UK & Europe Current Wrestling Talk

[ButchReedMark]

Banging Welsh Wrestling show in Crewe tonight (Obviously it wasn't branded as Welsh Wrestling, as Crewe isn't in Wales).

 

1. Eddie Ryan d. Stevie Starr. You may or may not remember Stevie Starr in NXT as Gavin Reid. He had a bout vs Roman Reigns on there.

 

2. James Mason d. Sterling Gold Esq. Sterling Gold comes out to the theme off The South Bank Show and wrestles in Jodhpurs. So it's my new favourite gimmick.

 

3. Robbie Dynamite d. Dean Allmark. the usual amazing match out of the two.

 

4. Frankie Sloan d. Tagori. This one was a lot of fun. Quality comedy match. The mysterious masked man Tagori is hilarious.

 

5. Starr/Allmark d. Dynamite/Ryan. Fantastic tag main event.

 

Hopefully some will be online soon, as some was taped - albeit handheld.

[RCS1988]

WCPW has formed and are having shows in Newcastle.

[ButchReedMark]

Is that What Culture Wrestling? I'm dreading that as:-

 

A) What Culture is shit and miserably unfunny

and

It's just probably going to be another import laden indy which doesn't really feel like British wrestling with the same core of 10-15 workers who now seemingly work everywhere (Though that's no fault of their own. Talent is talent, and their talent is certainly formidable. Just be nice to see some new faces). And the lack of "Britishness" in a lot of the wrestling over here annoys me.

[NotJayTabb]

Yeah, the overuse of imports really bugs me with some promotions. PCW and Southside do it a lot, and it can get to a stage of overkill. I remember last year Southside ran a show just up the road from my house, and almost every match had an import in, normally going over the UK guy. Like, the card had Chris Sabin, James Storm, Johnny Gargano, Andrew Everett, Candice LaRae, Joey Ryan and X-Pac all either beating a UK guy or just facing another import. Only Zema Ion lost to a regular, and that's only because Mark Haskins was the champion. The matches were all ok, but who on that list of names realistically will have sold a ticket? X-Pac, maybe Storm? Who benefited from LaRae beating Nixon Newall in the worst match I've seen Newall have? What purpose did Joey Ryan handily beating Ryan Smile serve? It's no coincidence that my favourite BritWres companies, like TXW or HOPE, fill their cards with UK guys and generally have better shows. TXW got more value out of Rob Terry than Southside did with a card full of non-ticket-selling US indy darlings.

[Ryan Faulconer]

I've had a slowly boiling interest in some of the foreign talent at the 2015 BOLA. I've been slowly going through youtube and watching all of the Ospreay/Sabre Jr/Scurll/Andrews footage I could find. Apart from random youtube footage I haven't paid or watched any indy wrestling after 2011. I finally broke down and ordered a bunch of 2015 PWG that featured those four. It looks like streaming matches from their home promotions or from older Highspots streaming videos makes a lot more sense fiscally for me in the future. The WrestleMania EVOLVE Ospreay and Sabre Jr. matches were really great. I'll have to settle for their PWG work for now since EVOLVE is like a year behind in DVD/blu ray production.

 

I watched a Thunderbastard match the other day. Is this a regular or traditional gimmick concept? I clicked on it based on the name only. The match was fun but the wrestlers I was watching for weren't in long enough. How large are the rings that they use in Progress/Rev Pro/WxW? I don't have any problems with them being so small compared to what I am used to seeing...but an six man tag would look a little claustrophobic.

 

Is there a set date when wXw started doing English commentary? Whenever I check some wXw out on youtube It is always a toss-up involving the two different languages that they broadcast in.

 

I watched the recent draw for the Super Strong Style Tournament early yesterday morning. Doing eight shots in fifteen minutes seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. Then I ran into the previous year's draw that involved toy eggs...that is quite an illogical switch in gimmicks for the draw.

[ButchReedMark]

TXW got more value out of Rob Terry than Southside did with a card full of non-ticket-selling US indy darlings.

 

TXW made Rob Terry look like Jesus. It's a real shame people didn't give a fuck about BRITWRES~ in 2009 when TXW was probably the most entertaining indy in the world.

[RCS1988]

From watching the whatculture videos of talent that will be at WCPW, it looks promising, but all that good hype could go up in smoke come show time.

[Laz]

It looks like streaming matches from their home promotions or from older Highspots streaming videos makes a lot more sense fiscally for me in the future. The WrestleMania EVOLVE Ospreay and Sabre Jr. matches were really great. I'll have to settle for their PWG work for now since EVOLVE is like a year behind in DVD/blu ray production.

I highly recommend the Progress OD service. Shows are uploaded within a day or two after they take place, those names you've listed all work there regularly, and there's enough extra content to keep you entertained.

I watched a Thunderbastard match the other day. Is this a regular or traditional gimmick concept? I clicked on it based on the name only. The match was fun but the wrestlers I was watching for weren't in long enough.

Seems like an original concept, but one based on familiar ones. Staggered entrances, elimination style, winner take all.

 

I'm assuming you checked out the free one they put up, which was the first, and quite a bit of it was based on the long-term booking plans of the time. Paul Robinson (short bald guy) used to team with Ospreay and then turned, so they were teasing their eventual match/blowoff in addition to building Ospreay up as the underdog babyface hero. It was also the first one, so the kinks hadn't been worked out yet. From what I've heard, this year's was great.

How large are the rings that they use in Progress/Rev Pro/WxW? I don't have any problems with them being so small compared to what I am used to seeing...but an six man tag would look a little claustrophobic.

