalates, with much more of an exhibition feel, even as they start to trade big moves as the match progresses. At this time the FWA had a ban on piledrivers but the commentators note that this has been waived for this match given that is Lynn’s finisher. In the end that catches Lynn out and he gets caught by Williams in a cradle, similar to how Doug defeated Eddie Guerrero at Revival and showing that his technical skills have been enough to defeat more high profile opponents. (***)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuV-lietd6k I’ll go into other matches in individual threads but first, a bit of the backstory on the event, where this match is the opener. I wrote about the importance of Revival in a reawakening of the UK wrestling scene at the beginning of the 2000s here: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/39613-doug-williams-vs-eddie-guerrero-fwa-revival-king-of-england-tournament-02092002/ British Uprising was the next important step. Revival had been relatively successful in terms of drawing around 2,000 fans and having the look and feel of a relatively big show, but hadn’t attracted the type of ratings for Bravo, the satellite channel it was broadcast on, to follow it up with a TV deal for the FWA, which was by now the leading UK promotion and that had essentially put on the show. Nevertheless there did seem to be a buzz about the UK scene for the first time in several years, and so the Uprising event was a chance to capitalise on that. Ultimately, the goal was British Uprising to be the big showcase event in the calendar for the company. As I'll chart that sadly wouldn’t happen long term, but the first Uprising show was a really excellent and exciting event that kept the momentum rolling from Revival. As will be discussed in most of the matches from the event I want to highlight, viewed today, it’s very much a show that is ‘of it’s time’ but, and speaking as someone that has watched this show multiple times during the years, I think it’s a really entertaining and fun show with a look and presentation that is pretty much on par with what the top UK promotions are doing now in terms of production. With a ramp, entrance, pyro and lighting, and being in the York Hall, which is a fantastic and historic venue, it all feels pretty big time, especially for 2002. I believe there were around 900 fans in attendance. This opening three way is for the No. 1 contendership to the All England Title which was the FWA’s secondary title. All three were young guys still in their first couple of years in the business and all three I think came through the FWA academy. When I say that the show is very much ‘of it’s time’ then this match is a classic example – it’s very 2002 indy wrestling, with lots of reversals, standoffs and choreographed spots. Your enjoyment of that style may vary, think late ECW early ROH/US indies, but everything they do is at a ridiculous pace and given how young they are and the pressure of being the first match, they hit pretty much everything spot on. There are a lot of three way spots in the match, which while somewhat contrived actually works for largely getting away from the tired trope of two guys in the ring and one guy on the outside. There’s some really impressive stuff they pull off. It is spot to spot to spot at times, but the action never stops and it’s a ton of fun, and it works as the perfect opener for getting the crowd really hot and invested in the show. James Tighe is the winner, which was definitely the right call as he was a guy I thought at the time had a lot of potential, although sadly it never quite happened for him. He had a good look and technical style and was presented as the heir to Doug Williams over the next couple of years, but the knock was that he didn’t have the charisma. That was probably a fair criticism, however when he turned heel a couple of years later I thought he was good in that role and it’s a shame that he seemingly fell out of the business before the boom of the last few years. A really fun match to check out (** ¾)

I'm not sure either, but think they toned it down between shows as they might have been sailing close to the wind. The first batch of shows was shown a few months ago and that was where they seemed to be trying to get across that Bobby Roode was coming from NXT without directly saying it, whereas on the last batch of shows which was just shown here at the weekend, they are mentioning them being in the WWE by way of accolades which I guess isn't against any sort of rules? They might also be helped by the fact that people like Mickie James, Bobby Roode, Eric Young, TJP all use the same names in WWE as they were doing here so less need for the old TNA classic of "we all know who that is, formerly (insert name) who used to be known as (insert name) in the WWE!" It's all just so odd. Like, it has Gallows and Anderson in their tag tournament, and yet you have the announcers - one of whom is Chael Sonnen - saying things like "didn't they hold the tag belts for a while" as if we are meant to think we are watching something in real time rather than something filmed two years ago.

