Cox Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 For the past year or so, I've been helping out a friend of mine with some wrestling shows his cousin has put together in the bumblefuck southern New Jersey area for a promotion called the UWC. First it was just helping to organize the shows, then I started recording the shows for YouTube on my iPhone so the wrestlers could watch their matches, and then I was encouraged to add commentary to the matches with another friend (who is the commissioner of the UWC). Now I've decided to post a weekly episodic-type wrestling show on YouTube. I'll be honest, I have been hesitant to post anything about this, partly because I'm reluctant to blatantly plug my own stuff, and partly because my own performances leave a lot to be desired, but I'd like to see if I can get more feedback for these now that we're going to do a weekly deal, so I figured I would post something about it. Our first show features two matches that I really liked from our February show, which is why I wanted to work them into the first episode. Geoffrey Bravo (with manager Joe Rules) takes on Andd Bivians and Rudo the Heel and Silly Billy take on Mighty Mo and Professor Milo Shizo, the Secret Society. Any feedback that is left is greatly appreciated. I'll freely admit that I am far from a natural on camera, but I am hoping I will get better as the shows continue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted February 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2011 Episode #2 is up if anybody is interested. New episodes will be uploaded every Wednesday going forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kidd Posted February 24, 2011 Report Share Posted February 24, 2011 I just so happen to live in Bumblefuck, South Jersey. Where do you guys do you r shows? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted February 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2011 Mostly in the Pemberton/Browns Mills area, we run monthly shows at the Browns Mills Fire House and occasional shows at Burlington County College in Pemberton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kronos Posted February 24, 2011 Report Share Posted February 24, 2011 Sampled the first show. On initial glance, looks like some nice humor/fun tone in the vein of a Chikara or PWG -- is one of your guys actually called Rudo the Heel? Not sure whether to laugh or cringe. You got kids involved, chanting and cheering, which is pleasant. And your camera work is gorgeous, especially considering it was shot with an iPhone. I am looking forward to checking out the shows, and I will write comments on youtube as RorkesDrft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted February 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2011 Yeah, and strangely, Rudo the Heel is a comedy babyface. I don't know that UWC is aiming to be as ironic as Chikara or PWG, we're more of a straight-up territorial indy-type promotion. The color commentator and I do liberally rip off Monsoon and Heenan, and I've been known to rip off David Crockett as well. Still trying to feel our way through how to be a good commentary team, but this was only our second show doing commentary so I'm sure we'll get better and more at ease as the shows progress. The good thing about the iPhone is that the iPhone 4 can record in HD, which is one of the reasons I decided to start using it for these shows. I mean, how many indy shows can say they broadcast in 720p HD? Even if it is for the web, that's still pretty good, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kronos Posted February 24, 2011 Report Share Posted February 24, 2011 Yeah, and strangely, Rudo the Heel is a comedy babyface. I don't know that UWC is aiming to be as ironic as Chikara or PWG, we're more of a straight-up territorial indy-type promotion. I didn't mean it as an insult. Plus, one of the bits I caught when sampling was a promo from Billy and Rudo that felt a lot like a Chikara back-stage promo. (I think it opens vol 2) That's all I meant. I like a bit of humor mixed with straight rasslin. I got tired of ROH because it was all so seeeerrrrriiiiiioooooouuuuuuussssss all the time. I love me some current NOAH, NJPW, and BattlArts, too, though, alongside my DDT and Chikara -- so what do I know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted February 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2011 I didn't take that as an insult at all, I would love if UWC was as big as either of those groups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodySave Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 Haven't checked out episode 2 yet, but I got a kick out of episode 1. I've never seen Andy Bivians before and he impressed me the most. And that's extraordinarily good quality for a cell phone camera. I've had great success with a little $150 Kodak Zi8 myself and it has a mic input. I would suggest finding a way to use even a handheld mic for the hosting and promos if possible. Cox, your show reminds me a lot of how we used to do our webshow for 3XW, with the hosting segments in-between match/promo clips. We recently went away from doing the hosting clips ourselves because a.) it always looked more bushleague than anything else on our show and b.) it involved having to get together at a separate time from the day of shows, which is actually more of a pain in the ass than you would think when you consider everyone works full time and lives in different towns. Taking out the hosting segment AND recording commentary live during the show sped up production time for our webshow and DVDs considerably. There's always amateur-ish stuff that creeps into the shows though - the