BigBadMick Posted April 29, 2014 Report Share Posted April 29, 2014 Hi everyone. I wanted to get people's thoughts on Power Slam magazine. If you've no idea what I'm talking about, perhaps a few words by way of intro would help. Power Slam is a UK based magazine, covering mainly US and Japan wrestling. It's been around since the summer of 1994. Every December they run a PS 50 - Top wrestlers for the previous 12 months. I've been lurking on this board for over a year, and can't remember seeing any mention of the magazine. I think it got a quick mention on Chad and Parv's show about the UK scene. I would have thought it quite a relevant/prestigious mag, but perhaps I'm completely wrong? Thoughts anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted April 29, 2014 Report Share Posted April 29, 2014 Every now and again, it'll have an article by someone who we know and that I want to read. In general, I don't think its targeted well to a lot of the people here though. I'm glad the thing exists for the audience that would be interested in it and I'm sure it would have interested me a lot in 1999 or whenever I was deep into my teenager smarkiness, but I think there's a wide gap in viewpoints to the point that I'm not sure this is the best board to even hype up the thing on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted April 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2014 Thanks Matt. Could you elaborate on that a bit though. I can't remember who it was but there was a discussion about the type of fans that gather here very recently. I'm not clear about how Power Slam deviates from that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migs Posted April 29, 2014 Report Share Posted April 29, 2014 Matt - I absolutely loved it as a teenage smark in 2000 or so, even if it was always a little behind (UK magazines took time to get to NYC then). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantastic Posted April 29, 2014 Report Share Posted April 29, 2014 Power Slam is awesome. Been reading it since I was a kid, they get some decent interviews with the big names which is very surprising for an independent magazine. Fin Martin's reputation much carry some gravitas in wrestling circles. The annual PS 50 is always a great read, although there's often a lot of bias for Kurt Angle. Don't get me wrong, he's a great worker, but you cannot realistically put him up there currently with the likes of Tananhashi, Okada and Daniel Bryan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidebottom Posted April 29, 2014 Report Share Posted April 29, 2014 I've enjoyed reading it since 1996. I put Fin Martin up in the top 5 wrestling opinions I'm interested in hearing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted April 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2014 So I'm not completely insane? Thanks lads! I was thinking that the Angle/HBK bias wouldn't go down too well here. But other than that I couldn't see why it wasn't/isn't discussed more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted April 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2014 .....and they have a REALLY, REALLY hard time saying anything constructive about Cena as a worker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happ Hazzard Posted April 29, 2014 Report Share Posted April 29, 2014 The magazine has had it's day, some years ago. FSM is better in every conceivable way nowadays. Don't know how their sales compare, PS seems to be sold in more places than FSM plus it has 20 years behind it so it probably still sells more. But it's just such a negative publication nowadays, down on everything about the current mainstream wrestling scene. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 Used to love it. It was my bible before I got onto the internet and discovered newsletters. But I really dislike it now and have for at least ten years. I buy it every 6-8 months or so and nothing much ever changes. It is just a negative joyless publication. Very dated in how it tackles news and PPV recaps compared to Fighting Spirit Magazine. It has this smark POV that I find kind of dated kind of like that of the Live Audio Wrestling radio show you know like still thinking ROH is the pinnacle of Wrestling or something. I'll will give Fin Martin an immense amount of credit for keeping the publication going for so long and maintaining such a presence on newstands. The magazine is pretty much everywhere and has been that way for 20 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted May 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2014 I brought up the subject without really having thought about it a great deal. As I said I was more curious about it's lack of profile here generally than anything else. Thinking about it I can see why it could be considered behind the times - the best articles tend to be historical like their series on the WWWF/WWF/WWE title last year, and there's a definite fondness for yesteryear in their history of PPV recaps. But I still see it as relevant today, and thought it might be interesting to note the top 10 in the PS 50 from the last few years... 2013 (first to tenth) - Okada, Tanahashi, Bryan, Nakamura, Ishii, Orton, Punk, Prince Devitt, Shibata, Ibushi 2012 - Tanahashi, Aries, Punk, Okada, Devitt, Bryan, CIMA, Naito, Steen, Styles 2011 - Tanahashi, Orton, Davey Richards, Devitt, Shingo Takagi, Christian, Angle, Punk, Ibushi, Takashi Sugiura 2010 - Angle, Davey Richards, Tanahashi, Devitt, Sugiura, Takagi, Go Shiozaki, Marafuji, Sabin, Seth Rollins (Tyler Black in RoH) 2009 - Mysterio, Kenta, Tanahashi, Davey Richards, Styles, Punk, Orton, Danielson, Angle, Jeff Hardy Thinking about it, some of them might be problematic here...