Not sure whether it was best to post this in the GFW or TNA thread, which I think sums up a company with a thoroughly confused identity, but over here in the UK, as part of the deal to show Impact on Spike, they also show the monthly 'One Night Only' shows but thankfully without paying for them. Usually these shows are beyond horrendous but out of curiosity, when I saw they were running blocks of GFW Amped (the pilot shows they recorded in Vegas a couple of years ago) I thought I'd see what they look like. Overall, and if you were watching it weekly as was intended then it seems like it would have been a fairly decent, if somewhat uninspiring wrestling show. Certainly no worse than Impact. Because it's such a random collection of guys, it's filmed in a Vega casino with clearly lots of day trippers and it's all tournament matches without any real rivalries and back stories it all has a pretty unorganic and soulless feel to it, but then I guess, that's pretty much Impact most of the time. The matches themselves range from boring to solid but nothing was actively bad. The most enjoyable matches were the ones in what they were calling the Next Gen division which I guess was going to be their version of the X Division. TJ Perkins in particular looked good in all his showings. There are an absolute ton of video packages, which in the main are pretty good and filmed nicely, helping to flesh out a lot of the characters, which people on this board would know, but would help a casual viewer. However, while the vibe they were clearly going for in the packages is 'this is reality based' it's that really odd reality tv version of normal, where no-one appears natural and everyone talks in clichés and generic platitudes about how hard they are training and the sacrifices they have made over montages of them in the gym or walking moodily down corridors. The weirdest part of the shows though is the bizarre announcing which has clearly been re-recorded as it openly talks about the guys and girls on the show that are now in WWE/NXT. It's so odd to hear commentary on a 2015 Eric Young match while they are talking about him being the leader of Sanity, or that Bobby Roode is basically invading from NXT rather than TNA which is what I think was meant to be the storyline, or that TJP is looking to win the GFW Next Gen title to add to his resume of being the first CWC winner. It's just so odd.

There was a Smackdown, I want to say in 2002 that was Halloween themed with lots of fun stuff. All the backstage vignettes are at a fancy dress party which is pretty interesting for the fact that John Cena is dressed as Vanilla Ice, and I think it's the first on air appearance of his rapper gimmick. There's also a brilliant part where Matt Hardy in full V1.0 mood comes into the party playing his own entrance music on a stereo over his shoulder. In terms of matches, it's during the Smackdown Six era, so you get some fun stuff involving the Guerrero's, Edge, Angle and Benoit and there's also a pretty fun Matt Hardy/Tajiri match. The main event is Lesnar vs Mysterio in a match that only goes about 3/4 mins or so, but during that time is amazing and makes you want (or did if they were still in the condition they were in 2002) a longer match between them. Given it's 2002, you get a very much pre 'Women's Revolution' chocolate pudding bowl match between Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie, while it also features the bizarre segment where Steph and Bischoff make out which I don't think ever went anywhere(?). Anyway, something fun for everyone to enjoy!

Did a bit of a binge watch of the last few weeks of NXT over the weekend and really enjoying a lot of the things they are doing. It's clear from reading the comments since they debuted that some people here are not into Cole, O'Reilly and Fish but I like them collectively and think they've been booked well so far to where there's a bit of an edge and tension when they are around. When it comes to groups and stables in wrestling and anytime there is an 'invasion/takeover' angle of sorts, then if the group doing the invading or trying to take over conveys a sense of menace then that makes it much more effective. I liked the mixing of the UK guys into storylines as well, as opposed to them being isolated from those. The match with reDRagon and Moustache Mountain was lots of fun. Some other random observations: - loved the bit where Pete Dunne looked like he was coming in to help Wolfgang getting beaten down, only then to just make sure to grab his belt. - enjoyed the Ohno/Itami match with the nice call back on the low blow. - the shot of Cole, O'Reilly and Fish turning to be faced with Sanity was a great visual. - losing Asuka is obviously a massive blow, but it now gives a lot of the more unheralded names a chance to shine. Looking at the booking you would think that the other 3 in the Take Over 4way with Kairi Sane will be Ember Moon, Nikki Cross and Ruby Riot. - finally, the thing I really like about NXT is that in general they don't do the magic/invisible camera that has plagued WWE TV for near on 18 years. Some of the set ups can be a bit hokey, but they try to have confrontations occur when someone is doing an interview, recording something on their phone, something is happening in the background etc. so that there is a reason for the camera to be there. It works so much better.

