cheapshot Posted September 18, 2014 Report Share Posted September 18, 2014 Welcome to episode 6 after a long hiatus of Wrestling Eye Podcast! I am kindly joined today by former Powerslam Magazine writers Rob Butcher, John Lister and Greg Lambert Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/wrestlingeye/Episode_6.mp3 Direct link: http://wrestlingeye.libsyn.com/ We are talking about the hugely influential Powerslam Magazine that was published in the UK and beyond each month from 1994 until 2004. We talk about its history, influence, the PS50 and end of year awards, each writers memories of writing for the magazine at different points in its history, what Fin Martin was like to work for and so much more! This is a great show and a real insight in to the workings of Powerslam magazine over the years. Follow us on twitter @wrestlingeyepod Subscribe to the Wrestling Eye Podcast: iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/wrestling-eye-podcast/id793458725 Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wrestling-eye-podcast You can also find us on Blackberry Podcasts, Microsoft Podcasts and our website http://wrestingeye.libsyn.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Guitar Posted September 21, 2014 Report Share Posted September 21, 2014 Fantastic! Thank you for putting that together Alan. Powerslam was my bible from from 94 to 99. It opened up a whole new world of wrestling for me. I couldn't wait until the last Thursday in each month when my copy arrived in the post (in a plain brown envelope) and remember being fucking ecstatic when a new batch of tapes I ordered arrived. Rob must have got a few grand of me over the years. Listening to the podcast. I'm surprised by how small the hardcore fanbase in the UK was during those years.I thought it was much bigger. My one regret is that I never really made an effort to properly integrate myself into it. I bought the mag and tapes, but it never occurred to me to try and contact anyone to meet up at shows or cons. Regardless. That was a magical time period for me which Fin, Rob and John played a huge part of and I thank them dearly for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted September 21, 2014 Report Share Posted September 21, 2014 Fantastic! Thank you for putting that together Alan. Powerslam was my bible from from 94 to 99. It opened up a whole new world of wrestling for me. I couldn't wait until the last Thursday in each month when my copy arrived in the post (in a plain brown envelope) and remember being fucking ecstatic when a new batch of tapes I ordered arrived. Rob must have got a few grand of me over the years. Listening to the podcast. I'm surprised by how small the hardcore fanbase in the UK was during those years.I thought it was much bigger. My one regret is that I never really made an effort to properly integrate myself into it. I bought the mag and tapes, but it never occurred to me to try and contact anyone to meet up at shows or cons. Regardless. That was a magical time period for me which Fin, Rob and John played a huge part of and I thank them dearly for it. The same. Really enjoyed this, and a lovely little peak behind the curtain from 20 years ago. Loved getting Rob's updated tape trader sheets and planning my next 4 or 5 tapes based on his star ratings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Posted September 21, 2014 Report Share Posted September 21, 2014 Rob's Suckerpunch and tape lists influenced many a purchase of mine. Will give this a listen ASAP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted September 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2014 Thanks for the great response guys, really enjoyed doing this show! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted September 21, 2014 Report Share Posted September 21, 2014 Read a few Suckerpunch. It wasn't kayfabed, Rob should be proud of his writing there too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted September 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2014 (Credit: John Lister) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSR Posted September 25, 2014 Report Share Posted September 25, 2014 Really looking forward to giving this a listen. Rob is one of those guys who just seems to have disappeared from the scene despite probably many of us in the UK having purchased tapes from him in the the mid-90s. I'm sure I remember Lister telling a story how Rob purchased a house from his profits whilst being the leading tape trader/seller back in the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted September 25, 2014 Report Share Posted September 25, 2014 He talks about having several VCRs recording 24 hours a day and getting up in the middle of the night to switch over tapes, so he certainly was busy.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidebottom Posted September 25, 2014 Report Share Posted September 25, 2014 I'm sure I remember Lister telling a story how Rob purchased a house from his profits whilst being the leading tape trader/seller back in the day. Wouldn't be shocked if he were able to secure a deposit considering the 90's housing market and borrowing rates I thought this was a fantastic podcast and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted September 25, 2014 Report Share Posted September 25, 2014 One thing I would have liked to hear more on was the feeling that the magazine had grown out of touch and negative toward US wrestling in general since the turn of the century. I wondered if any of the panel felt Findlay sounded like a bitter old man recently... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 I know Fin was marketing Powerslam to the typical hardcore fan, but I always thought he ragged on John Cena way too much. It seemed like every issue was filled with shots of him as a worker and anything good he did was credited to his opponents. It was interesting hearing Rob Butcher argue that PS got better after he was gone, when the peak of the magazine to me seemed to be the earlier years. There didn't seem to be much in the way of fresh ideas after a certain point in time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSR Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 Maybe that's just modesty on his part? I always thought the best years were when it was mainly Fin, Rob and John doing the writing. I certainly thought the latter were far superior writers to those who came on board later, whether that was Greg, Mo etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted September 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2014 Agree with you on that point Magnum. Knowing Rob personally I know he's extremely modest. I didn't touch on the later years short comings; Cena hatred, negativity towards US wrestling because a. I stopped reading the magazine in the mid 00's and b. I didn't think I'd get an honest answer from Greg at the very least as I know he is still close with Fin and publicly wouldn't want to disagree with his views. