The Wrestling Press April 2011

8/7/2019 The Wrestling Press April 2011

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3www.thewrestlingpress.com

4 LOW KI INTERvIEWA chat with the former Kaval

12 THE GOOd aNd Bad OF

THE ROcK’s RETURNThe Brahma Bull is back!

16 THE sTaRs OF TOmORROWCritiquing the new generation

20 UNsUNG maTcHEs OF WmWrestleMania’s hidden gems

27 a ROYaL OvERsIGHTCall to arms for Lawler DVD

30 jERRY LaWLER BIOThe real king of Memphis!

32 TRIPLE H vs UNdERTaKERClash of the Titans II

36 THE WREsTLING PRIEsTBlessing for The Undertaker

38 sPOILING ImPacT?Avoiding a sneak peak

41 TNa ‘sTORm THE GaTE’Audience participation

45 BROTHER, WHERE YOU

BOUNd?Cynic targets Matt Hardy

50 INdIE EvENTs dURING WmNot the only show in town

54 ROH IN a POsT HdNET

WORLd

What lies ahead for ROH?

59 KING OF TRIOs FOR

dUmmIEsClass is in session

64 sHINsUKE NaKamURa IvA NJPW success story

70 LIONHEaRT cOLUmNEmulating your idols

72 vPW sHOW REvIEWA resounding success

75 jOHNNY mOss PROFILEThe next big thing

82 maKING IT IN jaPaNStarbuck’s debut column

86 WXW TOURNamENTGoing for gold

90 cHIca YEYE INTERvIEWA Mexican exotica!

92 UFc: THE YEaR aHEadBig news of 2011 - Part One

96 REvIEWsBest of Raw 2010WWE Top 50 SuperstarsChris Jericho: UndisputedTNA Wrestling Greatest MomentsDGUK: Invasion 2ROH: Tag Title Classic IICWN in NorderstedtUFC 121

104 THE WREsTLEmaNIa

EXPERIENcELive show recaps

CONTENTS April 2011Web

updateWITH davId scHmIda

The WrestlingPress goes fromstrength to strength.This month, I’d like tobring some of our newest editions tothe team of writerscloser to you. TheWrestling Genius,Jared Gebhardt letsyou have a portion of his genius trains of thoughts on Thurs-days while Friday isthe day for JamieKennedy’s “Mat Mus-ings”. In combinationwith Todd Matthy’sRAW recaps you’llbe fully provided withopinions andthoughts on the most

important occur-rences in the bigleagues. If you’relooking for absorbingand insightfulcolumns by one of Europe’s most suc-cessfulwrestlers, “TheCanadian Rebel”StarBuck, TWP On-line is the right placefor you. The review

section has reallyflourished as well.Here TWP’s writersshare their opinionsnot only on the bigproductions pub-lished by the leadingorganisations butalso offer their viewson the DVDs re-leased by the inde-pendent wrestlingorganisations.

Have a day!

http://www.thewrestlingpress.com/






Conducted by DARREN WOOD

4 www.thewrestlingpress.com

© Sam Lamantia







Just going back in time to when you left

TNA in 2007, what were your feelings when

you departed and did you have an idea that

you may be heading towards WWE?

I was there until December 2007 and when Ileft my first thoughts were of going back toJapan, I wasn’t intent on being in WWE or wasthat on my mind at that time. I wanted to goback to Japan and re-establish myself as astar in Japan.

Did you always want to go to WWE; was

that company somewhere you aspired to

be?

It was never a goal of mine; a lot of peoplemisunderstand that. Simply because the WWEis the biggest company in the world, it wasnever my dream. I’m sure for others they havealways wanted to go to WWE but for my goal itwas always to go to Japan and to be acceptedby the Japanese culture as a competitor.

Please describe your feelings, emotions

and where you were when you got the call

from WWE expressing their interest in

signing you to a contract.

It was more of a try out situation where theyhad me participate in some of the live eventsthat were being held. Before I even went out infront of a live crowd, they had me doing

workouts in the ring with some of their wrestlers. I participated in three back to backmatches prior to that Monday Night Raw onNovember 3rd 2008. I guess they were testingme out to see what my conditioning was as far as my technique and after that there was stillno guarantee that anything would happen.Lucky enough one of the main event guyswent to the office and he asked them ‘what’sthe point in all of this when he’s alreadyaccomplished enough’. They then gave me a

match the following day on November 4th and

I wrestled Primo Colon that night and theythen offered me a contract.

You have had many try-out matches for

WWE in the past. When you went for these

particular try-outs in 2008 did you have a

feeling that nothing would come of them

like before?

I did think it would be different because of timeand my experience. Back when I first startedwrestling for WWE was in 2000 and I wrestledon and off with them for two years. I alwayshad support off the audience and seemed to

have good praise from the companythemselves but at that particular time I wasn’twhat they were looking for. I didn’t take it as apersonal issue I just kept moving on with myown business. At the same time I thinkbecause I had that past I developed afollowing for my career and the time andexperience gained from my previous matcheswith them to the try-outs in 2008 helped megain more attention from them.


OTHERS HAVE ALWAYS WANTED

TO GO TO WWE BuT MY GOAL

WAS ALWAYS TO GO TO JAPAN © Scott Finkelstein








When you signed withWWE was anything

promised to you or did

they make light of any

plans they had for you?

