American Wolf in Brigg

So it came to pass that I find myself outside Ancholme Leisure Centre on a Saturday night in October. The last time I was here I was re elected to Brigg Town Council and not elected to North Lincolnshire Council. So I am 1 for 2 in this building over the last few years. Tonight however I was on a sure fire winner. My friend and Deputy of Heartbreak Phil Brown, who is a wrestling newbie I am educating in the ways of the squared circle, made the homage to our new Mecca. Real Deal Wrestling have been gone from Brigg for a while and as promoter Steve Sykes told me they really want to come back on a regular basis. Tonight laid out the scenarios and the matches for this long term promotional investment. 

The opener was the wonderful Robbie X against "American Wolf" Davey Richards. Davey had a night free on his schedule because of a promoters lapse in payment. When opportunities come knocking in wrestling you do not turn them down. RDW took full advantage and happily booked him on their show in Brigg. So you have one of the best workers in the world appearing in our small town, how great is that? Sadly indicative of the world indy wrestlers work in one sense, but I'd rather have him wrestling in Brigg than anywhere else. As one of my friends and an even bigger fan of wrestling than me Mark Dunderdale,who has literally traveled the world to watch wrestling said to me at the interval "It is just surreal". What's more the match delivered. Robbie X is an excellent wrestler I strongly advise you check out because he went toe for toe with Davey in a full on American Strong Style belter. The former Ring of Honor World Champion wasn't actually that popular and it was one of the first things that struck me about the crowd in attendance. They are a very diverse group, ranging from smart mark fan boys like me, to elderly couples who used to go to The Drill Hall in Lincoln (I got talking before the show started), to Mums, Dads and family groups. A lot of my former students, I was proud, and regular drinkers from my home pub The Britannia Inn. So it was nice to see them in a different environment. Wonder If I can get the Landlord to put on the next TNA PPV? Back to my point. Davey came over as a little heelish, because well a lot of the people in this audience will not have heard of him, he would just be another American wrestler, who traditionally have been heels in the UK, except for Rickie Starr, but things smoothed out over the match. He won with a double foot stomp from the top rope which was something else to see in person. I've seen him do it on Ring of Honor TV for years, and watched others do it as well, but the impact is something else as is the "oooooooh" from the crowd. After putting the RDW and Robbie X over in classy style.

This led us into the rest of the card featuring home grown talent and it is a great talent pool. Will Jackson being a stand out, now a GWA graduate, his match with The Hammer had people on the edge of their seats and was an excellent showcase for the wrestling school he represents. The Hammer wasn't half bad either. I was particularly impressed with Benham Ali and Simon Lancaster, what strikes you most though is the pace of the show, which never lagged and made three hours fly by. The main event tag with Ultimo Dragon and Spyda versus Sykes and King Kendo was my mark out moment of the evening. Here was a Japanese legend before my very eyes, and though I have seen it I still can't quite believe it. It is quite frankly incredibly difficult to please and audience this diverse, but there was enough of everything to keep everyone interested. Enough story based angles and yay boo moments to keep the fun fans happy, enough pure wrestling to keep the smart marks happy,and enough star power to give the whole thing a big show feel. 

Its hard not to when you have Ultimo Dragon on the card, and after the show I was able to catch up with him for a short conversation while he greeted fans, so here is my first interview with you know an actual proper wrestler rather than joshing with them on twitter. Of course my first one had to be a guy I have adored for 20 years so I wasn't nervous at all. Much, but thanks once again to Steve Sykes for getting this interview together;

     
You've been wrestling in the UK for a few weeks now, how do you feel about British wrestling at the moment?

Its been good I've enjoyed it.

What's been you favourite show?

They've all been good everywhere.

Are there any British wrestlers who influenced you when you where younger?

I never got to wrestle him, but I have to say The Dynamite Kid.

Do you think there is any differences in the British style compared to all the other places you go to? Or is it all just wrestling?

Its all just wrestling.

Thank you!

