A Bird's Eye View Column #01: Not Cena Nuff. By Glenn Bird

Hey there everybody this is Glenn Bird here re-debuting an old column of mine I call A Bird’s Eye View. It’s been some time since I last wrote a column or blog so I might be a little rusty but I’m sure it won’t take me long to get back in to the swing of things. Anywho, I decided to make the first column on a usually controversial subject, that being John Cena.

Me personally? I’m a fan of John Cena, yes I know what you’re thinking, I must be under the age of 14 but as a matter of fact I’m 26. The thing that I find these days is that a lot of people claim to dislike or hate Cena but do so because it’s the cool thing to do, it’s like a long fad. Personally I never bought in to the whole disliking of Cena’s in ring abilities because I tend to like the majority of his matches. Now I know that some people who read this will be automatically thinking ‘But Cena only haz five movezzz of doomz” and I say that they’d be wrong because Cena has more than five SIGNATURE moves, that’s not even counting moves like suplexes and DDT’s, so that whole five moves thing is ridiculous. I’ve had this same debates a few times and these are my thoughts on the five moves subject. A lot of people who say this about Cena seem to be Bret Hart fans; Bret to be was the originator of the five moves of doom. What exactly is the difference? Like I said above I think that the dislike of Cena is a ‘cool fad’ as he rarely has a bad match. Okay so the endings of his matches are samey samey a lot of the time but you can say that with a lot of people. His matches though are usually quite enjoyable to me and the fans, whether cheering or booing him, make his matches extra heated. Cena, to me, was also involved in one of the best WWE matches for a long time at last year’s Money In The Bank pay per view. People can say that was all down to Punk all they want but I say they both made that match what it was.

Another popular sub-category on subject Cena is a heel turn. If Cena did indeed turn heel the first thing the fans would do is cheer him! It is utterly pointless turning Cena heel officially because it’ll just get the fans cheering him. He’s actually more heel as a face than he would be as an official heel, so it’s totally pointless so WWE may as well not bother as he’s doing exactly what they want him doing right now, bringing in the dollar. See people moan about that too but that’s how to do business. Cena markets to kiddies, kiddies want to see a WWE show so if you’ve sold a ticket to a kid you’ve automatically sold at least two since they have to go with an adult. The kiddie at the show then wants Cena merchandise and parent buys kiddie a shirt, a head band, wristbands, baseball cap, the works. Its brilliant marketing if you think about it. Until Cena stops selling (merchandise that is) he will forever be WWE’s top babyface and cash cow. So don’t expect Cena to turn against the WWE Universe any time soon people, it’s just bad for WWE business.

People of course seem to blame John Cena and John Cena alone for all these sins when in actual fact they should be pointing fingers at the bookers. Cena has been booked to be the superman, sure as my brother Diamond Dale Mills (cheap shout out) rightfully pointed out, Cena could indeed challenge the booking and maybe he has, we might never know if he has or hasn’t but at the end of the day it’s the higher ups that have the final say over these things and if they want Johnny boy to be Superman then they’ll book and push Johnny to be Superman, that’s just how it is. They booked Hogan the same, how many matches did Hogan lose? And when he did lose how many were clean? Same with Steve Austin, every time he lost it seemed to be in a stipulation match with 465 run ins, 464 of which took stunners while the 465th did the deed to cost Austin his match, so really Cena is no different than any of them. In actual fact he probably loses more than they did in their prime eras.

~~This part of the column is being edited in last minute due to what happened at the Night Of Champions pay per view. Cena’s match with Punk was the best match on the card by far, even better than Orton versus Ziggler which I also thought was amazing. I think this match proved that Cena can indeed wrestle and is pretty damn good at it too. Of course those people with their Cena hater shades on will still 100% deny that he was amazing in that match but hell that’s expected. Either way in my opinion he proved that he can wrestle and deserves to be in the top spot as well the face of the WWE.

So there we go, those are my thoughts on the very controversial topic of John Cena. To close things off here I’m gonna do something DDM used to do when he wrote columns years ago. Random Thoughts!

I think Daniel Bryan and Kane should name their team “Hell No!”...

Really enjoyed the Night Of Champions pay per view, aside from the divas bullshittery. I think I may do a Bird’s Eye ReView of the show...

Dolph Ziggler watches over Chuck Norris as he sleeps...

If your Lipshitz what does your arse do?...

Get well soon Jerry!...