promo room background not filling the wall for example. Even though it doesn't appear in frame on the camera when filming, it's obviously apparent on a computer screen and we need to get better at accounting for that. Here's our most recent 3XW webshow, Outside the Ring. That's me conducting interviews and saying "wait a minute" waaaay too damn much on commentary: As for my own commentary style, I always aim to be a poor man's Lance Russell due to a combo of having a voice that doesn't lend to Jim Ross-esque excitement and the fact that Lance is awesome at adding small details to the action. I work in "wild and woolly one" at least once a show thanks to the Memphis DVD set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted February 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 Great stuff. You have some great production values for your TV and a lot of good wrestlers. I definitely feel you about taping the intro segments. We tried taping them after the show, but after recording promos in the back and then calling a 2+ hour wrestling show, our energy level was low, and besides the promoters were trying to clean up afterward. I wound up going to my friend's house last weekend to tape them, and I can see it getting tiring every month, having to figure out a time and a place to record intros, but editing on the iPhone as opposed to actual editing limits our options. The iPhone 4 has a really powerful camera. I'm impressed with what we've been able to record on it, producing great 720p HD videos. Unfortunately, being a phone, finding a good microphone has been a challenge, as it doesn't really have a mic in output. Short of speaking louder (and really, I think I could definitely stand to project better during these segments) or finding a microphone that would work with the iPhone, our options are limited (though I have looked and found a few options, but no luck on a handheld mic solutioin yet). Still, considering what we have to work with, I'm pretty happy with what we've produced so far, but I'm always looking for ways to improve and appreciate the feedback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.L.L. Posted March 18, 2011 Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 Cox hipped me to UWC a while back, as I've mentioned a few times on Segunda Caida, and it has been a pretty darn enjoyable super low-rent indy for the most part. I have fallen behind lately (sorry, Cox), but I'm trying to play catch-up now. I caught the second episode, and it was a step up from the first, where I liked the format, but the angles and in-ring stuff fell flat for me. Here, neither match was blow away great, but they were both pretty solid. Twiggy is a guy some of you might remember as an unremarkable indy flier from the late-90's/early-2000's, but he has really nicely matured into an old-school territorial babyface. Big Rig is one half of CB4, a decent enough heel tag team that has the troublesome problem of constantly trying to draw face heat. But Big Rig did a pretty good job of curtailing that here, and I could kinda see them transmuting their attempts at getting face pops into arrogant heel bluster if they put their minds to it. All in all, a fun show, and I'll be checking out episode 3 shortly. And yeah, Cox is kinda stiff in front of the camera. A bit Zach Galifinakas like, except Zach is intentionally awkward. But I've cyber-hung with him for a while now, and I know he's a cool dude who knows how to get a point across, so I think he might be able to grow out of his initial awkwardness. They've got a fun, enthusiastic crowd, a pair of good hands on top with Twiggy and Biggie Biggs, a great heel manager in the Wallace Shawn-esque Joe Rules, some diamonds in the rough like Geoffrey Bravo, The Secret Society, Andd Bivians, The Unholy Alliance, Blackhearted Justice, and to a lesser extent the wildly inconsistent Peter Cross, and they also do the cool AAA/CHIKARA thing of giving their lesser workers fun, crowd-pleasing gimmicks like The Short Bus Express, The Big Unit, Taylor Nicole Rules, and the Staten Island Wrecking Crew, and even some of those guys feel like they might have hidden depths as workers. In the best of all possible worlds, they get a bit more exposure, get noticed by JAPW, and work out a talent-sharing deal that lets some of these guys get a bit more polish from working with a more talented (and less inhibited) roster. In any case, they've definitely shown improvement even in the short time that I've been actively following them, so I look forward to seeing where they go next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted March 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Thanks SLL. You've been a big help to the UWC since we started putting these videos up on YouTube, and as you're well aware, we've used some of your ideas on our shows. Also appreciated you giving us a Workrate Report, even if it wasn't totally positive, though it's not like the positive reviews we received from Babbysack and from 1wrestling.com helped us sell a single DVD... I think we picked a bad month to start the TV, as I'd call February one of our weaker shows as far as in-ring. I mean, I didn't think it was awful, but we've definitely had better months wrestling-wise. Twiggy/Big Rig, for example, wasn't quite as good as it could have been, as Twiggy had his bell rung the week before at a show (promoted by UWC wrestler Dave Patera) so he didn't want to take any bumps, and Big Rig had an issue and couldn't take a whole lot of bumps himself, so it was almost a contest to see how they could get through a big man/little man match without a single bump, and while they pulled it off despite the limitations, it wasn't quite