After I got in my quick chat with Dragon I talked to Steve Sykes a little more who informs me there will be more shows to come in Brigg and I am really looking forward to them. They should be doing great business soon, and when you consider how many people go to a TNA house show, they are getting similar sized crowds with no house hold names, and no TV. The mans a booking genius. As he managed to get heat whilst drawing the raffle, I am sure he is.

So on to the main event Stixx versus Havok for the RDW title. I had seen these two go at it before at the Grimsby GWA show a while back in a four way with Will Jackson and Spyda so I knew what to expect. I have to say though As much as Stixx is really cool, I am so impressed with Havok. He reminds me of the first time I saw Shinya Hashimoto on video, and I know some Japanese wrestling fans are gonna say "Sacrilege!", but, the first time I saw Hashimoto I was like, well whats he going to do? He's just a barrel on legs. Of course I then proceeded to see him kick the living daylights out of Scott Norton and that changed my view instantly. Havok did the same thing in one match. That four way in Grimsby. I suddenly had the feeling I was watching a special talent. He is blessed with a physique which is more Kevin Steen than Davey Richards, but as Kevin has proven you don't need the physique if you have the skills and the mouth. Havok has both. 

So thank you Real Deal for an excellent nights entertainment and I will look forward to you coming back. The crews next show is on Friday with Davey Richards taking on Spyda, I would think the more vocal 18-30 guys that frequent the Central Hall in Grimsby will give Davey a full throated welcome which he truly deserves. Tonight was a great opportunity for a great promotion, they didn't disappoint. My only disappointment was that sadly my Dad missed the show, he is sidelined with shoulder issues at the moment and can't really get anywhere. He missed an amazing night, now so when is the DVD due out?     

Puroresu in Brigg

So I was flicking around Facebook the other day, when something caught my eye. It was a message from the Grimsby Wrestling Academy page. I had greatly enjoyed their show at Central Hall I wrote about last time I blogged and then I saw the words that just about blew my Japanese pro wrestling loving  mind. GWA's associate promotion, Real Deal Wrestling (a truly appropriate name by the way) are going on tour. Their headline attraction for this tour will be Último Dragón. Yes that Último Dragón, the most decorated pro wrestler of all time. The man who held ten titles at once. The man who developed Jap-Lucha into an art form, the guy who left Japan at 22 years old because he didn't feel he was getting anywhere and went to live in Mexico because he though he might do better. Turns out he did, but emigrating at 22 years old to another country where they don't even use the same alphabet and wrestle the opposite way round to everyone else? There is a man with guts. Here is the kicker, on the 26th of October he is coming to Brigg. Yes Brigg. My home town, the place they made me Mayor of. It just made me squeal in a way I am not sure I am comfortable with, but hey. So the next stop is calling my Dad. He said "Último Dragón? Really? That Último Dragón? The guy who wrestled Jushin Thunder Liger in front of 64,000 people in the Egg Dome Último Dragón?" Good head for stats my Dad, and great wrestling.

Back in the day Brigg wasn't really a hot bed for wrestling. I attended a few shows in Brigg at the old Corn Exchange before it was pulled down. Bi monthly Wednesday night shows where headlined by some very good wrestlers who where sadly in the place between the tail end of the first TV era and the second coming of British wrestling into the mainstream that we are getting to now. Or as they are known the wilderness years. The highlight for me was a visit by "Bomber" Pat Roach, then still well known as an actor rather than a wrestler from his time in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Indiana Jones. The shows where good, any live wrestling show is good, and I will watch any wrestling anywhere, but they did what they said on the tin. Well rounded family entertainment and it was part of a traditional loop that included Doncaster, Lincoln, Scunthorpe and Cleethorpes from the old Joint Promotion days. They shows where well supported and I was glad when they kept going at the Leisure Centre. I was especially glad when some of the countries top talents came down in the early 2000's like Jodie Fleisch and Alex Shane who where really making a splash with the FWA at the time. This one will be my first in a while in Brigg. Because hell or high water wouldn't stop me getting to this show. 