No, any company that I haveever joined has never detailed what they want fromme or would like to do withme. They just take everything

one step at a time which islogical. Initially WWE justbrought me into thecompany, had a look to see if I needed any polishing. Iactually went down to FCWvoluntarily because theperson I am I wanted tomake sure my skills weresharpened and to maintainmy skills. Unfortunately at

FCW I injured my knee and

that kept me out for ninemonths.

WWE is the biggest

company in the world with

a tremendous amount of

competition for the top

spots in the company.

When coming into the

company was this

something that you worried

about?

No because I already knewwhat the environmententailed, it’s a very big politicalgame. If you play that politicalgame you stand a much better chance of succeeding in aparticular role or position. Imnot a politician I am part of adifferent generation, I don’t

see the need in playing these

games especially when thebusiness is suffering. Why hireall these guys that they arewho have no care for thisprofession in the first placewhy not hire the best man for the job? My intent has alwaysbeen to go out there and workharder than everyone else.

What was the training like at

FCW and what techniques

or skills did you learn

there?

It’s a difference in styles, it’smore fundamentally sound asopposed to a lot of placesoutside of the company. Theindependent US circuit is veryjumbled, there isn’t much of asolid foundation for much of the wrestlers as far as basictechnique, body control, ringawareness that sort of thing. I

think that’s why WWE makeguys go to their training

©

Sam Lamantia

© Scott Finkelstein







facilities before bringing them up to the mainroster to find out if they are fundamentally soundin the first place before they can progress to thenext stage.

What were your thoughts when you were

announced to be on NXT season 2?

I didn’t really have any; I just wanted to get outof FCW. I had already been waiting over a year to be called up to the main roster and when theyannounced I would be on NXT season 2 I knewit was my opportunity to show what I could doon the grand stage.

Did you find it disrespectful in any way that

you were put on NXT, which is essentially a

show to get rookies over?

Well, like I said earlier I knew the WWEenvironment coming in. I knew there were a lotof games played. To me it was another challenge, that’s the way I saw it. They wantedto see how well I would do under pressure, theywanted to see how I would do when put in aparticular situation. They wanted to see howtough I was and if I could stand there for thelong run. I don’t think it was disrespect I justthink they wanted to see what I got.

What did you think about the pairing with

Lay-cool on NXT season 2, did you find this

disrespectful?

Initially I had none, a lot of people tookexception to it I guess because how over the toptheir personalities are but I didn’t think anything

of it. Again I saw it as a challenge, how I wasgoing to adapt to this situation, how am I goingto make the best of it. At first I was a littlecurious as to what they were trying to do but Ithink it all worked out for the best because I gotalong great with those two women.

As part of NXT they were called your

mentors, what (if anything) did they teach

you?

I think the biggest effect they had on me was

relaxing me, up until that point I had been

more of a fighter, more sports orientated lessentertainment based. If I had been more of afighter in WWE then I probably wouldn’t havelasted very long at all. I think that becausetheir personalities were so over the top itactually relaxed me and they had me laughinga whole bunch, from the entire time we workedtogether so because of that it helped meimprove and fit in with ease instead of developing this sort of tunnel vision to fight.

What were your thoughts on winning NXT

and your thoughts on the idea of NXT

overall?

Winning NXT to me was a great feeling. The finalof it was in Buffalo, NY and I’m born and raised inNew York City. So to win that programme after allthese years of trying to make it on the biggeststage, it was fulfilling to finally go back home andwin the programme at home. I almost broke

down when I dropped to my knees after theyannounced my name; it was 13 years up untilthat point of developing my craft. As for NXT itself I can see that they are trying to offer variety, butfor me there is only so much of that stuff thatyou’re willing to sit through and watch. I thinksometimes its misleading saying these guys aregoing to be the stars of tomorrow but we willmake them look like fools. I’m not a fan of it, thestars of tomorrow should be showcased why theyare that and shouldn’t necessarily do some of the

things they are made to.


© S am L amant i a







Could WWE have done a

lot more with you, did they

drop the ball?

The company could havedone a lot more with this, Ithink people have to be verycareful as to who they say thecompany didn’t do much.There is only one man whomakes decisions, he says yesor no and that needs to bemade clear. I’m not going toeven mention his name but

the company has their ownview on who is going to be astar or not. If you don’t fill inthat particular prototype or that idea then you are goingto have a more challengingtime in regards to a push or trying to excel. I feel that thecompany could have beenbehind me a lot more but notjust me they could be behind

a lot of guys more. I came towork every day and I tookpride in everything that I did, Ishow that every time I step Inthe ring whether it is for WWE, TNA whoever. I takepride in my profession andevery time I come to work Icome to make sure that at theend of the night people aregetting their money’s worth

when they watch me.

Do you think because of

your 13 years in the

business without WWE they

maybe had a vendetta

against you?

WWE was just a bonus for everything I had worked hardfor in this business, it was

never a dream. I took a

different path to most of theguys who are coming intoWWE now and I think becauseI made a name for myself outside of the company, I can’tbe recognised as a WWE guy.I was never made by thecompany and I do think thatwas an issue, its almost likethis is the biggest company inthe world but they don’t havethat stamp on me because Imade a name for myself all

around the world beforeentering. They would muchrather take pride in saying theycreated you and I think thatwent against me.

A story on the internet is

making the rounds that

WWE’s creative team was

told to bury you after you

won NXT season 2 is there

any truth to this rumour?

No one has ever saidanything to my face or to mepersonally. I think it was

obvious though by the way

they were scheduling mymatches. I was chosen to winNXT season 2 by the fans,they wanted to see me dowell and it seemed like thecompany wanted me to dowell. But the way they wereusing me I think the writingwas on the wall.