Well folks that’s it for the first edition of the Bird’s Eye View, thanks to Stu and Wrestling’s Last Hope for allowing me to write for them. Feel free to add me on facebook and follow me on twitter @Glencyclopedia

Glenn out!

I'm gonna go till I stop having fun By Jose Haze

(Here we have Drake Younger - Photo credit DGUSA.TV)

At Pro Wrestling Guerilla's "Threemendous III" back in July Willie Mack and PWG Champ Kevin Steen engaged in a brutal back and forth contest that will go down as one of the all time great matches in the history of the promotion. After the match, the show went into intermission. I told my friend Dan sort of in passing "I'd hate to be the guys that have to follow that up."

When the show finally came back the two men who were given the difficult task of following Steen/Mack were none other than SoCal Indy legend B-Boy and making his PWG debut, a man who had been part of many wars himself, and had enough scars on his body to tell the story of every single one of them, Drake Younger.

"That was a tough spot. Going on after a world title match, followed by the intermission" said Younger when I caught up with him recently.

A tough spot indeed. A spot where a different wrestler might have thought to himself "There is nothing I can do here" and mailed in the match, picked up his payoff and looked forward to a better spot. By that same token, I'm sure the fans at the American Legion Hall would have understood as well.

Instead the PWG fans were given more than that. They witnessed a match that not only equaled the previous contest, some say it might have surpassed it.

"Being my PWG debut, I went in there looking to earn a job. It was sink or swim as we say in the business, I knew I had to take this, and make something of it." said Younger.

The match started out as somewhat methodical, with a few stiff kicks mixed in to spice things up. Then following a spine buster by Drake, came a ridiculously loud chop from Drake. Both men engaged each other with a series of slaps to the face and chops to the chest with a hard head butt from Drake for good measure. Make no mistake about it, Younger and B-Boy weren't out there to kill some time till the next main event match, they were there to become the main event!

As the crowd began to realize what was happening in the ring, the wrestlers began took notice of the crowd. " The fans started to come alive. So I felt that, and I'm sure B-Boy felt it too, so we just went for it man".

The two men began to mix it up, incorporating multiple styles of wrestling. Then something happened that in my opinion shot the match into another dimension. Drake sent B-Boy into the crowd, and threw a flip off the ring apron. At the last minute B-Boy moved, leaving Drake to land on the hard floor, back first, leaving the crowd in a state of shock.

Eventually the two men made their way back into the ring. exchanging chops, painful kicks all over each others bodies, and elbows to the face. A few minutes later after a michonoku driver on the apron, Drake moonsaulted off the top rope, destroying B-Boy in the process, to the fans delight. At one point B-Boy delivered a brutal power slam onto the floor, openng up the top of Drake's head in the process.

"I've built up a high threshold of pain over the years, even going back to my backyard days" said Younger.

This was evident to everyone in attendance, because where the average human being would probably stop wrestling at this point, Drake seemed to relish the opportunity, wiping the blood from his head, and going at B-Boy harder than ever. At one point driving him into the ground off the top rope. The men continued to go at each other, slamming each other on their heads, with each man kicking out after each one. The match finally ended after a series of inverted reverse pile drivers, with B-Boy getting in the last one.

The crowd roared after the match, pounding on the canvas, while yelling in unison "Please come back" and thanking the two warriors of the mat for the price they had paid to entertain them.

"CZW will always be my home, but PWG is a place like no other. They always put together great matches. They bring in great wrestlers. All the wrestlers and people associated with PWG are cool and the fans are so incredible and respectful"

Obviously this show stealing performance allowed Younger to earn a job with PWG, as he was invited back for "The Battle of Los Angeles".

At BOLA, Drake continued to take the notion that he is only a death match wrestler, and threw it out the window. Displaying a wide array of styles over the course of the two day event. Everything from technical wrestling, Japanese style, some high flying and even a little comedy. the man truly has evolved and can do it all.

When I spoke with him Drake mentioned he will be representing his home, CZW, in Japan and Germany beginning at the end of this month. I expect him to leave those
fans as thoroughly entertained as he did us SoCal wrestling fans at both "Threemendous III" and "BOLA 2012".

To get to where he has arrived, and gain the reputation of being one of the toughest men in the business, Drake had to follow in the foot steps of his greatest influence, Sabu. He also had to pay a very physical price. so I asked him how much longer he was going to do this?