This match has a lot of smoke and mirrors with it, given The Rock as the ref, Triple H, Angle and the Hardys all at ringside, but, considering that this is Steph's first real match, this is lots of fun, with her giving as good as she gets against Lita. There's lots of great moments with all the interactions of the guys at ringside, and the pop Lita gets when she wins the title is great. A lot of people crap on the period when Steph had the belt given she never defended it, but coming off the period of Ivory and Jackie having it and no-one caring, then all the terrible stuff with Miss Kitty and Harvey Whippleman and it being defended in pudding matches and swimming pools, putting it on Steph, at a time when everyone wanted to see her get her comeuppance was a really smart move and rehabilitated the title even though that sounds crazy. If Lita had just won it from say Jackie on a random Smackdown the reaction would never have been as big. The few real matches she's had over the years are clearly very cleverly agented and practiced beforehand but I'm always impressed when Steph actually steps into the ring, they are always matches that over deliver.

Arnold Furious is a really good reviewer that does star ratings with lots of stuff up on 411mania and then his own site called Rear View Reviews. I always used to enjoy JD Dunn's stuff, again over on 411mania, but I don't think he's posted anything for years. Really, there's plenty of great reviewers that use star ratings all over the match review section of PWO!

For more detail on what the King of England Tournament was see the link below to a write up of one of the semi finals between Doug Williams and Eddie Guerrero: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/39613-doug-williams-vs-eddie-guerrero-fwa-revival-king-of-england-tournament-02092002/ This is the final of the tournament. Doug had defeated Eddie Guerrero in the semi-final, while Jody had to get through Drew McDonald, which played into the overarching New School vs Old School storyline that was going on in the FWA at the time. In that match, Fleisch takes a beating from McDonald before winning so he's coming in selling his arm. At this point, and for almost all his run in the FWA, Doug is nominally a face, but always with an air of detachment, that suits his technical ring style. In this match, because of the storyline injury to Fleisch's arm and the size difference, he plays a more heelish role, looking to work the arm but also dominate with his size and suplexes. You can see the comfort and familiarity the two already have with each other with lots of smooth sequences and it's always good for a tournament when the best match of the night comes in the final. Jody is great at being a underdog and getting the crowd behind him, with Doug dominating large parts of the match. At this stage, Jody could always be somewhat hit or miss, but here he hits his most impressive moves like the springboard shooting star press and 720 DDT dead on. The SSP gets a great reaction, and was a pretty revolutionary move for the time. One of the criticisms of Doug is that he can sometimes be somewhat cold and clinical, but here he shows a good vicious side and really throws Fleisch around. There are two crazy bumps - one where Jody gets suplexed from one side of the ring to the other off the top rope (admittedly in the smaller FWA ring) and another where Doug powerbombs them both off the apron that was particularly nasty looking. The small size of the UK ring almost makes the rollup finish a little awkward, but it works really nicely, with the twin storyline that Doug got a bit cocky while Fleisch just survived following all the punishment he took. It also works as a little nod to the Bret/Bulldog finish to Summerslam 92 (*** 3/4)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3vGhJD-GXs For a bit of backstory, the Revival show in 2002 is a pretty big moment in British wrestling, as it was the start, along with British Uprising later in the year, of the initial revival (sorry about the pun) of a scene that was basically dead for the 1990s and that started an initial upswing for the industry in the UK that lasted until about 2005/06, when it slipped back into the doldrums for a few years until the renaissance that we've had over the last few years. The King of England Tournament was a one off show designed to showcase what British wrestling could achieve and came at a time when because of the hotness of the WWF(E) and coming off the Attitude era, wrestling was massive in the UK to where WWF programming had been on Channel 4 in 2000 which was a channel that every house in the country got. The popularity was such that there was a wrestling radio show on a station called talkSPORT and it was the two hosts Tommy Boyd and Alex Shane that came up with the idea of this show. The goal was trying to put British wrestling back into the mainstream and show that it could be a viable TV product, something which outside of the WOS show on ITV at New Year in 2016/17 still hasn't been achieved. For a much better write up of all the history check out Greg Lambert's excellent book, Holy Grail. The event was filmed at the Crystal Palace indoor arena which was a much bigger venue that any UK show was being held in at the time and it was shown on a cable channel called Bravo, which had been the UK home of ECW and WCW towards the end of their runs. Watching the footage back, the set up and presentation is obviously not as slick or well produced as a lot of shows you'll see today, but I think the production and attendance is pretty good considering the budget that was being worked with. The show was centered around a one night 8 man tournament to be crowned 'King of England' which is actually the format that I might have gone with for the WOS show last year. Most of the competitors were UK guys, with the more well known names being the trio that helped build the scene: Jonny Storm, Jody Fleisch and Doug Williams, along with veterans like Drew McDonald and Robbie Brookside, but also intriguingly Eddie Guerrero during his time away from the WWE. This match is one of the semi-finals. For the time shown (about 10 mins) this is fun, although you can tell there are a couple of rough edits for time constraints that are a little jarring. Doug was the most technically sound guy on the UK scene but you could sense some nerves in his performance as there are a couple of rough moments. but such is the talent of both guys that they are not harmful to the match. Some of those moments may also come from Eddie not being used to the small FWA ring that is being used. There's not a particularly strong story to the match, but it's fun watching Eddie use his technical wrestling when in there with someone so proficient in the UK style and so sound himself in Doug. Doug is able to use his power while you can tell Eddie is the more wily and experienced of the two. The end comes when Guerrero goes for a cradle and it's blocked by Williams for the pinfall. I think this works nicely, as it shows Doug's smarts and technical skills, but is also a finish that works for not looking like they are pushing the home town guy too hard considering the reputation/status of Eddie (***)