There are conflicting

reports on the internet, just

so we make sure did you

leave WWE or did they

release you?

Yes, we both agreed that itwould be best if we didn’tcontinue doing businesstogether at this current time.They had no path for me, or no plans in the near future soinstead of wasting my time,wasting my body in thatcompany I decided it was

time to move on. I’ve had agood relationship with themthe entire time I was thereregardless of what peoplemay think. I have always hadstrong relationshipseverywhere I have gone;there are no bad feelingsfrom either end.

Would you go back to

WWE at all in the futureand is MMA an option for

you?

I would have to think hardabout going back if thesituation occurred again. Iwill always go where myexperience takes me and thiswas no different. At themoment business is down inpro wrestling and I can’t


© Sam Lamantia









lot of extremely giftedathletes in the WWE are theyneccesariily used to the betsof their abilities, probably not.Some guys there are nothappy but they are sucking itup and taking it because it’sabout their families andsupporting them. I knew guyswho were worried aboutbeing released.

I don’t know I guess thenature of the company at the

moment is one week for example Wade Barrett couldbe on a hot streak then thenext he may not be. Thepotential is always there for anybody but it’s a question of whether the backing is there.

Thanks very much for the

interview; I wish you every

success in the future. Is

there anything else you

would like to add?

Please could you all follow

my twitter which is why I

started the United Warriors

Project, a social inquiry to

see the reach & power of the

social network by reaching

as many countries as

possible by 2.14.1. Thanks

for all your support and keep

watching…

n Contact:Darren [email protected]


SIGNED LOW KIT-SHIRT & PICTREFor your hne to win n offiil t-hirt n

igne piture fro the one n only Low Ki

ut nwer thi iple quetion....

How many years has Low Kibeen in the business?

Email the answer, along with your address, to [email protected]

Competition closes 25th April. Winner will be revealed in the next issue.

WIN!! WIN!! WIN!! WIN!!! WIN!!!

mailto:[email protected]












http://hmv.com/hmvweb/navigate.do?pGroupID=5&pSubGroupID=35&pGenreID=507&WT.mc_id=102125





Seven days later, when it was revealed theannouncement would take place in Raw’s mainevent spot ahead of John Cena vs CM Punk it

all but confirmed everybody’s dreamcandidate. Every light in the building wasswitched off one by one as the sound of electrical surges played throughout the arena,further hinting at what many already knew tobe true: The Rock was back.

The WWE hadn’t heard an ovation sothunderous in a long time and Rockysoaked up every second of it, not saying aword for nearly five minutes whilst thousandsof fans chanted his name. When ‘The Great

One’ finally spoke it was as if he’d never left,dusting off his signature catch phrases in afifteen minute promo that saw him give MichaelCole the dressing down the world has beenawaiting for the better part of a year.

The ‘Voice of the WWE’ wasn’t the only one toreceive verbal jabs from The People’s Championhowever; Rocky sounded off on WWEChampion The Miz and John Cena, the man thathas spent seven years trying to fill his shoes,

acknowledging the well-reported criticisms Cenahas fired Rock’s way over the years.

It was speculated that Vince tried to no avail toput together a match between the two for Wrestlemania 26. But given all that has

transpired recently and all the money it wouldgenerate the idea of this true dream matchfinally coming to fruition somewhere down theroad seems more plausible than ever before.The Rock’s speech on Raw seemed to hintthat the nine-time world champion is here for more than just a guest-hosting gig as hevowed he would never go away and that hewas “back.”

But what precisely is The Rock back for? First

and foremost he is the WWE’s headcheerleader for their annual extravaganza. The

Rock amassed over 100,000 Twitter followerswithin 24 hours of his return. The WWEuniverse was encouraged to visit his Facebook

page. The Rock is Vince’s most powerfulpromotional tool heading towards the grandeststage of them all.

After all, very few wrestlers from themodern era have the name valuethat carries the mainstream gravitasof The Rock’s.

Just as the involvement of Donald Trump andFloyd Mayweather helped earn Wrestlemaniabuys from casual viewers in years past, the

return of The Rock will ensure that anyoneremotely interested in wrestling will be glued totheir television on April 3.

His second function is the most obvious:hosting Wrestlemania. The Rock stated he’sgoing to be working closely with the backstage


“

HE IS REMINDING uS ALL

THAT CENA AND THE MIz

JuST AREN’T AS GOOD . . . .

© John Smolek







crew to ensure the fans get a show like never before. This isn’t going to be ZZ Top appearingin a backstage segment, or a pair of NASCAR

drivers racing around outside the building.The Rock seems intent on suturing the entireevent together, not just cutting promos, butgetting involved with the wrestlers if necessary;The Rock promised that at the drop of a hat hewould lay the smack down.

And that brings us to his third potentialfunction: wrestling. It seems a safe bet thatVince will do everything in his power to try and

persuade Rocky to step into the ring with JohnCena to make good on all the verbal bombsthe two have dropped on each other. For several weeks Raw has become must-seetelevision as the millions (and millions) eagerlywatched the insults and mockery fly back andforth between two of the most popular wrestlers of all time, hoping it would end with aphysical confrontation.

On paper that is an amazing match, but at age38 and with seven years of ring-rust can Rockystill go? He certainly looks the part, his

Hollywood career demanding he stay in topcondition, but can his body take thepunishment it used to?