So while The Ancholme Lesuire Centre isn't Korakuen Hall in Tokyo or Arena Mexico in Mexico City we can go and celebrate one of the most varied, talented and just plain gob smackingly good wrestlers that has ever lived. A man who started Dragon Gate wrestling in Japan (so you can thank him for Evan Bourne and Adrian Neville being in the WWE) and Toryumon Wrestling in Mexico. Who is highly respected as a grappler and as a teacher, running dojos in Japan and Mexico. I strongly recommend you catching Dragon on this tour, you may never get another chance to watch someone this good. I also recommend the under card because it features some of the finest young talents Grimsby Wrestling Academy has produced. They are exceptional, as we say at our 'ouse; New Japan good. 


I will also be bringing down the boys and girls of TNA Fan Forum for whom I write the original Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week. There has been discussion about coming up North or moving over a town a two for a night out and it seems this is the one. So I will be glad to be their host, because this show will deliver. 

More information is available here;
https://www.facebook.com/realdealwrestling

Tickets here;
http://www.event-tickets.org.uk/events/real-deal-wrestling-2013-brigg/

And just so you can see what its like to be world class;

Anyone got any streamers?

In Defence of Wrestling

So the big story in wrestling this week, amazingly as Summerslam is on Sunday, and I am sure there is no link at all *coughs*, is that of Darren young coming out as gay. Which is great that he feels comfortable enough to be himself. However as I read through the tweets on the story, following up The Guardian’s story on the subject there was so much negativity. Not towards Darren thankfully, this is The Guardian after all, but towards wrestling fans. We are “@mansillo: hill billies are not happy in fact very confused a gay man can do anything contact sport like” and that “@EternalScot"sports" star? Minor celeb more like” and a few others that got deleted as well.

We know its not a sport. We know it has predetermined finishes. We know and quite frankly talk to the wrestlers, script writers and producers of the shows on a regular basis. Dave Lagana (head writer for TNA) is on the web all the time constantly checking feedback. Via twitter and social media wrestlers talk to us from all over the world. They are some of the most accessible, funniest and intelligent conversationalists you are likely to find. This week I learned the dreams of The Alpha Female, and talked Japanese wrestling with The Dark Angel, and found out who Adam Pearce would wrestle in an Airport. Wrestling has guys like CM Punk who take their time out of being entertaining one way, to be entertaining another and teach us grammar.

And yes there is the wrestling. Which we all love, because at a base level we want to see the good guys win. At a higher level we want to see people do amazing things, we like blood and guts yes, but only when it means something. Sound like a person who watches an TV drama right? That is what wrestling is, with layered meta data with each participant. When I see Daniel Bryan wrestle in front of a sold out crowd this Sunday at Summerslam, if he wins the title I know I will cry. Why? Because I have seen him wrestle all over the world for ten years, getting his head kicked in Japan, taking on the luchadors of Mexico, putting together one hour classics with AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, his victory will mean the world to me because I believe in him. I do not care that he has made me believe, I don't care that this is a concocted dramatic moment. The sentiment is mine and others to enjoy. 

Not a real sport? I am sure John Cena whose arm looks like someone pumped it up with an air compressor this week will tell you that injury is as real as it gets (his second arm injury with in a year I might add), or Sheamus who had to have 6 pins put in his arm. These people go through hell for us. So next time you see a striker dive in the penalty area and appeal wildly when the defender never touched him, don't complain that wrestling isn't real.

Is it a sport? No its not, but its competition none the less, and far tougher than any major sport to succeed in. There are about 2000, playing jobs open in the NFL, how many playing jobs in world soccer, 5000? the NBA has roster slots for 450 players plus all the other professional leagues in the world. The WWE and the other large wrestling promotions that can afford to pay full time offer about 300 jobs, world wide. If you want to do this you have to give your heart and soul to it and that's just to make a living at it, never mind become a star.  

Pro wrestling is not fake. Pro wrestling is what pro wrestling is, we get it, we enjoy it, we love it. If you don't that's fine. However we had out gay men running wrestling and we accepted him years ago, I wonder if any other “sports” did that?  