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyLFC Posted October 5, 2014 Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 From a personal point of view it was great listening to Rob give his thoughts on the tape trading process. I was one of those kids phoning Rob at 'silly o'clock' wondering when a certain tape or match would be available and when that parcel arrived in the post it was like Christmas day every time! Rob did use Meltzer's ratings on the match listings but it was a neat touch when he added his own ratings and comments next the majority of tapes listed from around '94 to '99. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSR Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 Finally listening to this now and just up to where you are talking about Stately Wayne Manor and you mentioned a poem that was pretty amusing. I just remember one section from that to this day: 'In Asia wrestles Tony St. Clair, Has this guy ever won a match over there, By Hase, by Muto, by Dr Death, He's even been beaten by the substitute ref!' No idea why that is ingrained in my memory! Have to say that the SWM was the one part of the magazine that I always used to skip over each month. As another aside, I had the first 11 issues of SOW at one point then when clearing out my magazines ended up trading them with Glen Radford for a bunch of videos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 There's another long forgotten name! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 I have never heard of this until now. Fascinating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 I used to get my tapes off Glen Radford too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyLFC Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 I found Glen's service to be pretty reliable once Rob moved on from trading....I think Rob sold his business to Global Wrestling Imports and they disappeared after only a couple of years. Does anyone remember Five Star Wrestling Tapes? Pretty sure they only provided an online service around 2001. They didn't have a huge range but it was mostly all commercial tapes from All-Japan and New-Japan so the VQ quality was a huge step up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSR Posted October 7, 2014 Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 No idea what became of GWI. I purchased one video from them after they took over Rob's business, wasn't happy with the quality so started using Glen and stuck with him until he called it quits. There was the added bonus with Glen that he would continue to sell you WWF and WCW videos 'under the table' so to speak! Interesting to hear on the podcast that Rob had an address list of around 1,000 names of people who'd purchase tapes from him, and doing the maths he probably made somewhere in the region of £1,500 on The Night The Line Was Crossed alone. He must've made an absolute packet back in the day! Really enjoyed this by the way Allan, especially the contributions from Rob and John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted October 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 I used to get my tapes off Glen Radford too. So you experienced his extremely bad handwriting on tapes too then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted October 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 I found Glen's service to be pretty reliable once Rob moved on from trading....I think Rob sold his business to Global Wrestling Imports and they disappeared after only a couple of years. Does anyone remember Five Star Wrestling Tapes? Pretty sure they only provided an online service around 2001. They didn't have a huge range but it was mostly all commercial tapes from All-Japan and New-Japan so the VQ quality was a huge step up. Glen and Rob were both super reliable. Rob did sell his business to GWI who were at one point if memory serves based out of the Arndale Centre in Manchester selling tapes and merch. I don't recall 5 star tapes, however in my latest episode myself and long time fan Mark Ren take a trip down memory lane and talk the tape trading and fanzine scene in the UK in the 90's which if you were around then is well worth a listen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted October 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 No idea what became of GWI. I purchased one video from them after they took over Rob's business, wasn't happy with the quality so started using Glen and stuck with him until he called it quits. There was the added bonus with Glen that he would continue to sell you WWF and WCW videos 'under the table' so to speak! Interesting to hear on the podcast that Rob had an address list of around 1,000 names of people who'd purchase tapes from him, and doing the maths he probably made somewhere in the region of £1,500 on The Night The Line Was Crossed alone. He must've made an absolute packet back in the day! Really enjoyed this by the way Allan, especially the contributions from Rob and John. Rob did indeed do well for himself out of it all, however he did have to be around every 4hrs to change tapes so he couldn't really stray far from his house! Thanks for the comments MM, appreciate it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSR Posted October 7, 2014 Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 I used to get my tapes off Glen Radford too. So you experienced his extremely bad handwriting on tapes too then? I'm kinda surprised in hindsight that I never had a parcel go missing from Glen, it must've been a nightmare for Royal Mail back then! The post it notes that he used to put on the videos to label them were often so illegible that I would have to put the video in to the machine to find out what it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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