One would have to believe that if he doesagree to wrestle it would be just the once, soeven if he was sore the next day, he couldbring his A-Game for one night only. After all,who else besides John Cena could be pairedwith The Rock to create such a highlyanticipated match? Verily, this decade’s Rockvs Hogan would be Cena vs Rock, with TheRock playing Hogan’s role this time around. Itwould be a challenge to book a more intriguingmatch in this day and age.

But there are some negatives that are beingignored amidst all the “fruity pebbles” andbattle raps; the WWE are in the middle of ayouth movement with fresh faces making their way to the top of the card. With that in mind, theWWE are playing a dangerous game by invitingpast stars such as Rock, Austin (46), Booker T(45), and Kevin Nash (51) back to the WWE,even if it is just for occasional appearances.

These men can’t be relied upon to lead the

company into the future, that job will fall to thecurrent crop of stars. Common belief is thatthis new era just aren’t as talented as thosethat came before, and if that’s the case,standing the two generations in the ring for allthe world to compare can’t be a good move.

Look at Nash’s crowd reaction at the RoyalRumble: almost the entire current main eventscene were occupying the ring at the time hestepped over the top rope, yet during the timeNash was in the ring the crowd lost all interestin those that were going to have the strongestchance of headlining Wrestlemania.

The same happens when The Rock appears.John Cena and The Miz are still going to bewrestling ten years from now, at which point


INSTEAD, THIS SHOuLD BE

LOOKED AT AS A CHALLENGE

FOR THE NEW GENERATION

Rock in 2001

© Tom Kralidis







‘The Brahma Bull’ will be pushing 50 years old.With every incredible promo The Rock cuts,every awe-inspiring entrance he makes, he is

reminding us all that Cena and The Miz justaren’t as good.

Surely the last thing the WWE want is for their audience to realise their current product leaveslittle to be desired compared to that of decadesprevious? Quite the opposite it would seem, asMichael Cole and Jerry Lawler are constantlyharping on about recent events being the mostshocking in WWE history, or wrestlers being thebest, anything to make us believe we should beinterested in the here and now.

To quote what Hulk Hogan said in a recentinterview with Peter Rosenberg: “They’ve spent

so much time building John Cena up... but all of

a sudden within three or four seconds, [The

Rock] had the whole arena screaming that

Cena sucks.” It’s a reasonable point consideringCena’s popularity wavers enough as it is.

But perhaps this shouldn’t be thought of as abygone legend overshadowing the new guys,reminding us how wrestling just isn’t the same

as it used to be. Instead, this should be lookedat as a challenge for the new generation.

It has been said the only way to improve is toface someone who is better than you, and withmicrophone skills somewhat lacking nowadays,could there be a better person to learn fromthan The Rock? Everyone who is given the nodto interact with The Rock in even the smallestway will bring their absolute A-game becausehe will demand it of them and their pride won’t

let them back down.The premise of Tough Enough (set to returnthe night after Wrestlemania) is wrestlinglegends imparting knowledge so that thetorch may be passed on, and The Rock’sreturn to the WWE can work in the sameway. The Rock isn’t back for one more momentin the spotlight – he has an abundance of that inhis day job – he’s back as a valuable asset tothe WWE, an asset that they should do their best to utilize in teaching the youngsters a thingor three about the wrestling business.

How many times do we hear that Randy Ortonis no Stone Cold and John Cena is no Rock?Well, perhaps with help from the man himself,we could see marked improvements from thecompany’s top babyface.

Or perhaps a decade into his career, and only5 years The Rock’s junior, it’s too late for Cenato change. And given how popular he is withthe demographic the WWE treasures most (thekids) does he even need to change?

One thing is for certain: John Cena rises to anoccasion. Say what you will about hisSuperman routine, Cena is impressive whenhe needs to be, and if he’s going to beexchanging more words or even some fistswith The Rock then he needs to be moreimpressive than ever.

With so many what if’s, only one thing is for sure: whatever The Rock does and whoever he does it with, it’ll be the very definition of must-see viewing.

n Contact Matt at [email protected]


© John Smolek










Nothing lasts forever.Especially not a career in prowrestling.

No matter how deeply entrenched one mightbe in the WWE Main Event scene, eventuallytheir spot becomes vacant.

Sometimes it’s backstage politics. Sometimes

it’s opportunity for a career outside the ring.Sometimes it’s simply that their body can nolonger take the pounding they must endure ona nightly basis. No one can forever escape thewear and tear that pro wrestling eventuallytakes on them.

There was a time when it seemed Hulkamaniawould run wild forever, that the Rock wouldalways be “the Most Electrifying Man in SportsEntertainment”, that Shawn Michaels would

forever be “the Showstopper.”

But all three men, and a bevy of others, fromBret Hart to Batista, eventually had to give uptheir share of the spotlight.

For any wrestling company to be successfulthere must be replacements for those who havehad to step aside. For many years, a criticism of the WWE was that there was too muchemphasis placed on long-established stars likeTriple H, Shawn Michaels and even John Cena.

No one doubts that a returning Triple H and thepresence of John Cena will earn at least their fair share of the focus of the Federation for some time to come. However, the WWE looksto be in good shape, should Triple H decidehe’d rather spend some time behind the scenes,in his new role of Senior Adviser or should Cenaget another movie role.

For a long time, it was Smackdown that seemedto be where the future of the WWE could be

found. After the “Brand Extension” of March


the stars of

Tomorrow

Words JOHN MILNER

© John Smolek







2002, Smackdown was, to many fans, “theWrestling Show” (as opposed to theEntertainment Show of Raw). Almost straight

out of the gate, there was the draw of “theSmackdown Six” (Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit,Edge, Rey Mysterio and Eddie and ChavoGuerrero).