GWA and North East Lincolnshire Wrestling

North East Lincolnshire. Not a name or place that you think runs in the veins of wrestling history, but for me it does and hopefully, for a generation of new fans, wrestlers, bookers and performers it will do again for a long time to come. You see the Grimsby Wrestling Academy and by extension their promotion GWA are doing great things. They offer professional classes with a wide ranger of trainers and have brought in seminar specialists like Kid Kash. Just looking at their website will tell you they value high quality production which is essential in the modern wrestling market not just in the UK but world wide. They clearly understand what needs to be done. I should offer a disclaimer here I haven't been to one of their shows or a session this is a first glance look at the promotion but as a long time fan I am very impressed and pleased that this part of the world has a new champion for its strong wrestling heritage. Their next show will feature The Homicidal, Genocidal, Suicidal Death Defying Sabu and marks a return to NE Lincs offering shows of very high quality. A true case of “If you build it, they will come”. 

You see back in the day, when I was a wrestling fan at the beginning of my obsession I was in North East Lincolnshire one Sunday every month. Now GWA offer their shows at Grimsby Central Hall, but it was down at the Memorial Hall in Cleethorpes where I got my first long term fix of monthly pro wrestling. Back in the early eighties, in one of Joint Promotions boom periods, and just before the Crabtrees take over of that particular company, the shows on a Sunday night where immense. I got to see everyone that mattered in the wrestling world and it set my mind on what good wrestling was from a young and impressionable age. The main eventers of the time Dave “Fit” Finlay, Chic Cullen and my personal hero Marty Jones all wrestled there on a regular basis. They where not the only ones, I sadly just missed out on seeing The Dynamite Kid, Bret Hart and Saturo Sayama who also wrestled at that venerable hall. Little did I know I was watching guys who would have a major influence on not just British wrestling in the TV era, but world wide. Dave Finaly became Finlay, now a road agent for WWE and the driving force behind the great Diva's division of the early 2000's. Saturo Sayama went on of course to be Tiger Mask and his matches with The Dynamite Kid reinvented Junior Heavyweight pro wrestling in Japan. He also went on to be a founder of the original UWF which was a massive influence on shoot fighting and was part of the many things that brought us to the MMA world of today. Dynamite and Bret? Well you know what happened there. Marty Jones went on to train William Regal who you hear weekly on FCW programming and is a great influence on the training regime of the WWE. So for a while there Cleethorpes turned out to be the wrestling capital of the world. Maybe not as romantic as the NJPW dojo, or The Businessman's Gym in Saint Louis (Lou Thesz's home gym) or even The Snakepit in Wigan, but just as important to me because that is where my home of wrestling will always be.

However back to the present day, it is great to see a new wrestling business that is taking care of doing the right things and impressing at first glance. They are also at the moment encouraging take up with offers and promotions on wrestling lessons. So if you are in Grimsby go see a show, or take a lesson. This is a great opportunity to build a foundation for wrestling in North East Lincolnshire. With things looking strong nation wide an opportunity that could mean work, and more wrestling for all of us fans to enjoy. Tickets for their EXTREME! Show on the the 30^th of August are £8 for full whack with some concessions and considering what you are getting that is great value. You get to see Sabu for eight quid. You lucky, lucky people.

Have a good time till next time grapple fans.

Grimsby Wrestling Academy on Facebook @ www.facebook.com/grimsbywrestling

and on the general web @ http://www.grimsbywrestling.com/home

A Little History

Hey there grapple fans it has been a while. I have been busy over at www.tnafanforum.com being a moderator and putting together my weekly Youtube PPV round up; Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week. JP gave me my own thread and everything. Also I had to have something to write about. Another blog of note gave me that something. The wonderful wrestling personality/journalist/manager/writer/booker/promoter Greg Lambert recently wrote a blog on the future of British Pro Wrestling (hope you like the caps Greg ;)) that got me to thinking about how the industry has come this far. You can read his blog over at Wrestle Talk TV's wonderfully informative site; PHERE THE TRUTH Greg 'TheTruth' Lambert July 30th 2013 15:19 GMT.