Seconding the recommendation for the podcast with Austin and Kendrick talking through the Flair/Steamboat match. You get lots if unique insight and Austin's enthusiasm is infectious - he's like a child on Christmas Day at some parts "look at this! now watch what Flair's going to do now!" A really fun listen, hope he does more.

I'll prefix this by saying I really enjoyed the tournament - lots of fun matches and liked most of the wrestlers involved, but think your point about all the pre-match interviews blending into one sometimes is pretty spot on. Obviously as a tournament goes on then stories can develop, but particularly at the beginning it did feel a little samey in terms of each person outlining their motivations and what they were bringing to the table. I'm largely a fan of when wrestling invokes aspects of 'real sports', but I think this also reminded me why - and you make the point well with Lucha Underground - storylines and angles remain so important in getting you to care about the competitors and why they are wrestling each other.

I'm not sure in the eyes of some fans if that makes him a face or a heel...

When the Brand Split first happened, I really enjoyed Smackdown. They seemed to make use of everyone on the roster well and the feuds all seemed personal and real without devolving into the whole 'worked shoot' territory, but this year the shows seems to have progressively fall off a cliff. I know it's not exactly a hot take, but moves like taking the title off AJ at the beginning of the year, losing The Miz who had a great run in 2016/early 2017 and then the awful Wyatt/Orton feud have slowly eroded what was previously a really fun show every week. This week was really poor in my eyes. There were some small bright spots - I always laugh at the Fashion Files segments, even though I think they are running out of steam, and I liked the re-debut of Shelton as Gable's tag partner in a WGTT v2.0 and I thought the delivery in the Shane/Owens segment was good, even if it's building to a match I don't really want to see, but the rest of the show was really boring and uninspired. The idea of AJ doing an open challenge every week should be fun, but he beat Tye Dillinger in less than a minute when that could've been a good match. While I liked the Jinder push in that it was elevating someone new, i do find him pretty dull in the ring and he has essentially cut the same promo on every Smackdown for the past four months. Orton in the main event scene also seems to suck the life out of everything around him as well. When Smackdown went live it initially was doing a lot of different things with the presentation that made it a really good show but it seems to have got stuck in a creative rut at the moment.