"Look I love wrestling. I've seen the world because of wrestling".

"I'm gonna go till I stop having fun".

Judging from what I saw at Threemendous III and BOLA 2012, he's still having alot of fun.



You can follow me on twitter @Jose_LL_00

AJB’s Biggest British Wrestling Pet Peeves Number 1 By Adam James Bullivant.

Looking through what other contributors have added since my last post, there seems to be a lot of focus on British Wrestling as of late. Which, personally, is bloody wonderful to see. British Wrestling is in the strongest state it has been in years. Today alone there are three UK shows that, if my current budget of minus £100 pounds would allow me to do so, I would love to attend. Not to forget the addition of “TNA British Boot Camp”, an original commissioned series by Challenge TV, starting in December and the opinion splitting “Wrestle Talk TV”. British Wrestling is starting to make waves, however mild, into the world of mainstream broadcast television for the first time in many a year. Many mainstay companies like New Generation Wrestling and Futureshock Wrestling took its product to new, bigger and more impressive venues this summer for the first time. Both successfully. Whilst newer companies like Preston City Wrestling, Progress, Southside Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Elite and the import heavy Fight Club Pro continued to do great business. Each one of the above, and others, bringing back the faith in British Wrestling once lost among fans and talent alike. Especially after the later 1PW years, a company now often forgot when discussing this countries wrestling. A clear cut sign that things are truly on the up and up.

Saying all this, British Wrestling is still not perfect. By any stretch of anyone’s imagination. You only have to see the often comical rants of a certain now retired infamous pro wrestler (@Isaacharrop75 on Twitter, thank me later) regarding a number of ‘Div’ wannabe members of the British Wrestling community. The untrained self-appointed “superstars”, who go on to train the next generation of untrained self-appointed superstars. Think NXT but with more poorly applied wristlocks and more TNA finishing moves in the opening minutes of a match. I say match, for want of a better term. Saying all this, this issue is not just with the unprofessional, the often unwashed and the downright unsafe that litter the metaphorical streets of British Wrestling City. Like that one local tramp everyone in a certain city knows, but without the harmless charm and communal acceptance.

Every promoter, or at least the many I have come into direct or indirect contact in my time on the rim of British Wrestling, make mistakes. Mostly because, well, they are all human. And as human, that is what we uniformly do. But for the most part, these mistakes are easily avoided with basic forethought, logic and minimal expense.

So, I have decided to start a weekly piece, simple entitled “AJB’s Biggest British Wrestling Pet Peeves”. This being of cause being instalment number 1. I should go on the record about a few things before I begin. I have never promoted, I never intend on. I have eternal respect for those who do, or at least the ones with the brainpower to do it successfully. I have worn many hats in British Wrestling, some more successfully than others. Everything from trainee, wrestler (of the lowest level), ring crew, graphic designer, one off ring announcer (a comical notion, considering I have a stammer/stutter), journalist, social media admin, poster/flyer distributor, referee and of cause, fan. Saying this, in the grand scheme of things, I still happily class myself as “A Pro Wrestling Nobody”. So however debateable my credibility in giving advice to promoters, these views are for entertainment purposes, and do not reflect the views of WrestlingsLastHope.com or its owner. To be honest, I just always wanted to say that. I do not intend to offend any British Wrestling promoters with this, and will refrain from using actual company names wherever possible. Unless you are called Andy Hogg or Brad Flash, then all offense is intended. Strawb.

AJB’s Biggest British Wrestling Pet Peeves No 1:
Awful Wrestling Event Posters.

It’s 2012, there is no excuse. Don’t even attempt to make one. I can only assume we are now at the point where one can actually install a copy of Photoshop on ones iPhone/iPad these days. In a world where seemingly every Tom, Dick and the often overlooked Harry can use photo editing software, this is very much a double edged sword. I remember as a child, in primary school, being told the often repeated rhyme “All medicine are drugs, but not all drugs are medicine”. This rule very much applies to people who use Photoshop, or any similar product.

“All digital designers are photoshoppers, but not all photoshoppers are digital designers”.

It’s easy to throw together a bunch of, often poorly cut out, images of wrestlers on a background, put your company name on there somewhere and expect people to chop at the bit to come to your event.