Greg explains in his piece the feeling that British Wrestling is holding itself back because of its current emphasis on in ring work. He states “It feels like the trend in most top British Wrestling promotions these days is towards what's on the marquee, wrestling. Generally speaking, this is a fast-paced, creative, hard-hitting, strong style, almost a Ring of Honor style of wrestling, which the majority of British Wrestling fans clearly enjoy.” and that “The problem is, those fans who appreciate the endless great wrestling matches, are generally the kind of fans who already like wrestling.” I do have the tendency to agree with him but I thought it would be interesting to see how we got to this point. Why is there so much strong style in the UK?

In short, strong style essentially comes from New Japan Pro Wrestling, alongside Kings Road it is the predominant style of the Japanese Pros who favour in ring stiffness to give their product credibility. Initially Japanese pro wrestling was helped along by western trainers. Significant westerners who trained the Japanese include Lou Thesz, Billy Robinson, Joe Cornelius and Karl Gotch. Noticeably all of them, with the possible exception of Cornelius, who was an excellent showman in his day, where renown for generally being hard cases. Gotch was a well known amateur who spent time at The Snake Pit in Wigan to perfect his shooting skill. Billy Robinson was an actual Lancashire shooter who had a great influence on All Japan Wrestling and won their PWF title being one of the first Gaijin champions and of course Lou Thesz was well, Lou Thesz. An all round wrestling God, unstoppable hooker and six time NWA world Heavyweight Champion who once drew 87.0 rating with Rikidozan in a world championship match. Yes 87.0, 87 percent of the TV owning people of Japan watched that match. With that kind of penetration in the earliest part of the wrestling history of a nation it is easy to see why the shooters won favour over say any passing lucahdors. It also framed the way the sport has been run in Japan i.e. as a true sport. The US's showmanship is only just beginning to rub off. That strong style had further developments along the way bringing in some influence from Mexico and the UK even. (I was just watching Tiger Mask vs The Dynamite Kid from 1983 and was amazed how that match could easily transfer onto a NJPW card or ROH card today.) Essentially though it set the tone. I am not talking about the peaks and troughs of general wrestling draws, I mean the actual inherent culture of that wrestling country. The Japanese attitude of the way things should be done. 

So how did we get to Ring of Honor, and then onto the UK's scene? The world has become a much smaller place. The stars or ROH in its initial burst. Chris Hero, Claudio Castignoli, CM Punk, Brian Danielson and their subsequent WWE make overs know as much about Japanese wrestling as they do about north American wrestling, they also know as much about British wrestling. They had the tapes, they ordered them, they devoured them they learnt from them. Then they went and found people to train them in that style. They went to Japan to learn more. Watching Brian Danielson's work in NOAH is a testament to how well he can adapt to a different wrestling philosophy. They wanted the strong style to be at the forefront. They broke it down and analysed it over and over to give it an American twist then they moved on to British Pro Wrestling and did the same. They dug out Johnny Saint from retirement, they went to WWE Dojo's with William Regal and Dave Taylor, they looked for opponents in that style. At the same time DVD's and tapes began flying across the Atlantic to our home grown talents. Magazines like Power Slam gave detailed run downs of what was happening everywhere in the world and people sort out those matches to. What really revolutionised the way wrestling has been appreciated is Youtube. Literally any card that has been performed in front of a TV camera is on there right now, or it soon will be. Which is the reason why I can run PPV of the week on TNA Fan Forum and never fear of running out of things to write about.

Meanwhile, ROH was born out of a DVD distribution model built on the foundations of what ECW left behind in the North Eastern United states. As I have said before it essentially took three promotions to replace ECW; ROH, CZW and Chikara, but what ROH focused on was match quality and strong style match quality at that. They wanted to produce cards that rivaled NJPW in standard so as to be able to sell that product in the same DVD category and sell they did. All over the world. Which in turn became a model for smaller wrestling companies world wide. 

Why did it hit with the UK wrestling fans? I do not know, but I have been a punk rock fan long enough to know that there is a group of people in the UK who looked to San Francisco in the 90's for their inspiration while everything here was going all Britpop. That influence of bands from Bad Religion, The Offspring, NOFX and the highly principled aesthetic has left a lasting legacy on the UK punk scene that is still going strong today. I know that some of my friends are active Roller Derby enthusiasts who followed the good women of Austin, Texas who reinvented a fake sport into a real one for their own pleasure and the entertainment of others. Perhaps that is the real reason, an ongoing search for the other, to find something else and make it our own, however in this case it was more ours in the first place than we thought.

