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;

Retreading the path to Glory

My approach to this blog has usually been video and commentary, show and tell if you will. This week I offer an aberration and a State of the Union, inspired somewhat by Grantland’s excellent The Masked Man. As he concerns himself with story telling, I’m all bout the style.

I am not just a wrestling fan; I’m a music fan to. Back in the mid nineties I had a favourite band, The Ataris. Being a punk I loved their attitude, their “for the cause” realism matched up with explosive pop punk. They had shows that where joyous parties of exclamation. They rocked in short. Then they signed to a major. Their attitude changed somewhat. It was slow, but I saw every faltering step. By their second album on the major they had essentially split up. I felt for them, all they wanted was a bigger audience after all, but I knew that would be the way things played out. I had a slight sense of disappointment when they joined up to the major. It wasn’t that I thought they’d sold out; it was that I thought they wouldn’t be treated right. I have seen to many bands fall by the wayside or seem out of their depth, a story in Kerrang confirmed it to me; gone was the relaxed attitude, the turning up late for interviews and goofing off, on was the serious face of being a professional rock musician. I feel the same way about wrestlers that go to Vince after being darlings of the indie circuit. Certainly it felt that way people came up from ECW around the same time as my beloved Atari’s signed with Columbia. Essentially though it was the same thing, some drowned, some made it. A lot of that was to do with Vince Macmahon and talent relations. However for every Mick Foley that got down to work to reinvent themselves, there was a Dean Douglas who got lost in the shuffle. Whose fault is it? The front office? The wrestler? The fans for not caring enough? As Paul Heyman recently let loose on his twitter feed, wrestlers need to take every opportunity afforded to them. Looking back at the great careers of the past, indeed of the people who made me fans. I look at every open door the purposefully strode across. Would Dynamite have had as many great matches in his career had he not got on the plane to Canada? What would have happened if Ric Flair had staid in Minnesota? If Hulk Hogan hadn’t had been pushed into taking the job with WWF by Verne Gagne? This is where as a wrestling fan thing gets tricky, you can hate Vince for what he did to the territories, but he only really put out of the business the men who didn’t happen to be hungry enough, or the places in which his product did not relate to its audience. This is especially true of Japan, the style doesn’t work and they are all hungrier than he is. All these opportunities, some times they come, and some times they go. Two guys who have had opportunities most recently at the highest level are Colt Cabana and CM Punk. The NWA and WWE Champions and two best friends who this week presented the Art of Wrestling podcast and essentially explained not only the differences between being today’s NWA champion and WWE champions, but as representatives of their respective styles of wrestling. Back in the eighties when the territories crumbled, it took with it individual booking styles. They way things could be presented varied all over the world. When WWE became top dog essentially that was all we had left for mainstream consumption. The WWE became the biggest thing in the world and that too many people is wrestling. Not to me though, I would fantasise about matches between Wayne Bridges and Hulk Hogan (Joint and WWE world Champs) as I tried to figure out in my little kayfabe heart where everything lay. Out of the ashes of the territories though grew and underground. Just like in music, more specifically Punk. The underground is currently represented by Cabana as NWA champion, king of the Indies, most popular worker in the North America outside of the WWE bubble, probably in the UK to aside from the darlings of TNA. CM Punk is probably the most popular wrestler in the world aside from John Cena. They both learned how to wrestle at the same time; they both went to the same school and gyms and still do. They are both self made men. What they have done for the wrestling industry is bring the mainstream a little closer to the underground (Punk) and given the underground a model from which to work (Cabana). So what I hear you cry has this got do with British wrestling? The links in the chain go through Punk, Cabana and indeed Chris Hero, Daniel Bryan, Claudio Castignoli, Sara Del Ray, Mike Qaukenbush, Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Samoa Joe, Austin Aries and many more. This generation of stars took influence from what came before, but never have so many given credit to the people who it was due to. They name check their heroes and heroines constantly and encourage their research in the finer arts of pro wrestling. They look back at the glory days of British Wrestling and bring it full circle; they find people like Robbie Brookside, Les Thatcher and Steve Regal and encourage them to train themselves and others. Their hard work and dedication to British pro wrestling is paramount into revitalising what was once thought of as a dead style. When the FWA was a fledgling promotion I remember Power Slam magazine reviewing one of their cards, exclaiming that the match between Johnny Saint and Steve Grey was an anachronism to that spoiled the card of excellent wrestling in the ECW style. Putting that match on then it turns out was around fifteen years to early. LDN wrestling recently put on a match with Johnny Kidd and Johnny Saint that tore the house down as people now had something to appreciate in the sense of history. They didn’t learn it from Saturday afternoon ITV broadcasts. they learnt it from youtube, they learnt it from watching and listening to Steve Regal, they learnt it and watched it from Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Colt Cabana and Chris Hero. These men who loved our wrestling more than we did; enough to embrace it, reinvent it, cross breed it, develop it and produce something new.