“I mean, wrestling fans watch WWE RAW every week, and that’s wrestling. And my event is wrestling. So that means they must want to come to my event”

The Illogical mind-set of way too many British Wrestling promoters. This logic is on par with saying “I enjoyed watching The Inbetweener’s Movie. That’s a film. So I must enjoy this 3 hour German documentary about the unexplainable increase to the population of the native earwig in 1870’s Berlin. That’s a film too”. An extreme comparison, clearly, but a fair one none the less. The difference being that people who watch RAW watch not only because it’s wrestling, but because they know, from experience, that they are going to get a professionally marketed product. Ignore the fact they have the incredible talent, in the best venues on the planet, to sell-out crowds of passionate fans. RAW, and all WWE broadcasting for that matter, is seen as the pinnacle because it is lit, filmed and presented to a truly world class standard by an incredible team of production staff. The introduction package to each episode is always to a very high standard. The motion graphics to advertise the upcoming matches are crisp, cleanly designed and easily readable to the untrained eye. The RAW logo, however ever changing it may be, is always well designed and would not look out place in a line-up of the world’s finest brand logos, whether it Pepsi or Pampers. Maccy D’s or Marmite. Factor in all forms of external promotion, be it scientifically placed TV advertisements or simply walking past excellent DVD covers or T-Shirts in Walmart. Everything you see of WWE makes it look the best, because it’s been designed that way.

Not merely photoshopped that way. Designed.

My point being, people turn into RAW because they have been seen nothing but crisp, clean, well thought out, logical, enticing marketing. A concept many UK companies seem to forget. I’ve often seen some truly solid British Wrestling cards, featuring the true elite talent in the area/country. Often featuring true UK dream matches anyone, whether in the know about the British Wrestling scene or not, would thoroughly enjoy seeing. And not mind paying for the pleasure to do so. The excitement is often ruined when I see the poster advertising the aforementioned show itself. A poster is only as good as it’s effectiveness as a tool to entice people who walk past it in the street to stop and look. Simple as. This is where most UK posters, in my opinion, fail.

The important things, in my opinion, that all wrestling event posters should have are a followed.

1) The word WRESTLING as big as humanly possible. There is no point in having a poster if no one knows what it is. Pictures of semi naked men, out of context, can easily be seen as many other kinds of event. My ultimate biggest pet peeve about posters is when the show name is bigger than the word WRESTLING. A poster with semi naked men, some in masks, with the word wrestling in tiny font, with the show title “EXTREME PUNISHMENT” plastered all over it can easily attract the wrong kind of connotations…

2) A few images of wrestlers that look like wrestlers. Let me clarify this careful. If down to designers, we will normally want to have as few wrestlers on the poster as possible. But promoters often want as many as humanly possible. Try to find a good middle ground. Saying this, there are only 2 kinds of worker that are suitable to be on advertising for a pro wrestling event in my books. One with muscles and one whom is exceptionally fat. The golden rule is, Guns/Abs or Big Daddy. If your arms are as thin as the paper the poster is printer on, you have no place on the poster. Whether your mate booked you as the champion or not.

3) For these images to be of quality. If you are starting a wrestling company, you should have the money to invest for all your talent to be professionally photographed. That way you have sharp, well lit, high resolution images of your talent to use in all advertising (Poster/Flyers/Match Graphics/DVD Covers). For your first event poster (which will need to be designed for your first show, and therefore your first chance to get your wrestlers photographed) then try to work with a reputable photographer that will have a back catalog of your talent to draw from. Or a fellow company that has copyrighted images they can lend you to use. Photos taken by talent in there mums backroom, compressed to a small JPG image and sent to you over Facebook is not going to look good on anything.

4) Simple use of colours. The one most forgotten. A poster with a limited colour scheme, maybe 2/3 colours top, is normally much better than one with one with a million different clashing colours all mixed together. This is where an artist eye, or artist training, really comes in handy. On a side note, maybe black and white looked badass for the nWo in the 90’s, but a poster featuring 80% black is rarely going to attract someone’s attention. Never be scared of colour.

5) All the information needed. Again, let me clarify. A poster typically needs the venue, date, website/Facebook address, ticket price, how to get tickets and event name. That really is about it. And it doesn’t need to take up 50% of the design either. Draw them with the imagery; let them find the information afterwards. Look at posters for other events, whether they be for a concert or a stand up or such. It’s rare the font will take up more than about 20%-25% of the total canvas space. To the everyday punter walking past it in a chippy, they don’t need to know that Johnny Kickpads is going to be taking on Muscles Mike in a grudge match after Kickpads valet, Miss Buttercup, cost him the title at the working mens club show in March. These names mean nothing, and not just because I made them up. Neither does the match itself. Even actual well respected talent like, for example, Kris Travis means nothing to the man in the taxi firm waiting to get home at 3am after failed night on the pull. So why include it if you don’t have too? Unless you have a respectable, and more importantly recognizable, import on your show. If you have a former WWE star on your show, then feel free to milk it for all it’s worth.