What has happened to wrestling in recent years is effectively what has happened to music. Stratification. When I was youngster I was very big fan of the band Hüsker Dü. To find Hüsker Dü records I had to research them, find out about them in books and magazines, go on off trails about Soul Asylum and The Replacements, go to the library and borrow the tapes or CDs to listen to them. It was a task in itself. I am now three mouse clicks away from listening to everything they ever did and a complete history of their work right down to what underwear Bob Mould was wearing when they recorded Candy Apple Grey. The wrestling world is much the same. I am able to download or order whatever style of wrestling I want from anywhere in the world. I can watch the whole of the G1 climax tournament this year. Live if I want to. There is simply so much content out there is not time to watch it. That is where wrestling taste has come into play, the three ring circus of wrestling that ruled the last 80 or so years of our sport has been bypassed to form a layered and stylised approach. Each company now specialises in a specific thing that limits its very existence. Even WWE only wants people who can wrestle their style, with very good reasons it reduces injury risks and makes predictable from a booking point of view. However it means that those niche audiences are going to control the output of a company, especially the smaller ones, in the long term.

I am not surprised that Greg's findings led him to believe that there was a huge base of talent available in the UK. I am also not surprised that he found a lack of characters. The move towards strong style as a UK staple wasn't really a move as essentially UK wrestlers always have been the driving force behind it. It comes from something primary about wrestling in the UK. The pits up north and the submission style, Lord Oakley and his near riotous promotions from before the war, George Hackendschmit chasing over matched boxers up the street in Liverpool, The Snake Pit. It is as part of our wrestling heritage even more than Big Daddy. It is also no mistake that the last great feuds of the ITV era. Marty Jones and Steve Wright, Johnny Saint and Mike “Flash” Jordan, Chick Cullen and Mark Rocco, featured Lancashire grappler’s with strong amateur or second generation backgrounds who where well versed in the shoot style and had success or where well known in Japan. Even today the Northern Shooters Gym, is a highly respected part of EVE: Pro Wrestling who take their cue from Joshi, essentially strong style for women. 

So how do we bridge this gap? Taking a lesson from the past, and as much as it pains me to say it, the big draws of the golden era where Daddy, Haystacks and Nagasaki, not the shooters and hookers I love. It is those characters that transcended the television medium and it is characters like that that will bring British mainstream wrestling success again. Breaking out as a mainstream entity requires that, and that is harder than ever but it can be done. So for all of those wrestlers, promoters and wrestling workers out there. Keep your eyes on the prize folks, you are getting there.

In search of the Holy Grail; Preston City Wrestling

For this entry we move to Preston. Home of Preston City Wrestling, and home of some of the biggest cards in this country as far as star drawing power is concerned. Their presentation is also exceptional, a smooth clear easy to navigate website. It values good quality promotional material, works smoothly (often a big problem on java heavy sites and my tired old PC), in short they care about the fans enough to put effort into the things the fans may want to buy and the gateway to that is their website. My girlfriend who is not a wrestling fan but is a designer, saw this site and exclaimed how good it was from across the room. The product it is selling is firmly in the hands of a traditional mainstream promotion. The upcoming events section promotes a series of cards with the American and Mexican stars that are the obvious casual fan grabber like Tommy Dreamer, current Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas The Young Bucks, Super Crazy, John Morrisonand of course Colt Cabana. The fact is that for these guys to come to a promotion in a land far, far away, you have to be pretty good. they have cross promotional ties with Pro Wrestling Eve and through that a working agreement with Ice Ribbon for their super weekender show at the beginning of February. 

What has been getting them noticed recently aside from their high quality show content, excellent presentation and stacked UK talent roster, is their DVD packaging. Wrestle Talk TV love these guys and show clips as an example of what British wrestling can achieve. 