As shown by the positive reviews of some of the matches, Heatwave 2000 is a pretty fun show, with a hot crowd. The 4 way match between Tajiri/Psychosis/Little Guido/Mike Whipwreck is a good match as well. The problem, as shown by this match, was that while there was lots of fun, up and coming workers in the opening matches and the midcard, it was the played out Dreamer vs Credible storyline on top, which fans just weren't that into. There's a lot outside of the 'booking and storyline' stuff that killed ECW, but you do wonder what would have happened in terms of interest if some of the guys like Tajiri and Crazy that were seemingly forever stuck in their one position on the card with each other might have been able to interact more with the established 'names' in the main event and taken that style away from the plunder style and crowd brawling.

I couldn't agree more with this - NXT is everything that I want as a televised wrestling product. A breezy one hour watch each week, with usually one decent 10 minute match building to events that always deliver, even when people say they are flat going in. Even the style of video packages and recaps pulls me in more than the way over the top main roster ones.

Went to the War of the Worlds UK show in London a week or so ago, and as was the case for the same show last year I thought it was a really strong card. ROH doesn't seem to have much buzz at all, indeed, even on the UK tour I've heard stories that both the Liverpool and Edinburgh shows were patchy when it came to attendance and reception to the card, but at these York Hall shows in London you get the vibe of a popular, vibrant product. Maybe they should just come to London more regularly to do shows... I was also at the Rev Pro show in the same venue the night before, and ROH production has come on leaps and bounds - again, it might just be the venue, but with the lighting rig, video screens etc. it's a pretty good set up. Overall there was a lot of fun matches and pretty much everyone was over. In the opener, Ryan Smile did himself a lot of favours with a strong showing against Mark Briscoe, which was a continuation from the Rev Pro show where Smile teamed with Shane Strickland to take on the Briscoe's in a really good match. The KUSHIA vs. Titan TV Title match was absolutely fantastic and well worth going out of your way to see, and worked well enough to where there were a couple of legitimate nearfalls that had you thinking there could be a title change, especially given that title changed hands a couple of times on the same tour the year before. KUSHIDA is just so consistent with the amount of good performances he puts on. The 6 Man Tag Title match between Dalton Castle and The Boys and the masked trio of Liger, Mistico (no idea which one this is at this stage) and Delirious was huge amounts of fun with a nice mix of comedy and action and the crowd which was hot all night was lapping it up. The main event 10 man tag between the Bullet Club and Los Ingobernables was a huge amount of fun live, although I can accept it is the sort of match that would be pretty polarising. Given they were just coming off the G1, you could tell a few of the LIJ guys were taking it a bit easy (not that I'm blaming them) but there was more than enough action to keep people well engaged. With the Bucks, Scurll and Cody all being on the Bullet Club side there was always going to be a fair amount of 'schtick' but I don't feel it overstepped the mark to the detriment of the match. I will also say that the Bullet Club, and given hometown hero status, Scurll was unbelievably over. Whatever people think of them, they do seem to have tapped into some form of cultural zeitgeist. A really fun show, that even my wife was entertained by, I just wish that ROH could bottle some of the energy that they seem to have when they come over here and have it reflected in their weekly TV show, which while I usually enjoy can come off flat at times.