And that is about it. When it comes to wrestling posters, less is more. Always. Without fail. Something seemingly everyone forgets. Make your pictures big, the word WRESTLING huge, most of your other writing small. I’ve only come to learn this stuff through trial and error over the last number of years. I’ve made all these mistakes myself and learnt from them. The import thing to remember is: A good designer can make even a piss poor show luck half decent. A half decent show look great. And a great shows look world class.

After reading this, you will return to world of wrestling message boards and social media pages and see these little imperfections everywhere. They drive me mad. How much it bothers you will depend on how much you respect my incite on the matter and how much you actually care. Most importantly, stick to the age old design rule of K.I.S.S. Keep it simple, stupid.

I give this advice to anyone willing to read it for one reason and one reason only. I know one other harsh truth about British Wrestling. Promoters will, in most cases, rather do the design work themselves. Or get a mate who knows photoshop to throw them something together instead. Whether they have any concept of good design or not. A bad promoter will ignore all this advice. A typical promoter might think of some of this, but in the end probably not take note in the long run. A proper promoter will pay a proper designer, with a proper artistic background, a very fair price to properly design and properly create his proper event poster for him. You know, to actually properly promote his event.

A proper promoter professionally promoting his event. Both a wonderful use of alliteration and, sadly, a completely foreign concept too many promoters.

Adam James Bullivant can be found at:
Twitter at @TME_AJB (for banter)
Tout at /adamjamesbullivant (for pointless videos)
Facebook at /adam.james.bullivant (for reffing & design work)

When Does An Indy Promotion Cease To Become One And What Then Does It Become? By Robert Shade

(Above: British wrestler 'Dynamite' Pete Dunne - A Real Class Worker)

I do not know how many indy promotions in the UK exist, I am sure that somewhere there is an accurate record of the number but I recently counted 5 in Birmingham and Coventry alone and in addition to that I am aware of one in Tamworth which makes at least 6 in a round circle of about 20 miles!

In many respects this is wonderful for us fans, it provides us with a rich variety of shows to attend meaning that if you were so minded, wealthy enough (and not married!!) you could attend shows nearly every weekend of the year, sometimes more than one show a weekend, I was informed this week of a guy who attended nearly 200 indy shows in the UK alone last year!

It is also wonderful that there are so many people out there who are prepared to put themselves on the line for us but also for them to live the dream of being a promoter, you get to be Vince! If you prefer you can be Dixie! But yes the reality is that you can book matches, you can become personal friends with wrestlers, you can see the evidence of your own work come to fruition and witness potentially hundreds of people having the time of their lives at an event which would never have occurred if it was not for you the promoter.

Sometimes I have wondered in recent months what would it be like? I guess that you have to have some money in the kitty to start off with so that you can book a venue, hire a ring, hire commentators for the DVD which you need to help finance the ongoing project, pay the cameraman unless you are lucky enough to obtain a skilled volunteer! Also there is the printing of tickets,buying the raffle prizes and of course paying the actual wrestlers and referees and probably a whole load of other expenses which have not occurred to me.

If you do it well then I assume it becomes self financing although I would be surprised if any UK promoter is making any real money out of running a promotion, I think without exception they do it for the love and the passion of putting on the wrestling shows and living their own dreams.

How much thought I wonder do people who slate various indy shows on the internet actually put into the sacrifices in so many ways that the promoter makes when creating the show, I have seen face book posts from a couple of promoters where it is obvious that they cannot sleep, they are posting at 2.30am, 4.00am etc etc and sometimes they are open about the stress of it all going wrong on the day, what if a wrestler does not show, I listened to the Indy Corner interview with Noam Dar today and learnt that the Southside show I attended that the star attraction Davey Richards had thought it was an evening show and not the afternoon show that it actually was, he only just made it, there were a number of people in that crowd who had only traveled to see Davey in action, what would the promoter have had to deal with then, two days prior to that at PCW when I was also in attendance Jonathan Gresham for reasons unknown to myself arrived as I understand it nearly halfway through the show which totally wrecked the previously carefully laid plans for the show, matches were rearranged, it affected more than one match as the promoter had to ensure that he had the right type of wrestler in certain matches to make that match work no fault of the promoter but I read plenty of moans online afterwards about his booking of Gresham on the show, whilst the match was a letdown the promoter in my opinion had little choice given the timekeeping of the talent.