In search of the Holy Grail; Lucha Britannia

So then onward in my Holy Grail search. Today we look at Lucha Britannia who are kindly enough to follow me on Twitter so I think I should do be goodly enough to look at them here. First stop is their website http://www.luchabritannia.com/ which is amazingly well done. They  have a clear understanding of presentation and style that is refreshing to see. It matches their aesthetic well and their booking philosophy. What we learn from the site is this; It looks like fun, they clearly are trying to be different, the company matters more than the stars. Lucha Britannia is the draw in itself, the whole concept not the feuds or the matches. This is good for long term prosperity and it attracts a different kind of fan. It taps into the punk rock aesthetic beautifully, the kind of people that like Roller Derby and Burlesque, they will be into this. It is an alternative playground, a Hipsters ideal of what wrestling should be. For some companies this has been a ticket to great success, ECW was founded on similar principles. This also gives the company long term stability, because as people come and go they are not bound to that particular star. History dictates you need a compelling overview not just a compelling series. 

So what is the wrestling like? Well it does what it says on the tin. It is Lucha Libre presented in a very British manner. The best comparison I can give is Chikara with adult content. Like Chikara there is a complicated back story of Rudos and Technicos that binds the whole thing together. This cartoon like presentation may seem over the top, but that is the whole point. Also over the top story lines does not necessarily mean over the top matches, if you can make the story compelling you do not have to have your stars shredding each other, good for the long term health of the company and the workers.  


Presenting wrestling as performance art is nothing new, this company does it well. They have been sold out for years. What impresses me more is their willingness to go out and find new revenues and fans like putting on shows at music festivals and trying to develop relationships with different areas of performance. They appear to be looking at the Edinburgh Festival where they will fit like a hand in a  glove. They do not seem to have any DVD availability as far as I can tell at the moment, maybe I am wrong. However they make the news a lot and it is that kind of mainstream crossover British wrestling needs. The downside of that is much like ECW, it is not for everyone, indeed the burlesque portions of the show are decidedly un PC. There is a lot of buzz about this company right now and I hope they go on to do good things. Good story telling and presentation is the key to their success, I hope it continues on a bigger platform. 

Lucha Britannia Youtube Channel

In search of the Holy Grail; Pro Wrestling EVE

Okay so if you are going to start a revolution you have to know what you are dealing with. Information is the key, that's how you inform people. So it makes sense for me to give some information on what is happening on the wrestling scene in the UK right now as this Blog is about UK wrestling and as you may have noticed I am all about the #HolyGrail #Thetimeisnow at the moment. So where do I start. Well I like Joshi and I like British Wrestling so the first place for me to go would be Pro Wrestling  Eve .

You may or may not know I am a ludicrously poor person I can not shell out on DVDs and PPVs as is my will. What I can do is give and over view of what is happening in a few spots and give some light to them and try and help this thing a long a bit in my own small way. So then Pro Wrestling Eve. I like the biblical name (works well for NOAH works well here). The first port of call is their website. Tastefully and professionally done, easy to navigate. The information I find is intriguing, they are opening up a Catch Division with rules somewhat similar to MMA or more closely to the old UWFI which is an interesting development, the increase in visibility for the female MMA fighters that the signing of Rhonda Rousey to UFC is a good thing to capitalise on in my opinion. Different is good, no one wants to see a card of matches where everyone looks the same and fights in the same style. Their roster reflects this to; different heights, sizes, weights and looks means more people to appeal to. You don't have to look like Aja Kong to make it in the womens wrestling game. Their shop offers a bit of post modernism in the Star Wars esque DVD designs and Doctor Who homages in their merch, something Chikara do very well and it pays off with the kind of crowd wrestling is appealing to now a days. They have strong testimonials from Shimmer personnel who note that they are widely professionally regarded throughout North America. They also have a mix of world wide stars Angelina Love of the Beautiful People fame is a recent signee as well as the award winning Alpha Female as current champ.

Moving on to what the website doesn't tell you about the company. They have in the past and currently worked with TNA British Boot Camp members The Blossom Twins. One of their roster Kay Lee Ray went to the JPW dojo which for any gaijin is a high honour as most wrestlers will tell you. They have an IPPV deal with Diva Dirt which means their big shows are are well publicised to the people that matter. Holly Rocomora has been all over wrestling media for the last year and they do seem to have built a reputation otherwise why would all those people be interested in them?