And while those days may have passed,Smackdown still has much to offer in termsof drawing viewers to stay in on Fridaynights. John Cena, CM Punk, and the Miz all“came of age” so to speak on Smackdown, andothers, from Rey Mysterio to Batista earnedchampionship accolades on the blue brand.

But where is the “next generation” that will carrySmackdown into the future? Certainly, theanswer, to some, might be “right there on your TV screen.” Those would point to Smackdownroster members such as former IntercontinentalChampion Drew McIntyre, former TagChampion Cody Rhodes, former WorldChampion Jack Swagger and the man who willbe heading to Wrestlemania, Alberto Del Rio.

And yes, there is a long list of young stars, just afew years into the organization, who are showingup on Smackdown every week. And yes, someof those guys listed above will certainly find

themselves in main event and title matches over the course of the next few years (barring a major injury or a departure from the WWE).

But is there anyone among them who could“take the ball and run with it” to use somefootball terminology? Once upon a time any oneof them probably could have been looked at anddubbed “the next breakout superstar”. Swagger had that Kurt Angle vibe to him. Rhodes had thelineage of his father and brother. McIntyrecould have been “the Corporate Champion” withVince McMahon in his corner. Wade Barrett hasa great look to him, and was involved in thebiggest angle in the entire company. Alberto

Del Rio won the 2011 Royal Rumble, and isheaded to the biggest match of his career.

While there is no shortage of stars with thepotential to be the heir apparent to John Cenaor Randy Orton, the WWE has shot themselvesin the foot when it comes to preparing for thatnext generation.

For every would-be Smackdown standard bearer,there is a roadblock they must overcome on theroad to legitimizing their status on the brand. And

it is a roadblock placed there by the WWE itself.


© John Smolek

© Sarah Barraclough







Jack Swagger may have what it takes to be thenext Kurt Angle, but he has to overcome whatshould have been one of the best things to

happen in his career: he was crowned WorldHeavyweight Champion after cashing in hisMoney in the Bank title shot, just days after Wrestlemania. He was made to look weakagainst The Big Show, the Undertaker and evenRandy Orton. Once he lost the title, he headedback to mid-card obscurity and he’s remainedthere ever since.

Wade Barrett may soon be joining him. On Raw,he was main eventing against Cena and Orton.If he had remained on Raw, with the newlyformed Corre of talented newcomers JustinGabriel, David Otunga, Heath Slater and former ECW Champion Ezekiel Jackson, Barrett mighthave led his team into a Wargames-type matchbetween the two factions. However, in the moveto Smackdown, Barrett and the Corre seem tohave lost a step or two. They’re aren’t quite theVincent-led NWO B-Team, but they’re headingthat way.

In the course of about a year, Drew McIntyre

went from being Mr. McMahon’s Chosen One to

an embarrassing feud against Teddy Long totrying to win over Kelly Kelly. Not exactly acareer path that leads you to the top of the

brand. Of course, McIntyre’s fall from gracemay have had more to do with his real-lifeissues with his wife, former WWE Diva Tiffany.No matter the reason, the WWE seems to haveallowed McIntyre to fall off the radar in terms of their long-range plans to elevate their nextbreak-out star.

And speaking of long-range plans, perhapsthat’s the explanation for Cody Rhodes’ recentcareer path. After months of Rhodes givinggrooming tips more often than we saw him inthe ring, it may finally be paying off with a feudwith Rey Mysterio over the possibility that Rey’s619 may have altered Cody’s “dashing” facade.However, one should point out that while mostpeople remember Rick Martel as the Model, hewas never even close to leading the company,the way he did in the AWA as champion withoutthe embarrassing gimmick.

While Drew McIntyre will spend Wrestlemaniamooning over Kelly Kelly, and Jack Swagger

may be hoping to repeat his performance in


© David Seto ...there

are still alot of questionsabout hislongevity

andability







Money in the Bank, Alberto DelRio may have the best chanceof anyone to rise to the next

level, earning his way into aWorld title match.

Already leaked to be “the nextbig thing”, Del Rio has takenSmackdown by such force thathe’s even been shipped over to Raw on numerousoccasions. The 2011 RoyalRumble winner seems to beriding a rocket to the mainevent at Wrestlemania,gathering strength to run over Edge and grab the WorldChampionship.

But how “real” is Del Rio? For a guy who wasn’t even onSmackdown a year ago, is DelRio going to be the next RicFlair, about to embark on thefirst of many title reigns, thenext Jack Swagger, who wentfrom mid-card to World titleand back to mid-card in a fewmonths, or the next UltimateWarrior, who it seemed was

destined for years of

greatness, but faltered under the bright lights of the WWE?

Only time will tell.

Del Rio may be the guySmackdown can point to andsay “There’s our next top guy”,but there are still a lot of questions about his longevityand ability. If the hopes for Smackdown are pinned totallyon Del Rio, what happens if heisn’t who they expect him tobe? As Rey Mysterio says in

the “Don’t Try This At Home”commercial, “injuries canhappen at any time.” If Del Riowere to go down with a flukeinjury…what next?

Now of course, as the oldsaying goes, Rome wasn’t builtin a day. And in wrestling,today’s mid-card joke can betomorrow’s main eventsuperstar. At the 1996 Survivor Series, no one would havebeen faulted for not expectingthe “Blue Chipper” RockyMiavia to become “the mostelectrifying man in sportsentertainment”. No oneexpected John Cena’s rapper gimmick to catch on to the pointwhere he would pick up wherethe Rock and “Stone Cold”

Steve Austin left off in terms of

being the face of the companyand the entire industry.