Referring back to the same PCW show, a couple of days before it happened the promoter posted on face book that he was pondering over whether or not to pay an extra insurance premium so that he could have up to 800 people in attendance, originally I think that the capacity for insurance reasons was about 400 and that had long since sold out, in the end he decided to pay the extra which was great as it meant I could then go! But he took a financial risk which I assume would have backfired on him personally if he had got the call badly wrong.

So we do have a lot to be grateful to our promoters for, sometimes things do go wrong through no fault of theirs sometimes I am sure that stuff does go wrong with a show that is their fault but we are all human!

BUT what if it all goes right? What if it keeps on going right and each and every show you grow and you grow significantly, again using the PCW example I watched an online documentary on You Tube about PCW before attending the show which incidentally was their first anniversary show, this documentary detailed how their crowds have grown from around 200 up to the point where the promoter sold 400 tickets weeks before the latest event and paid the extra insurance and then attracted hundreds more on the night.

The venue was very plush for an indy event, it was held in a nightclub and live music was on offer besides the wrestling HOWEVER by my estimation you would really struggle to get too many more people in there certainly people who would actually have a half decent view of the ring, yes they did have screens up which showed the action and that is really good in the UK but it is still not the same as being able to see the ring, after all you do want the live product if you attend in person.

So what does the promoter do? He strikes me as being very ambitious, he has recently set up a working website and talked during the show of something on TV, he is being very successful in attracting big names from overseas, amongst others Chris Masters and John Morrison will be appearing on forthcoming shows.

Does he make the call of once that venue is full it is full and he turns away any additional people who may want to come in or does he try to expand PCW as far as possible to get as many people through as possible into the PCW experience?

In my mind if he opts for the latter it is a policy fraught with risk, it would involve a more sizable venue, I do not know Preston at all so I have no idea what alternative venues are available but if such a venue exists I can only imagine that it would come at a greater cost, then he is under increased pressure to keep on rolling in the big names from overseas as if he commits to a larger more expensive venue and the crowds stop coming then PCW is potentially in trouble, the other concern I would have is I’ve experienced this myself in other sports, you can have a crowd in a venue that can hold say 300 and you have 280 in there and because it’s almost full and it’s a small venue the atmosphere is cracking and it feels like an occasion or you can have a larger crowd but in a much larger venue so you could have a venue that could hold say 2500 but you only have 750 in there, now that would feel almost empty and I’d imagine that a lot of the atmosphere would be lost due to the empty spaces.

Also part of the attraction of indy events I think for some people is the closeness to the action compared to WWE or TNA where you can feel quite isolated from it again once you expand too much and move into the larger arenas you are actually taking away from the product quite a number of factors which make people go in the first place which includes atmosphere, pricing, proximity to the talent,feeling of an occasion.

It is a difficult one to answer really, I can totally understand the quandary that any promoter in this situation may face,it is a similar issue as well if TV becomes involved, I have been to shows which live have been fantastic and the atmosphere has been awesome, I’ve purchased the DVD and I’ve wondered when watching it back why they cut the atmosphere out which of course they haven‘t but they simply do not have the funds to use the same quality sound translation etc as the likes of WWE do, unless there are high production values in any TV promotion you run a real risk of your product coming across as bland and nothing special even when in reality it may well be an incredible live experience, I also think that you run a risk of people opting to stay and watch it on TV instead of traveling to watch live for the simple economics of it being cheaper, then TV lose interest because of empty seats and no atmosphere and people have dropped out of the habit of attending live.

So I guess that the message I am trying to put over here to all promoters and I’ve only used PCW as an example from my personal experience, is all of you have my total respect and full admiration for what you do and it is completely understandable that you want your promotion to grow as much as possible but please if you feel in the position to take that next vital step just take a moment and think it through, we all love our indy wrestling and none of us want to lose any of our promotions!