I hate that Mauro gives away every nearfall like the kick-out of the Eclipse by Asuka by shouting stuff like "we have a new champion" before or during the pinfall attempt. Though that is less his fault and more the general way how WWE announcing is done. Last night made me hate Mauro Ranallo more than I already hated him. I hate his stupid booming deep voice and I hate his stupid shouty announcing style. I hate him using a bunch of Hip Hop references on the show last night, like "if you don't know, now you know" or talking about Tupac. Hey Mauro, you're a pudgy middle aged white guy with a bad haircut, not an MTV VJ from the 90's. Stop trying to be cool. I hate him for trying to shoehorn stupid rhyming schemes into his commentary, seeing how many words in a row he can use that start with the same letter, pretending he's goddamn Howard Cosell. Stop trying to get yourself over and just call the fucking match. Like Robert says, I hate the way he gives away nearfalls by hysterically proclaiming the match is over when we all know it isn't. Stop trying imitate Vince McMahon when he did play-by-play. I hate him trying to beat everybody over the head with how much he knows about Pro Wrestling, by trying to cram in as many references to other organizations and other wrestlers from the past, with his stupid "SHADES OF..." calls. Stop trying to impress the voters for the Observer awards. I hate him so much now, I'm starting to feel sympathy for poor JBL, who was picked on and victimized by all the cruel and heartless Ranallo fans. All JBL ever tried to do was help Mauro be a better announcer, and for that he became a victim of cyber-bullying and a ruthless online smear campaign. Every one of you who participated in the unwarranted character assassination on JBL should be ashamed of yourselves. I hate Mauro Ranallo and I hate that he's the voice of NXT. Hate hate hate hate hate. I think every one of your points is very valid, and I'm not going to really argue any of them...but I quite like Mauro. I like his enthusiasm and because I'm so conditioned to the soundbites and the automated way that all other WWE announcers talk, that anyone that sounds vaguely different is something that appeals to me. I would also say that these days JBL is awful, but I never really had a dog in that fight so don't want to start rehashing any of those arguments again. Basically, and it doesn't really make any sense, but I quite like Mauro (and for all the crap he got making mistakes on Smackdown, the supposedly more 'polished' Tom Phillips arguably makes more) while at the same time probably agreeing with most of your criticisms and fully appreciating all the things you hate about him! I also love Nigel McGuninness on commentary, and feel that he is able to be the best partner to guide JR to be good as well. Outside of the commentary - what a show - one of the best I've seen all year. The presentation and the effort of all involved was top notch, much more enjoyable than the very much bloated Summerslam. And while I love Asuka, I thought Ember Moon was absolutely tremendous in their match. Her facials and what she was putting into the match got me fully invested in her winning to the lovely point of where I was able to leave all smarky thoughts about 'has she been built up enough/is she the right choice to end Asuka's streak) at the door and wanted her to win so badly. Absolutely brilliant match.

Just watched last weeks ROH TV, and thought that it was a really good episode with largely the sole focus being on the title match between Cody and Christopher Daniels. That was the only match and they had multiple recaps and segments with buildup and I thought it worked really effectively - like the prematch stuff they have before a sporting contest. Whether people think Cody makes a good choice for champion I know is up for debate, but I liked his delivery in the packages and he comes across as a star compared to a lot of other guys on the roster. While I thought that the 'these comments were almost too controversial for broadcast' segment was a bit cheesy, given they weren't that extreme really, I've always been a sucker for that kind of presentation so I enjoyed it, and I thought it was some good character work from both Daniels and Kazarian. It was one of those cases of where you could really get behind what they were trying to say and you could see the justification in their frustrations at the way the crowd went from chanting "you deserve it" at Daniels when he won the title to booing him just a couple of months later as everyone thinks cheering for Cody/Bullet Club is the cool thing to do. A microcosm of the fickleness of modern day fans If it was me, I would've dropped the Silas Young/Jay Lethal angle and given the whole hour to the build up to, and then the title match itself, as I liked the generally single purpose of the show, and given it was a 2/3 falls match think it could've done with a bit more time down the stretch. The match itself was solid rather than great, but I enjoyed it, and thought both wove their characters well into how the match was laid out. It was also refreshing to see a 2/3 falls match end without the cliche deciding fall.

Watched some of the Table for 3's they've recently put up, and if I had to recommend one, then it would be the Nation of Domination reunion with Ron Simmons, Mark Henry and The Godfather. Unlike some of the trios they put together where it feels a bit forced, these guys clearly are great friends and it's a really enjoyable watch. Will try not to spoil it as well, but there's a fantastic moment involving gifts that harks back to a classic RAW moment from 1998 - great follow up gag 19(!) years in the making.