There’s nothing thatsays Jack Swagger,Drew McIntyre or Wade Barrett can’tbecome the Edge or Rey Mysterio of tomorrow.

In fact, the writers onSmackdown have even proventhey can elevate someonewho has a few stumbling

blocks. Take Dolph Ziggler. For a long time, he was just a mid-carder whose gimmick wasthat he went aroundintroducing himself to people.

But pair him with VickieGuerrero and put him in aprogram against WorldChampion Edge? It wasn’tFlair-Steamboat, but Ziggler became a much moreentertaining heel main eventer than he probably had any rightto be.

There is potential in any of thesuperstars named above, butfor Smackdown to succeedtomorrow, the WWE needs tobe planning today.

n Contact John at jmilnerre-

[email protected]


“

© John Smolek










http://twitter.com/wrestlingpress



titles, King Kong Bundy destroying S.D.Jones in seconds and the many celebrities

on hand. The debut of Wrestlemania wasa real spectacular start to the WWF’spremier showcase.

But for all of the major stars, there wereseveral undercard performers who weresupremely talented. Tito Santana openedthe show with a great bout with BuddyRose (wrestling as the maskedExecutioner), while Junkyard Dog andGreg Valentine fought over the

Intercontinental title.But for me, the most underrated bout onthe card features two gifted wrestlers.Ricky Steamboat would find futureWrestlemania success in hisWrestlemania 3 bout with Randy Savage,while Matt Borne would go on to becomethe evil Doink many years later.

This may not be the best Steamboatmatch you’ll ever see, but it’s certainly a

tidy little bout. Steamboat gets toshowcase his highflying and martial artsskills, while Borne plays a good heel role,and gets in some nice suplexes midmatch.

The first Wrestlemania may have been allabout Hulk Hogan and the Rock ‘N’Wrestling Connection but the giftedundercard competitors have always beena real staple of the WWF.

Wrestlemania 2 had the gimmick of three

separate ‘mini-Manias’, which watered


Unsung Matches of

W restlemania has a lot of moments in its richhistory. Some of wrestling’s most

recognisable moments have happenedat the biggest show of the year. FromHulk Hogan bodyslamming Andre theGiant, to Shawn Michaels and theUndertaker epic encounters, we can allvividly remember every moment of thebiggest matches of the year at

Wrestlemania. But for every Hogan vs.Warrior, or Steamboat vs. Savage, thereare a bunch of matches at eachWrestlemania that don’t provide thosemoments, yet are good in their ownright.

I decided to journey back through all of thepast Wrestlemania’s and uncover some of these ‘hidden gems’. These are thematches that are not fondly remembered,

but make for some tremendous viewing.So join us now for a trip down memorylane....or in many cases, a trip down ‘nomemory of that’ lane!

What better place to start than where it allbegan...Wrestlemania 1.

The first Wrestlemania had a number of memorable moments. From the mainevent tag match of Hulk Hogan & Mr T vPaul Orndorff & Roddy Piper, Iron Sheik

and Nikolai Volkoff winning the tag team

Words PHIL AUSTIN








down the show a little. Nassau inparticularly ended up with a terrible bunch

of matches, a disappointingOrndorff/Muraco bout and the ‘main event’of the Roddy Piper v Mr T boxing match.This Mania featured a great BritishBulldogs tag title win over the DreamTeam, Hogan v King Kong Bundy in acage, and the NFL/WWF battle royal.

It was a tag bout between two toughTexans and WWF stalwarts Tito Santana& Junkyard Dog that nearly stole theshow, yet remains one of the least

remembered bouts of any Mania. In fact,few even remember that Dory Funk Jr waseven at Wrestlemania (which, given theycalled him ‘Hoss Funk’ is hardlysurprising). Terry & Dory Funk reallybrought the hardcore here, with somegreat brawling, including using chairs andWrestlemania’s first table spot! It wasn’t allbrawling though, as all four men put on agreat wrestling display resulting in a trulyterrific tag team bout that would fit in as

much today as it did in 1986.

If you don’t know about Wrestlemania 3,then you don’t know wrestling. A hugeevent, with ground-breaking momentssuch as Andre being slammed by Hogan,and Savage and Steamboat contesting anall-time classic, the third Wrestlemaniawas a spectacle. It also had some lessmemorable bouts.

Some, like Hercules v Billy Jack Haynes

are unmemorable for good reason. Butothers, like my choice for thisWrestlemania’s true ‘hidden gem’, aretremendous yet overshadowed by thesheer spectacle of the main matches.

Opening a Wrestlemania is a dauntingprospect. Even more when it’s the biggestone ever. So when you are a young tagteam like the Can Am Connection (TomZenk and Rick Martel), you are glad to be

going in there with two veterans like Bob

Orton and Don Muraco. Together, theyouth of the Can Ams and the experience

of Orton and Muraco put together a greatlittle tag team match. Crisp teamwork bythe babyface team and great psychologyby the heels made this one of the moreenjoyable opening matches of Wrestlemania. Incidentally, the Rougeausv Dream Team match on the same show isalso well worth a watch!

Wrestlemania 4 is, to be honest, not themost thrilling of Wrestlemania’s. A cardladen with fairly dull matches, the show is

memorable for the Savage title win, BobbyHeenan being attacked by Matilda, theMania debut of the Ultimate Warrior, a tagtitle change and the opening battle royal.But the bulk of the card is made up of tournament matches that, for the mostpart, are pretty disappointing.