How UK Indy Wrestling Has Brought The Out Passion in Us By Robert Shade

(Above: SouthSide Wrestling Heavyweight Champion STIXX)

Usually in life when you look at the biggest sports clubs, the biggest companies, the biggest countries even usually the cream rises to the top and when you look at for example the top football clubs such as Manchester United or Chelsea or Manchester City etc you see undeniably the top players appearing for those clubs and those clubs doing their utmost to bring out the best in those players.

However Wrestling is different in my opinion, it is difficult to make a sound argument that if you wish to see top quality wrestling or thrilling original well done storylines that the modern day WWE or TNA are the places to go, they may be the best on TV but that is because they are all that there is on TV.

I have watched WWE on a regular basis hardly ever missing a show (including Superstars) for many years and like many of us I sense whilst remaining loyal to the televised product (out of blind loyalty or habit not sure!) the quality has without doubt declined, many blame this on the PG brand but that does not prevent decent storylines and then following them through consistently, we have had bits and bobs such as the initial Nexus invasion, the first bit of the summer of Punk but they were both ruined by atrocious and lazy writing, I currently am eagerly awaiting to see how Punk and Heyman is going to pan out but note I am not saying I am excited, reason being I just feel it may be good for a while then they will just totally cock it up by doing something incredibly stupid aka Hornswoggle as the anonymous general manager.

In terms of the actual in ring product on offer it is encouraging that they are showing a trend to taking on smaller guys and of the bigger guys such as Cesaro and Ohno we know that those guys can wrestle but the big question is once they hit the main shows how much proper wrestling do we get from them before something happens like AJ skipping in or Kane being added to matches, Vince will respond by saying its sports entertainment guys but in my humble opinion I just think that he has got lazy, his appetite for the fight has diminished with his priorities elsewhere such as Linda’s campaign and along with him being at retirement age and rich beyond our wildest dreams in his mind why should he really bother any longer?

So is it all despair and crying into our rose tinted from the past glasses or is there hope anywhere?

Well TNA to an extent provides some if certain people actually opened their eyes, cast their bias against the company out of the window and watch the product from new, however they make some mistakes such as the silly Claire Lynch storyline, I mean how can you say as AJ Styles had to that dependent upon the outcome of a wrestling match he was either definitely the unborn baby’s father or he would take a paternity test!!!! Their product has improved and their in ring stuff most of the time in the past 3 years has been superior to WWE’s but again you are just left feeling that something is not there that used to be back when WWF and WCW were engaging in the Monday Night Wars and ECW were also bashing at our senses in terms of wow are we really seeing this on our TV’s!

But what is that missing ingredient and where can we find it?

Well excitement is what we are missing and we do not need to look particularly far, in fact if you live in the UK in almost any of our towns and cities there is a fair bet that lurking inside a sports hall or a night club or some other local establishment will be an indy wrestling company and there is a fair bet that the quality of the wrestling is way in excess of what you will see live on TV or pay through the nose for if you attend a WWE or TNA house show.

How do I find such a show? Well you can look on the excellent UKFF website which lists most of the local shows including where and when they take place and usually lists the card of matches also.

I have had wrestling fans say to me and by this I mean people I know who watch it on TV but who have never been to a live indy event that it must be rubbish because there is hardly anybody there and you have never heard of any of the wrestlers and in any case they must be rubbish if they are wrestling in small halls in front of supposedly small groups of people.

All that I can say is the following, I have now attended a number of Indy Shows, namely NSW which is in Birmingham, SWE which I have watched in Nottingham and PCW which is a large UK indy company based in Preston.

At each and every one of those shows without exception I left feeling at worst incredibly well entertained from the style, speed, technical skill and close contact with the wrestlers to at best leaving feeling like I was about 12 years old again on a massive high having seen something incredible which I thought had gone from wrestling for ever and then discovered that actually I just needed to travel a few miles down the road, pay around a tenner and there it was a 3 hour plus show for that money with each and every match of a far higher quality than what you get on RAW etc.

I have witnessed a complete loon called Mad Man Manson screaming in the middle of the ring all kinds of the funniest things I’ve ever heard in my life, to the point whereby when the match was over myself and everyone else in the crowd had tears rolling down our cheeks so hard had we laughed (imagine Santino or Eric Young but with original and genuine real humour).

I have seen matches which have lasted 25 - 30 minutes of such a high technical quality that the likes of Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler would have been proud to have put on such a show, to the point whereby people spend most of the final few minutes of the match on their feet such is the quality of the product in front of them and a roaring standing ovation at the end, when did you last see that at one of the big boys?