as good as it could have been. That said, I thought our March show really came off well, and think weeks 5-10 of TV will be more effective. As for my own performances, I'm trying to work on being less stiff. Even if that consists of chugging an energy drink before we start filming and making sure I smile more during our stand-ups, I'm trying to find ways to be more comfortable on camera. I have the same problems Will Ferrell's character had in Talladega Nights, where I'm not sure what to do with my hands, and I even get bothered watching my hands on camera, so that's a problem. But I'm working on it, and hopefully doing this every month and watching my performances improve helps me gain confidence and improve even more. That said, the commissioner (and my broadcast partner) got a really good dig on week 5's show comparing me to debuting UWC wrestler Shockwave the Robot. For those interested, here are weeks 3-5: And a UWC Championship Wrestling Extra...Win a Date With Joe Rules! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted March 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Oh, and as an FYI SLL, we put Peter Cross in the Secret Society as the masked "Hysterico Diablo," since we're unsure of Fierce Fuego's availability moving forward, so you can look for him there on future shows. Also gives us the possibility of doing something with him at some point if we ever unmasked him, since we had the thing where Milo Shizo turned on him a few months back when they formed the Secret Society. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Good stuff, man. Hell, if I was still living in Waretown, NJ I'd be at these shows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.L.L. Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Oh, and as an FYI SLL, we put Peter Cross in the Secret Society as the masked "Hysterico Diablo," since we're unsure of Fierce Fuego's availability moving forward, so you can look for him there on future shows. Also gives us the possibility of doing something with him at some point if we ever unmasked him, since we had the thing where Milo Shizo turned on him a few months back when they formed the Secret Society. Darn, I was really starting to dig Fierce Fuego as the workhorse of Secret Society. Felt like the one guy in the group stiff enough to go toe-to-toe with the Unholy Alliance. Still, I know the roster was starting to get kinda crowded, and better to put a hood on Cross than bring back *shudder* Mori Guana. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted March 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2011 Guana just started with Chikara as "Kobald," so I don't think he's coming back for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted March 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 I put together this music video from our show last night in Pemberton. I'm probably not going to air this stuff on "TV" until the summer (we stop running shows after June) so I thought I would use the footage now to put together a little promo video for what fans get to see at a UWC show. Check it out and let me know what you think - it's the first time I've ever put together a video like this, and I have to say I'm pretty satisfied with the end result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodySave Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 I put together this music video from our show last night in Pemberton. I'm probably not going to air this stuff on "TV" until the summer (we stop running shows after June) so I thought I would use the footage now to put together a little promo video for what fans get to see at a UWC show. Check it out and let me know what you think - it's the first time I've ever put together a video like this, and I have to say I'm pretty satisfied with the end result. Holy crap - who is the robot guy? He really stood out to me in this video. He definitely should get more exposure based on this and he really knows how to incorporate the "robotic-ness" into otherwise normal wrestling. Really great gear as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted March 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 That is Shockwave the Robot. He's an outside guy we brought in for this show to help draw a crowd, figuring he would be a good fit for our family-friendly audience. He's been getting a little more indy exposure of late, and he will be a participant in this year's Super 8 (I believe the first Super 8 not promoted by Kettner). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodySave Posted April 7, 2011 Report Share Posted April 7, 2011 Finally got around to watching most of episodes 3-5. I got a kick out of the Warhead vs. Legion match because that's the epitome of your local $10 indy big man match - you will never see two guys that look like that wrestling on national TV. What's Warhead's background - has he been wrestling for years or is he an older guy that decided to break into wrestling later in life? I was pretty impressed with Ryan Blackheart as well. And Dave Patera looks nothing like Ken Patera. By the way, we posted the newest episode of our 3XW a few days ago: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted April 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2011 Warhead is actually the promoter. He's been around for a long time, I want to say at least 15 years and maybe longer than that, but until UWC started running monthly again last year, I don't think he was working much, as UWC was running two shows a year and I don't think he takes a lot of non-UWC bookings. I enjoy working with him, he's a nice guy and is pretty open to ideas, as long as we keep the shows PG (they are pretty adamant