The tournament begins with a real ‘hiddengem’ however, as Ted Dibiase and JimDuggan construct a nice tidy little brawling

v science bout. And this should come asno surprise. After feuding in Mid South, thetwo really knew each other well, and itshows here, as they really gel well in thismatch. A great little bout to open a prettydull tournament!

Wrestlemania 5 had a shockingly highproportion of good undercard bouts. Fromgreat tag matches like the Rockers vs.Twin Towers (including a hellaciousclothesline from Akeem) and the

Brainbusters vs. Strike Force, tosurprisingly decent bouts like Beefcake vs.Dibiase and Hercules vs. Haku, the showremembered for the Mega Powersexploding and Rick Rude beating theUltimate Warrior was awash with ‘hiddengems’.

But when you put two great athletes in thering together such as Mr Perfect and ‘TheBlue Blazer’ Owen Hart, you’re going to

hard-pressed to find a better example of







great wrestling. Such was the case atWrestlemania 5 when these two put on a

brief clinic of how exciting wrestling couldbe. This is one that is worth going out of your way to see!

When you headline a Wrestlemania withHulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior that ispretty much all you need to draw. As aresult, the undercard of Wrestlemania 6was filled with ‘afterthought’ matchesfeaturing the talented roster of the WWF atthe time. From the Orient Express dragginga ‘worse for wear’ team of the Rockers to a

decent bout to Rick Rude and JimmySnuka showing just how great they are, theshow had several notable little gems.

But for every Mania, the opener is often asimportant as the main event. Firstimpressions last, so for Wrestlemania 6the WWF sent out two of their mostreliable performers to open the show.Koko B Ware and Rick Martel had a reallytidy encounter to kick off proceedings,

showing just why they are two of the moreunderrated performers in the industry. Agreat little bout, which really defines theterm ‘hidden gem’.

And speaking of great openingmatches...at Wrestlemania 7, everyonewas talking about Ultimate Warrior vs.Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan vs. SgtSlaughter. Next to nobody was discussingthe Rockers upcoming battle with Hakuand the Barbarian. Yet the opening match

between these two teams was a blinder.Haku and Barbarian, one of the WWF’smore underrated teams, hit some amazingpower moves, including a vicious doubleclothesline by Barbarian, while theRockers (in their final Wrestlemania matchtogether) exhibited their ‘tag teamspecialty’ as Gorilla Monsoon liked to callit. Also worth checking out on this show isa tremendous power vs. power confrontation between the Warlord and the

UK’s own British Bulldog.

If you said that a Shawn Michaels singlematch would be on a list of Wrestlemania

‘hidden gems’, most modern wrestlingfans would think you were crazy. HBK hasbeen in more high profile, showstealingMania matches than anyone else. Yet, atWrestlemania 8, the Heartbreak Kid wasa new singles wrestler on the scene,having only recently broken up his tagteam and kicked his partner MartyJannetty to the kerb (or through thewindow to be precise).

At Wrestlemania 8, while Bret Hart vs.

Roddy Piper, Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair,and Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice werestealing the spotlight, Michaels and TitoSantana quietly put on another terrificopening bout. This would be Santana’sWrestlemania swansong, having appearedat every single one to this point, and hecertainly went out on a high. A terrific bout,yet one that isn’t instantly remembered byfans of Michaels’ Mania career, this is areal highlight of Wrestlemania 8.

Wrestlemania 9 is not fondlyremembered by fans. Almost universallyacclaimed as one of the worstWrestlemania’s ever, the card featuredHulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake goingfor the tag belts, Hogan stealing BretHart’s thunder and taking a world title henever really wanted, two Doinks and JimRoss debuting in a toga! But there wassome pretty decent wrestling on there too.

Shawn Michaels vs. Tatanka, Lex Luger vs. Mr Perfect, even Razor Ramon andBob Backlund gave the fans something tocheer for. Then there was the real hiddengem on the card. Buried in the secondmatch, the Steiners and theHeadshrinkers each headed into their firstWrestlemania’s determined to make animpact, and boy did they deliver! A hard-hitting, solid match between two teamsthat held nothing back, these guys brought

their NWA rivalry to the WWF stage and









delivered an NWA/Japan style bout thatput the rest of the card to shame. If you

still look at Wrestlemania 9 as ‘the one Ican skip’, then you need to go check outthis bout at the very least!

Wrestlemania 10 is far more fondlyremembered than the previous year’sMania. From the Shawn Michaels/Razor Ramon ladder match, to Bret vs. Owen,this is a Mania that is full of ‘moments’. It’salso full of terrific ‘lesser remembered’bouts to. Allundra Blayze and Leilani Kaihave a great little bout, and Bam Bam

Bigelow & Luna face Doink & Dink in about that delivers more than you’d expect.But it’s the Quebecers vs. Men on aMission that is the real hidden gem here.The Quebecers are one of the moreunderrated of all the WWF tag teams. Asolid and spectacular team, they show ithere with some really innovative offence.And this has to be a standard performancefor Men on a Mission too, who look better here than practically at any other time in

their respective careers.

Wrestlemania 11 was very heavily basedon celebrity appearances. Not only isLawrence Taylor one half of a main event

and Pamela Anderson in the other, but thewhole opening montage highlightscelebrity over wrestlers. So it’s arefreshing start to the show to have adecent tag team bout as the opener. LexLuger and the British Bulldog, a team whohad more promise than they had longevitybattle the Blu Brothers with Dutch Mantellas Uncle Zebekiah in their corner. Thebout is a decent big man tag bout withLuger and Bulldog highlighting their

moveset throughout, and the heel twins

using their switching tactics throughout thematch. The fact that the ending comes

with something other than one of theBulldog or Luger’s traditional finishers onlyadds to this bout.