I have been there when a vicious death match took place with a moment when even a hardened wrestling fan like myself had to look away briefly such was the extreme hardcore nature of the match taking place, then we had a 20 minute interlude before the next match whilst the broken glass and blood etc had to be cleared from the ring.

I have been ringside when a wrestler in my case the WWE bound PAC ended up on my seat which I’d just left and then had him holding onto me for support in the middle of the match and I ended up as part of the event myself, do you get that at the big boys?

I have watched an incredible street fight which was just like an old fashioned ECW match where the crowd were following the wrestlers around the arena whilst they were fighting and even the ropes were removed during the match by one of the wrestlers and the crowd were passing chairs and other weapons to the wrestlers.

The most recent event I attended was a feud between Southside Wrestling and House Of Pain in Nottingham, this was spectacular, it culminated with about 300 people quite literally stood up for about 15 minutes all chanting their heads off with either SWE or House Of Pain, it was like being at a football match in the 80s atmosphere wise but without the crowd trouble! We had everything from run in’s to referee’s brawling, to a manager being super kicked, to the wrestlers fighting in the crowd to SWE fans fighting the House Of Pain manager over the use of a chair, the atmosphere and the emotions which were elicited was quite amazing to be part of, the noise was as such that I could not speak to my son next to me without shouting.

I have only ever been to SIX indy shows and all of the above and more have happened just in those shows, the main company I follow is Southside (SWE) in Nottingham and the consistency of storyline is massively impressive.

What is better is that the experience does not end there, you can go onto the social media and play a character and feud on there with people from the rival (in storyline) promotion, just this week I have become embroiled online with a feud between the M.O.B who I sided with and The Predators (a tag team from House Of Pain) who in character threatened me with a trophy kill down my throat!

As a result of all of this which is of course all online panto banter I am finding that I am getting to know an increasing number of similar minded people which includes other fans, wrestlers and promoters and as a consequence you can really immerse yourself into this hitherto wonderful undiscovered world of UK indy wrestling.

So you do not have to choose between the televised product and what is on our own doorsteps but I hope that as wrestling fans if you have currently never attended a UK indy show, try it out, I guarantee you that you will have a thoroughly good time and it will not break the bank either so please get yourself out there and prepare to be thrilled!

The Young Bucks & ROH By Jose Haze

This week the rumor that Indy sensations The Young Bucks and ROH had parted ways began to make it's way through the social media channels.

When asked by WLH and The Indy Corner honcho Stu Rodgers via twitter, Matt Jackson of the Bucks had this to say "I wouldn't say we are done anywhere...ever in wrestling, but currently we have zero shows booked for them."

On a previous occasions in ROH, The Young Bucks and other SoCal based wrestlers have been left off cards due to reasons related to travel expenses. Coincidentally everyone I talked to familiar with the situation think this rumored split, could have something to do with travel expenses as well.

The Young Bucks are scheduled to appear at this weekend's Chikara "King of Trios 2012" event in Easton, Pa. followed by an appearance for House of Hardcore Oct. 6th in Poughkeepsie, NY. Also, last week I asked Nick Jackson, the other half of the Young Bucks, via twitter if he and his brother would be in Los Angeles, Ca for the Oct. 27th PWG show in Reseda, Ca and his response was "for sure".

Obviously as talented, charismatic and entertaining as the Bucks are, they will not be struggling for bookings, which brings up another question, Why would ROH want to let go such an exciting and over team like the Bucks? Considering ROH's status on the Independent scene, I find it hard to believe they would leave the Bucks off the card simply because they didn't feel it makes sense economically to fly in the high flying tandem. Could there be more to this that we have yet to see? As the days pass we at Wrestling's Last Hope will continue to monitor the situation and bring you updates as we get them, So keep visiting us!

Follow me at @Jose_LL_00 on twitter

The Indy Corner Presents An Interview with Noam Dar

(Picture Credit: Rob Brazier)

Here we have The Indy Corner's extensive interview with British wrestling rising star Noam Dar, in 2012 he has wrestled Davey Richards, AJ Styles & Prince Devitt to name a few and on September 30th he'll be wrestling MK McKinnan at PROGRESS Wrestling's Chapter 3 show in London. Sit down and listen as Noam talks with Paul Kissock about a whole range of topics.

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