As far as I can tell, they're standard indy 16x16, though maybe 14x14. If you think those are tiny then stay away from ICW (which is 12x12).

watched the recent draw for the Super Strong Style Tournament early yesterday morning. Doing eight shots in fifteen minutes seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. Then I ran into the previous year's draw that involved toy eggs...that is quite an illogical switch in gimmicks for the draw.

I think the drawing was around Easter? Progress is a good blend of humor and serious stuff, but the tonal shift can be annoying at first.

[ButchReedMark]

From watching the whatculture videos of talent that will be at WCPW, it looks promising, but all that good hype could go up in smoke come show time.

 

Other than Jason Prime it looks like several of the same people who work loads of the other big UK companies to me. I'm not exactly overcome with enthusiasm for what I can see in a few other places. Much of a muchness with the added bonus of What Culture's anti-comedy.

[RCS1988]

Chad's boy Will Ospreay was just announced for WCPW.

[Laz]

The best thing about WCPW is that What Culture has a big following online. The main YouTube channel has 334,186 subscribers and the WC Wrestling channel has more than double that at 744,430. That's nearly 3/4 million people that get their wrestling fix from WC, so having their own promotion will help get more eyes on the burgeoning scene.

[Dewar]

ICW and NGW/British Wrestling Weekly are now airing on The Fight Network in Canada every week, for my fellow Canadians.

[Gutenberger]

WxW will be starting their own straming platform, WxWNow in August. 10 € per month and unlimited streaming access, payment per credit card od PayPal... Seems pretty familiar.

I'm not quite sure yet, but I'm really interested in this. I think one month to check is definitely worth it, form there on I'll see.

[Luchaundead]

WxW will be starting their own straming platform, WxWNow in August. 10 € per month and unlimited streaming access, payment per credit card od PayPal... Seems pretty familiar.

I'm not quite sure yet, but I'm really interested in this. I think one month to check is definitely worth it, form there on I'll see.

I'm wondering what this & the recent CZW/WWN working relationship means for both wXw & CZW continuing to have their shows on the Highspots network. I've seen shows from recent shows from CZW showing up on Highspots even shows that have happened after they seemed to start working with WWN. wXw has seemed to slow down with bigger events showing up on Highspots as well most of the newest contend seems to be best of comps. A similar occurrence has happened with RPW who have not added anything to Highspots since they launched their own streaming service.

 

Big picture I feel this is a step in the wrong direction as fragmenting the market is only going to encourage churn or people picking and choosing streaming services. A more all inclusive network like Highspots is going to win out and more companies should focus on working about a deal that benefits them with a network rather than just launching their own service unless they are willing to cut the price in half. Why would I pay the same price for a wXw only service when I could go with another company that will have the wXw shows eventually (and if I need to see it sooner I'll pirate) and many more options as well at the same price?

[Indikator]

The new wXw touring concept gave them access to quite a lot of new local customers, which gave their tournaments a considerable attendance boost actually. They diversified their product and improved attendance. It was quite a gamble to try out a huge number of new towns but even the expensive big cities (Frankfurt, Munich) caught on immediately. Meanwhile all the fans who now prefer the current UK Supershow scene (which is vastly superior to the one of ten years ago) are not really happy with the development of wXw. In the end this does also mean that the kind of superfan who will have other networks subscriptions will not really be the target group. wXw was always at a disadvantage when having a comparable product. I mean, if I remember how much more often King Of Europe 2007 DVD set was preordered compared to wXw 16 Carat Gold 2007.... it's either ridiculous or plain tragic.

I guess the smark fan who will have not one single subscription will have at least 1-2 months each year for the tournaments. On the other hand the local German fan might only have a wXw subscription, maybe a considerable amount of people will have an ongoing subscription. Compare the price of a year to a Carat DVD set and you might be able to convince a good number of fans to give it a try, and with that you might even be able to warm them up to the ongoing and shows, especially the ones with a local flavour. It probably is a good idea not to focus on the smark fan and try to maximize the efforts regarding the more casual fan.

[RCS1988]

WCPW got the man FKA as Damien Sandow.

[Boon]

Just copied and pasted a quick poorly written review from SSS16 from Bank Holiday weekend....

 

I thought day 1 was actually the better card top to bottom. Haskin-Dunne was great, even better knowing the condition Haskins was in. Bit late to the Progress party, but the Haskins story being played out over the pass few months has been great, I'm assuming he would of just followed Andrews route to the final and then go on to face Whiplash this weekend, so hopefully he's back and continuing that, he's match with Scrull a few months ago was great story telling.

 

Chris Hero proved yet again why he's probably one of the best in the world at the moment. He had 3 different matches with 3 different types of wrestlers over the weekend and all were fantastic. His match with Mark Andrews deserves all the plaudits it's getting, great little man vs big man match, the big man match with Big Daddy Walters was a great big man match, but probably 3rd of his matches this weekend, and then the storyline driven match with Tommy End in a hard hitting match. Hero's Morishima-esque body type and aura just adds so much more than how he used to be, in my opinion. Hero Vs Villian, should sell itself, don't smell a title change unfortunately, but haven't finished Evolves shows this weekend so he might be coming in as Evolve champion anyway.

 

Zack Gibson grows on me show by show, and really liked his match with Kenny Williams. Never been a fan of Callian, like his work but not his gimmick so have trouble looking pass that, haven't seen Matt Cross since his Resilience days, outside of his look, still does his same old shtick and does it very well. And the Riots and Orgin was a well done brawl with lots of twists and turns and great to finish of London Riots rise to the titles over the pass few months following th SDS stuff. And Jack Gallagher is an awesome throwback and his day 2 he had a really good match with Gibson.

[El-P]

The title of the thread never sounded more right.

[RCS1988]

Just saw the first episode of WCPW Loaded. It was pretty good. I also read that Big Damo is going to the WWE Performance Center in September.