about not doing any weapons shots or major heat angles with injuries, as they try to cater towards kids, thus Silly Billy is one of our featured wrestlers). Will definitely watch your show this week sometime and offer thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted April 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Episode 7: Episode 8: I really liked episode 8, and thought it was one of the best episodes we've had so far, so of course it's the lowest viewed of the eight. Go figure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted April 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2011 Episode 9: Episode 10: I was really satisfied with how both of these shows came off - episode 9, because I thought it was a pretty decent go-home show for our April 16th show, and episode 10, because I think the match and angle were strong and set up the Secret Society and the commissioner to have a good deal of heat moving forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.L.L. Posted May 4, 2011 Report Share Posted May 4, 2011 The Complete and Accurate UWC Championship Wrestling So I am finally getting a chance to catch up on this, and am also warming up for my own Complete and Accurate series over at Segunda Caida (subject TBA), and this feels like a pretty good way to work on both. I'm looking at this show-by-show rather than match-by-match, though obviously the matches are going to get talked about in the process. Otherwise, the format is the same, with every show being rated as EPIC, GREAT, FUN, and SKIPPABLE. So let's dive right in and see how my favorite poverty row indy is doing these days.... As a general rule, I don't watch TV shows in their first season. Most shows, even the really great ones, have some growing pains they need to work out, and I don't want to be turned off by a show because I didn't like it in it's formative stages, only to miss out when said show finds it voice later on. I mean, thank God I totally missed out on the first season of The Simpsons, because there's about 17 years of quality stuff that followed it that I might have overlooked otherwise. So I don't hold the fact the the first UWC Championship Wrestling show has some obvious kinks in it's system. Cox is at his very stiffest, opening angle with Silly Billy receiving a tepid beatdown from the Secret Scociety and Rudo the Heel making the save as a comedy spot wasn't the best way get things rolling, and the first match of the show was kind of a letdown. Still, lowered expectations does not a good show make. Geofrey Bravo is a guy with a lot of promise, and while I have had limited exposure to Andd Bivians, he strikes me as a guy I want to watch. Still, outside of Bravo's uber-nasty headbutts, this was not their best stuff. A six-minute match should not be worked as a "what will it take to put him away?" style bout. The Rudo vs. Secret Society handicap match was fine on it's own merits, but taken in the larger context of the show, Rudo's comedy antics feel like they should've been shelved for another day. And while Rudo's comedy is well-done and is his calling card, he's actually got a little bit more to him as a worker, and it feels like he could have pulled off a more serious match in light of his opponents taking out his partner earlier in the show, especially considering how capable his opponents are as heels. Looking at it in a vacuum, the match worked, but it should've been more, and this felt like the wrong foot to get off on. What I wrote on the previous page in case you already forgot: I caught the second episode, and it was a step up from the first, where I liked the format, but the angles and in-ring stuff fell flat for me. Here, neither match was blow away great, but they were both pretty solid. Twiggy is a guy some of you might remember as an unremarkable indy flier from the late-90's/early-2000's, but he has really nicely matured into an old-school territorial babyface. Big Rig is one half of CB4, a decent enough heel tag team that has the troublesome problem of constantly trying to draw face heat. But Big Rig did a pretty good job of curtailing that here, and I could kinda see them transmuting their attempts at getting face pops into arrogant heel bluster if they put their minds to it. All in all, a fun show, and I'll be checking out episode 3 shortly. Yeah, it took me a while to check out episode 3, but now that I have.... Biggie vs. Bubba was a nifty brawl. Glad to see that CB4 has finally started to fully embrace their heelishness, and their shit-talking is great ("I felt his arm break in my tummy!"). The babyface comeback felt inorganic and forced, and the DQ finish looked off to me, which seems to be a recurring theme with the screwjob finishes in UWC for some reason, but the post-match beatdown was really good, and overall, this worked. Also, while The Big Unit always kinda ran hot and cold with me, I am kinda digging Dave Patera's singles run. His heel schtick is plenty fun, and while Adam Aces never really looked that good to me, Patera ate all his stuff really well and had me thinking he might be worth something after all. Nothing essential, but definitely enjoyable. On paper, Blackhearted Justice vs. The Unholy Alliance looks like one of the best matches this company could put out. My expectations may have been a touch too lofty, and it didn't quite meet them, but it was still a strong match that I really enjoyed. This was face vs. face, so I shouldn't be surprised that the Unholies didn't just lay into BHJ, which is what I really wanted to see. Instead, it was mostly worked clean, with a lot of mat stuff at the beginning. I had not really seen these guys take it to the mat before, and while there are no Negro