British Wrestling

[Prime Time]

I remember the last iteration of the thread ended with Mizfan discovering a love for Vic Faulkner, which reminded me of this match. Honestly, you won't have seen a lot like this. I actually think it's really a very interesting example of how you can blur the lines between a sporting presentation (look at the football scores flashing up at the bottom of the screen!) and what is quite obviously some very broad comedy. It's quite clearly more in a theatrical mode, but there's something about it that allows you to do this without it seeming incongruous in a more sporting context even though it's still kind of ludicrous. I have the feeling that somewhere that ability has been lost.

[mizfan]

The classic World of Sport presentation is one of my favorites of all time, in part because it does have this interesting air of authenticity while still having room to play with a bit of comedy and other tropes.

What I don't like is how fucking hard it is to figure out WHEN these matches happened! I can't even guess as to what year this took place, so any help with that it appreciated.

I'll be checking this out for sure, I did love Vic Faulkner in that tag wrestling special episode you posted in the old thread because he was so charismatic and knew when to work in humor, and how to do it without derailing the match. Rather than doing hamfisted "THIS IS THE COMEDY SEGMENT" stuff he felt like a top level worker who looked like was just faffing about in an exhibition match, while at the same time unbalancing his opponent in subtle ways to gain a psychological advantage.

Well worth checking out the old stuff for anyone who's interested in the style. My personal favorites are Johnny Saint (of course), Jim Breaks, Mick McManus, and Steve Gray, though that's really just scratching the surface. You also see guys like Finlay and Davey Boy Smith in the earliest parts of their career, among others.

For current UK stuff I've mostly been watching bits of PROGRESS and RevPro this year, and both have their strong points. I think PROGRESS can get a bit too WWE-esque in their booking but sometimes they have incredible one off matches, and they're smart enough to book RingKampf which by itself is a huge point in their favor. WALTER vs. Timothy Thatcher from January 28th is still my #1 match of the year for anywhere in the world.

As for RevPro, I've loved their presentation in the past but I feel I'm a little less interested lately. They still produce great shows generally, but the lack of angles has lowered my interest I suppose. There was a January 7th match between Zack Sabre Jr and Martin Stone that I thought was flat out fantastic though, worth checking out. They ran Minoru Suzuki vs. Jeff Cobb 'Mania weekend and that was pretty awesome too, though technically it took place in the states.

[Prime Time]

That feeling when you realise your ridiculously in-depth look at wrestling in North-West England has been nuked in the reset....

Oh, and the tapings for the new World of Sport started last night, so far as I know.

[mizfan]

Haha christ, that Regal gif is amazing. One of the best ever.

[Prime Time]

What I don't like is how fucking hard it is to figure out WHEN these matches happened! I can't even guess as to what year this took place, so any help with that it appreciated.

I think I can help you with this, and I'm going to give you a reason to very briefly appreciate football.

Those scores at the bottom are a big help because one of them is a bit weird. Tracking down all the dates that could have been left only a couple of possible dates.

There's only three times in history Ipswich have scored five or more goals against WBA in a game, and one of those can immediately be dismissed as too recent for this. A quick cross reference against the other game that flashes up and there's only one very likely date: the 30th of October, 1982.

[mizfan]

Haha, I actually wondered about cross referencing those but I wouldn't have known when to start. Thanks Pete! Loved the match too, it was hilarious as expected!

[Prime Time]

It is good fun. My favourite moment is the really low key 'thank you' to the applause near the beginning.

Busy time in the contemporary scene though. Progress have their strong style shows on at the moment and then it's just a few days removed from RPW's Epic Encounter 2018, which had a lot of big international names on it.

At the other end of the (gender) spectrum, Pro Wrestling Eve ran a show in London the other night that had Toni Storm on it....


Also, the World of Sport roster sounds pretty impressive, if what I'm reading about who was there is true.

[mizfan]

Just watched a batch of PROGRESS matches and had a blast with it. The fact that they are heavily featuring WALTER and Sabre is to their credit, those two may very well be the best in the world right now, and their match together over Wrestlemania weekend was unbelievably good. But I also got a reminder of why I hesitate to go all in on PROGRESS, as the recent WALTER/Travis Banks title match featured some very WWE-ish booking, complete with cutesy winks to the crowd about Roman Reigns. A little of that goes a long way for me, and I think they've done it too much at this point.

The biggest recent news from EVE is running a show with a lot of Joshi guests earlier this month, including a Viper (Piper Niven) vs. Aja Kong match, and Meiko Satomura vs. Kay Lee Ray. I'll probably have to seek those out at some point, because on paper that's a hell of a one-two punch!

Who's grabbing your interest for the WoS continuation, Pete? I have to admit I was turned off by Grado being front and center once again on the poster. I don't mind him in small doses but he's another case where I feel a little goes an awfully long way.

[Prime Time]

OK so consider this a minor spoiler and read on at your peril.....



But the list I'd seen included Will Ospreay and Davey Boy Smith JR from Japan, Grado as you say, Doug Williams back from the abyss, then the supporting cast including Rampage Brown, Sha Samuels, Martin Kirby, Ieysten Rees, Kip Sabian, CJ Banks and others. There's a few women in the mix too, notably Kay Lee Ray and Viper. There's a lot of others but those are the big names and the people I know of from this neck of the woods.

[mizfan]

Interesting list... I'm not sure that's enough to go on and I feel like they're leaving a lot of top level Brits on the table, but maybe that'll come in time? Makes me wonder if there's a split between WoS and PROGRESS, as WWE probably isn't thrilled with the idea of a TV product to compete with them over there, even on a low level, and obviously PROGRESS is inextricably tied to them at this point.

[Prime Time]

There's a story on the front page about WWE trying to sign people up to prevent them working for ITV, actually.

That wasn't the full list, and it's only ten weeks worth of TV they've done so far. I don't think it's going to be a 52-week product even if it does run beyond the ten weeks, so I don't know if they'll need as much talent as full timers.

The big problem for them could be if WWE do run this UK show that's mooted and run it around the year, with exclusive talent deals, it'll obviously be in the wrestlers interest to work for WWE and get paid year round.

[mizfan]

Well, everyone got the right to go after the biggest paycheck, but you do start to get the feeling that WWE already has more talent than they know what to do with.

I wonder if they can get Sabre to come in, seems like he'd be a must for a show that spotlights UK wrestling, and he's not likely to sign anything exclusive with WWE anytime soon.

[Prime Time]

I imagine it'll depend on his Japanese commitments?

Speaking of which, first reveals for the NJPW/RPW shows in Milton Keynes and Manchester. Ishii, Ishimori, and Minoru Suzuki. Not a bad opening set!

And on the subject of RPW, Cody is here to face El Phantasmo in a couple of weeks time.

[Prime Time]

They've added more names to the above. Yuji Nagata was the one that excited me but they've also included Will Ospreay, Toru Yano, and making his debut in the UK (and exciting me far more than is reasonable), Taichi!

[mizfan]

Haha, I feel like until recently I saw nothing but hate for Taichi. I'm glad people have turned a corner on him, he's got his strengths!