When Punk went full on mainstream last summer, and more so when Daniel Bryan did, that evolution was complete. Looking around the wrestling world we have a mat technician in Austin Aries in the main event of the next TNA PPV, Bryan and Punk at the very top of the card in the WWE, Cabana as NWA Champ. Castignoli and Hero ready to be reborn to that new audience. Of course I still feel protective of some talents, just like my small and perfectly formed punk bands. Would Sara Del Ray make it in the WWE? I think so, would she want to be a WWE Superstar is another question. The woman who helped reinvent Joshi for a new North American audience is unlikely to want to be considered a Diva, but then again Punk only ever wanted to be a wrestler and he managed to make that change in the WWE happen. Back home we have the strongest scene we have had for a very long time; I just hope it remembers its roots as well as our friends cross the pond do.                     

Oh when the Saint . . .

So it’s been a while; this partly due to my commitments at Bomcast, and partly due to my diligence in watching lots of lovely DVD’s from the fine people at Rudo Reels and Smart Mark Video. These things of course feed into one another. So when I left you all hanging I was going to break down how All Star became dominant and left Joint in its wake. My watching of Smart Mark DVD’s has led me into re-watching a lot of Johnny Saint. His performance at Chikara’s Chikarasaurus Rex last year (at the age of 71 I may add) was incredible. This was partly down to a red hot crowd in Reading, Pennsylvania who adored his match with Johnny Kidd, but also the incredibly knowledgeable and respectful fans of South Philly. They always loved their wrestling. They just liked their blood and guts as well. And so it was that in a place where Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho and Rey Misterio broke the US market wide open for pure wrestlers Johnny Saint and Johnny Kidd reinvigorated their somewhat dormant careers, with the help of Mike Quakenbush and Colt Cobana . So where does this fit in with how All Star broke the Saturday afternoon mould? Take a look at this.



This is late eighties and classic All Star presentation; a catch weight contest between two of the top drawing cards in the country. Something Joint would never have done. Brian Dixon ensured that the TV was there to support the live gate not replace it. He built feuds in the arenas from feuds he had going for him on TV. The episodic cliff hanger format that was pioneered by Bill Watts presented with an original twist. The pre-match interview favoured Dave Finlay, always ahead of his time. The subtle and down played reply by Johnny Saint belies an incredible voice that if you listen to his Art of Wrestling Podcast is both insightful, funny and warm. What really paid of though is what happens between the ropes. The short format three minute rounds, championship style, kind of cuts into the flow, but the bell goes and we have the classic roles of heel and face played out. Dave’s stall and taunt tactics give a nice pace to the match, his minimalist style goes against the grain of Johnny’s all action outings. The Sandman (a technical wizard if ever there was one) once recounted how Dave, then working as a road agent for WWE, didn’t like a match because someone had taken to many bumps. He then proceeded to have a one bump match to prove his point. Everything makes sense.



And of course with Dave being full on heel, Johnny can relax and go on being viciously effective full on face, something the Philly fans did not see. Note the torque on the whip at 1:26. Of course Dave has not really evolved his style much in the ring over the years. He has just got more vicious. His chilling promo for his Ring of Honor match with Roderick Strong at Border Wars attests to which basically boiled down to “Finlay’s coming” attests to that. Paula of course always attracted white hot heat from the crowd, but its Dave who seals the deal in the ring; the bemused heel chasing ghosts and of course when you get frustrated resort to punches. Punching was so looked down up on and was almost an instant DQ in the British ring because rules still mattered. Throwing a punch was enough to get major heat and Dave’s perfect hidden deliveries. So the story goes on; the heel gets mad so the face gets even madder. This is Johnny’s downfall as he slips into the Celtic Cross.



Round four brings us back to action Johnny sells the Celtic Cross very believably, as with much of everything he did; his usual matches against smaller opponents where usually affairs of escape and defence, he had plenty of chances to seal the submissions and pin falls so when he really got hit with something big he looked perfect. Moderation is the key after all. The escape and release style resurfaces as Johnny hits his second wind. Simplicity is the key as Johnny takes down Dave Finlay with a School boy. As Kent Walton rightly says “all done with speed”, in fact the only thing missing from Chikarasaurous Rex was Kent Walton’s commentary; however he was mentioned in passing. I would have dearly loved to have heard him commentate on the singles match. The other issue of this time was camera presentation. The low camera shot from the side of the ring was something new, but it also helped impact of each moved to be presented in a much more hard hitting way. What is also amazing is that the one big bump of the match happens so late. These two men had the crowd oohing and ahhing without leaving their feet that often. This says a lot for their ability. Doing the most with minimal effort, this had an impact on their careers in that both are wrestling to a very high level twenty five years later. There is a somewhat anti climatic ending to the bout which manages to achieve a lot and could only happen in a British ring. Dave keeps his heat as a heel and his dominance as a larger man; Johnny retains his heat as a face by losing in less than perfect circumstances. Everyone’s a winner. Certainly All Star fans where. Joint fan’s not so much. They had to deal with this.



Which would you rather watch? I shall at this point give a shameless plug to those folks at Rudo Reels, not for any other reason other than they are supportive of wrestling, offer great value and give incredible service. I strongly recommend their download service which can build your collection cheaply and effectively. A word of warning though it’s addictive. I’d start with their excellent Luche Libre sampler which has some mid nineties classics and shows the growth of AAA, EMLL and the careers of Rey Misterio, Psycosis and La Parka and is free. Have a good week, till next week.