Navarros in this bunch, they looked pretty comfortable there. Ripper looked good as usual, and Blackheart got to belly-to-belly suplex a fat guy, which I always like to see. The screwjob finish really dragged it down, as it was one of the weirder-looking, harder to follow ones. Still, body of the match was really good. The post-match promo with the two teams trying to sort things out was done well, too. Blackheart is a guy who tends to come off as a natural heel on the mic, and I could see this setting up a heel turn for them, though he also plays FIP really well, and BHJ are really over as faces, so it probably wouldn't be a good idea. Still, as a guy who generally feels like a natural heel, I was impressed at how convincing he was apologizing to the Unholies for the way things work out. Bought him as an guy who's kinda arrogant when talking up himself and his partner, but is still a good guy at heart who wants to do things the right way. Honestly, out of everyone on the roster, he feels like the guy with the best shot at upward mobility in the wrestling world. We also had Taylor Nicole Rules vs. WSU mainstay Roxie Cotton, and even as a guy who tends to enjoy Taylor's matches more than I probably should, I was genuinely surprised at how much I liked this. It might just be that Cotton is the best "hand" that Taylor's been put up against, but Taylor is a decent brawler and a good babyface seller in her own right, and this didn't really feel like a carryjob so much as Roxie holding up her end of the bargain more than any other woman they've brought in to fight Taylor. Thought her cowardly heel stuff worked well, and her charging elbows to the corner were pretty choice. For her own part, Taylor's sidewalk slam - which she typically uses as a finisher - was her best looking one yet, though she actually finished with a Billy Goat's Curse. Didn't actully lift Roxie off of the mat, but it looked like she was crunching her lower back enough that it still made for a convincing finish. Joe Rules was aces in the corner as usual. The first four episodes were all taped at the same event, and on first glance, this actually felt like the match of the night, which I did not see coming. "Gee-off Bravo"....my kid brother has the same name, and he is also frequently referred to as "Gee-off" and "Geo" and what have you. It's all good fun, and I normally wouldn't complain, but if the plan is to build up Bravo as the top in-ring heel - which appears to be the case - not sure comedying up his ring name is a good idea. The match with Rudo the Heel wasn't bad, but it wasn't that good, either. Bravo's headbutts continue to rule the world, but otherwise, this was nothing special, and it's frustrating that Bravo's attempts to groom himself for stardom this year have instead left him 0-for-2 for good matches, and it's not like Bivians and Rudo are slouches or anything. I still think he can do it, but you can see he's not ready just yet. Elsewhere on the card, Legion vs. Warhead was pretty much exactly what their match at the Toys for Tots show should have been. Legion looked absolutely terrible the first time I saw him, but he has shown some genuine improvement since then, and by this point, he honestly feels like a perfectly acceptable pro wrestler. His elbowdrop and headbutts were nasty, and Warhead is way better at eating punishment than dishing it out, so booking him to get squashed the whole match and then pull out a fluke win after Legion's hubris got the better of him was definitely the way to go. I liked this, and it probably would've gotten the show to FUN or even GREAT if Rudo/Bravo was better. But as is, you can pass on this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted May 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 Thanks SLL. Always like reading your reviews, and I appreciate your feedback. We just ran Twiggy vs. Bravo this past week on UWC Championship Wrestling, and I think that's a Bravo match you'll like a bit more, as it really felt at the end of it, Bravo came out of the match with a lot more respect from the crowd after having a good match with Twiggy. Also, there was a Bivians/Bravo match at a UWC show that I didn't put up as television (but will probably air during the summer, as our last show until September is June 4th) that I think was pretty good, too. BTW, I think you'll like what I'm doing this summer, since I received what can only be called the UWC back catalog of footage from the promoter, so I have all sorts of Unholy Alliance matches that haven't been seen before that I'll be airing this summer, and I'm going to work with Lassiter and Ripper on a Best of the Unholy Alliance DVD this summer as well. As for that match, while I'm not surprised you liked it knowing how you feel about both teams, I can say that you probably liked it more than the wrestlers themselves - I'm sure you noticed the botched spot where Garrison landed on his head, on what he thought was a back bodydrop and what Unholy thought was supposed to be a flapjack. He actually went to the hospital after the match and it was a bit of a scary situation. Between that and the commissioner not getting a solid cue for where he had to be, which caused the interference to get mucked up some, both teams went to the back less than happy with their match. I like to think that I'm getting less stiff as we move forward. I wouldn't say I'm a natural actor or anything, but I'm slowly feeling more at ease with the camera on. Episode 11 (Orphan and Warhead vs Legion and Big Rig, Unholy Alliance vs Silly Billy and Rudo the Heel): Episode 12 (Bravo vs. Twiggy): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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