As you would expect the match quality is excellent, and to be honest I doubt I would find any bad matches in any of these round ups I am going to do of British Promotions. If they have got to IPPV they know what they are doing or no one else would be interested at this level. What does show a high level of professionalism is the quality of the production. This isn't Japan unfortunately, where even indie Joshi shows like Reina get high quality TV production, but its a three camera rig that catches all the action very well and very close up. Their video presentations are slick and professional. 

So what really appeals to me as a fan? Well its womens wrestling of a high standard and in an international market thats important, why spend money on EVE when you could spend it on say Sendai Girls? Well you probably guessed if I had money I'd spend it on both, but the homegrown talent means a strong base for a British market. What I do like about it is because its an all women promotion you have none of the "well they are female so they are not as important". Women wrestlers over the last 25 years have proved they can go just as hard, and in a lot of cases a lot harder, than the men. Greatest consistent in ring performer of the last 25 years? Manami Toyota, no arguing we just aren't interested. Yet TNA and WWE continue to put these performers in a secondary role, so with a one gender promotion you don't have that to worry about that. If only everywhere could be like Chikara, but never mind.     


Is the Holy Grail here? There are certainly some stand out stars in this promotion, Alpha Female, Nikki Storm and Kay Lee Ray. Will they transcend? That is debatable, this isn't Japan a place in which the Jumping Bomb Angels could tear the house down with the Crush Gals and make more money than any female wrestlers ever before. Having said that, breaking out into the main stream is about unpredictable x factors. Maybe one of these stars can make it, but it may take a sea change in the way that male dominated wrestling is promoted, or for Pro Wrestling EVE to get a TV deal and a lot bigger, they definitely have the tools to do it.




For more information on Pro Wrestling EVE go to;

http://www.evewrestling.com/home

Fine them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter @prowrestlingeve

Follow me @SheriffLonestar 

The Holy Grail

So I guess I gave up after a while, I wrote as much as I could for as long as I could and then time got the better of me and the day job took hold and I didn't have the energy to write for a while.

Then something happened. This blog chronicled me falling back in love with wrestling. I had access again thanks to TNA Impact Wrestling, Wrestle Talk TV, Rudo Reels, IVP Videos, Chikara, Ice Ribbon, Reina, Sendai Girls and all the promotions I could watch for free and or cheap. There seemed to be a conversation going on. Just a small one, but a conversation, maybe I was right maybe the time was now. That all my heroes had not been forgotten and that feeling of excitement I had when I turned on the TV on a Saturday afternoon was not gone forever.

Then came the work and the lack of time and everything else. This week though I have been invigorated by a few things. First and most importantly there is a bunch of people looking for the Holy Grail. As Greg Lambert puts it; The Holy Grail is to return British Wrestling to the days of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, to be part of the zeitgeist, to have that cultural cache (he wrote a book about  it, you can buy it here ).

The next step in this evolution of thought was a television development. TNA's British Bootcamp. The first national syndicated show in a very long time that features British Wrestlers. Maybe not about British Wrestling, which is no bad thing. The product today does not resemble the product of old, but that link is brought together by the appearance of one my heroes Mark Rocco. The next step was to start talking and sharing ideas and I found some cool people to do it with here. In a couple of days I was posting regularly on TNA Fan Forum and shared this blog with them they liked it enough to encourage me to write more so here I am. I will probably rattle off some more about the good old days, but for now I am looking to the future. If you want to talk about it more you can find me on Twitter under my nom de revolution of Sheriff Lonestar.

The basic gist of all this my 700 or so readers (damn that numbers small I need a decent url), is that we are in search of the Holy Grail, not just me but every right minded fan in this country. We are all going to keep looking, blogging, writing, tweeting and making TV shows about it until its is actually happening. Till then it has been a wonderful couple of days feeling like your part of something, even the tiniest, tiniest part.

End things with a banner that is what I always say;