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaymeFuture Posted May 19, 2014 Report Share Posted May 19, 2014 I bought Issue 3 as a kid and loved it, and bought it consistently for about 7 years. Up until I discovered the internet and Dave Meltzer and never really went back to Power Slam. I liked PS a lot in its time, it definitely had its place as a happy medium to the real story of wrestling before the Observer was known to me, but whenever I skimread a copy these days, I really don't think too much of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted June 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2014 Ok, I haven't completely given up on this. Gotta defend this month's issue. Write ups on TNA Sacrifice, NJPW Dontaku, DG Dead or Alive and RoH/NJPW War of the Worlds that actually make me want to watch all four (or parts thereof at least). A really good interview with Fergal Devitt (interviews are one of PS's strongest suits in general). An appraisal of Bray Wyatt's career so far (all very positive and optimistic about his future). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Fin's total blinkered views on Cena can get a little tiresome. PowerSlam and its forerunner SuperStars Of Wrestling did to their credit have great photo's each month in the 90's courtesy of Wally Yamaguchi from Japan and George Tahinos from ECW. The magazine to me went downhill when they lost Rob Butcher and Lister as writers on a regular basis. PowerSlam was a gateway magazine for discovering none commercial tapes through tape traders and then Meltzer etc. For that, thanks Fin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Ok, I haven't completely given up on this. Gotta defend this month's issue. Write ups on TNA Sacrifice, NJPW Dontaku, DG Dead or Alive and RoH/NJPW War of the Worlds that actually make me want to watch all four (or parts thereof at least). A really good interview with Fergal Devitt (interviews are one of PS's strongest suits in general). An appraisal of Bray Wyatt's career so far (all very positive and optimistic about his future). Bought the magazine this weekend and I wasn't really impressed with it. Still all very squished. The coverage of the international shows was still fairly meagre FSM still covers that stuff in greater detail. Didn't win me over. But yeah the Devitt interview was fantastic. Revealed a shocking amount for someone who is normally so closed publicly. I think he was extra forthcoming due his respect for the magazine as an institution and the thing he would read in class when in school back in the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Any magazine that has Bix, Mookie and Magnus writing for them has to be the winner. Sorry PS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted June 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Any magazine that has Bix, Mookie and Magnus writing for them has to be the winner. Sorry PS. Funny you should mention that, I've taken out a subscription to FSM. Let battle commence.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted June 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Fin's total blinkered views on Cena can get a little tiresome. PowerSlam and its forerunner SuperStars Of Wrestling did to their credit have great photo's each month in the 90's courtesy of Wally Yamaguchi from Japan and George Tahinos from ECW. The magazine to me went downhill when they lost Rob Butcher and Lister as writers on a regular basis. PowerSlam was a gateway magazine for discovering none commercial tapes through tape traders and then Meltzer etc. For that, thanks Fin. Yeah, all those reasons why I started reading it and getting into tape trading in 94 - 95. I was a big Rob Butcher fan too. It was never a gateway for me though - there were some things I found objectionable in the early noughties but not to the extent of ruining the mag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted July 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Ok, got my first issue of FSM. Haven't read it all yet, but on first impressions it's a bit lightweight. Not much analysis in the PPV reviews or tv roundup at all. This may sound extreme, but in film mag terms it's Empire to Power Slam's Sight & Sound. I hope my opinion of it improves - I've taken a 12 month subscription based on recommendations on this thread.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Ok, got my first issue of FSM. Haven't read it all yet, but on first impressions it's a bit lightweight. Not much analysis in the PPV reviews or tv roundup at all. This may sound extreme, but in film mag terms it's Empire to Power Slam's Sight & Sound. I hope my opinion of it improves - I've taken a 12 month subscription based on recommendations on this thread.... ...you're judging it based on the PPV reviews and TV roundup? Dude...no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 This may sound extreme, but in film mag terms it's Empire to Power Slam's Sight & Sound. That is extreme. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Powerslam is more a Total Film Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted July 14, 2014 Report Share Posted July 14, 2014 Inside the brand new issue of the magazine. Finlay Martin says that this is the final edition of the magazine: Have had a love/hate or combative relationship with the magazine the last ten years. But it was a real outlet for UK/Irish fanaticism and for those who went further - wrestlers extending to WWE/TNA stars to managers, promoters, writers, podcasters, other publishers etc. At launch it's approach and design was really revolution. Helped spread the word about ECW, Puro and Lucha in particular. Also gave me something to read in class during secondary school. The loss of any long standing publication and a small business sucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted July 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2014 Fuuuccccckkkkkkkkk............... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted July 14, 2014 Report Share Posted July 14, 2014 Relative to this forum it gave John Lister his first real platform to write about Wrestling. Greg Lambert put up the cover of the first magazine: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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