Wrestlemania 12 has two equally great‘hidden gems’ to offer. The opening sixman, pitting Yokozuna, Jake Roberts andAhmed Johnson against Davey BoySmith, Owen Hart and Vader is atremendous affair, highlighting especiallyjust how underrated a performer Yokozunawas. This big man can really move. All of

this, plus you get the rare opportunity tosee Mr Fuji as a babyface manager,complete with patriotic Stars & Stripesflag-waving!

Just as good is the Wrestlemania debut of Steve Austin. Austin, managed by Dibiasetakes on Savio Vega in a fine match.Mixing brawling and technical wrestling,Austin’s punches are countered by someamazing Kwang-like kicks by Vega and, as

much as the announcers keep trying todistract from the match by cutting to theRoddy Piper/Goldust ‘chase’ throughout,they can’t take away from what is atremendous, yet largely unremembered,match that gives a glimpse of thesuperstar that Austin would soon become.

When you mention Wrestlemania 13, youpretty much have one image in your mind:that of Steve Austin’s bloody face lockedin the sharpshooter. But with that match

dominating the 13th Wrestlemania, it leftplenty of ‘hidden gems’ amidst the rest of the card. From an enjoyable Triple H vs.Goldust bout to a six man street fight thatspiralled out of control, the show hassome terrific moments. But none is better than the tag title match pitting Davey BoySmith and Owen Hart against Mankindand Vader. Putting two heel teams againsteach other was a risky move, but it workedand with four guys this talented in the ring

together it leads to a tremendous fight.

PLuS YOu GET THE RARE

OPPORTuNITY TO SEE MR FuJI

AS A BABYFACE MANAGER







Wrestlemania 14 had some big matches.Austin vs. Michaels, Rock vs. Shamrock,

Triple H vs. Owen Hart and the firstmeeting of Undertaker vs. Kane. Therereally wasn’t a lot of room for the little mento shine. Yet shine they did, when theWWF Light heavyweight champion TAKAMichinoku faced Mexican star Aguila (later to be Essa Rios). An abundance of highrisk (and not always crisply executed)moves made for an exciting bout thatwould be unlike anything the WWFaudience was used to seeing at that time.

It may not be the best match inWrestlemania history, but it was certainly arefreshing change.

When Wrestlemania 15 rolled around,both New Age Outlaws had just picked upsingles titles. Billy Gunn was the newHardcore Champion and Road dogg wasthe new Intercontinental champion. Bothwere given multi man matches in which todefend their titles. While Gunn got AlSnow and Hardcore Holly as challengers,

Road dogg got Ken Shamrock, Goldustand Val Venis. And it was this finalcollection of underrated talent that gavethe true ‘hidden gem’ of Wrestlemania 15.A fine four way bout, all four guys workedtheir guts out and it paid off. A real bonusfor fans who tuned in for the ‘big matches’on the show.

There are a couple of ‘hidden gems’ atWrestlemania 2000. Too Cool teams

with Chyna to take on the Radicalz, whileD’Lo Brown and the Godfather have aterrific opener with Bull Buchanan and theBossman. But it’s Al Snow and SteveBlackman vs. Test and Albert which is thereal ‘hidden gem’ here. After all, if yousaddle a match with a man dressed as agiant cheese at ringside, and it stillmanages to be a tremendously fought andenjoyable encounter, then that is quite theachievement.

The Acolytes, Farooq and Bradshaw, werealways fun to watch in a straight up wild

scrap, and Wrestlemania 17 added Tazzand Jacqueline to the mix. Their battlewith the Right to Censor crew was non-stop action all the way, and a funencounter that got hidden amongst somuch other good stuff on that year’s card.But it’s a hidden gem that is well worthlooking up.

Wrestlemania 18 was all about Rock vs.Hogan. In fact, that is pretty much allanyone remembers about it these days.

Even the main event (Triple H vs. ChrisJericho) is largely forgotten. So being theopening match on that show was bound tomean you aren’t remembered at all. RobVan Dam and William Regal were theunfortunate duo, battling for theIntercontinental title. A great battle ensuedand was a tremendous way to get thecrowd fired up for the incredible reactionthey would give Rock and Hogan later on.

Hogan/McMahon,Angle/Lesnar,Michaels/Jericho:Wrestlemania 19 was full of memorablematches, and a few less-memorable ones.Like the tag title match for example. WithCharlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin, LosGuerreros and Chris Benoit & Rhynobringing their tremendous Smackdownrivalries to the big stage, this was another fine Smackdown tag match.

There have been some memorable

Wrestlemania debuts. From Austin to theUndertaker, Rock to Eddie Guerrero,everyone has had their first Wrestlemaniamoment. At Wrestlemania 20, it was theturn of John Cena to walk onto the bigstage. Cena and Big Show had a finematch for the US title, culminating in Cenadelivering an FU/Attitude Adjustment onthe giant not once, but twice. A good startfor a man who is now seen as ‘the man’ inWWE these days.









Wrestlemania 21 had another memorable opener the next year. Fans

had seen the classic Eddie Guerrero/ReyMysterio match from WCW’s HalloweenHavoc on Mysterio’s DVD, and the WWEwas keen to have them recreate the magicon the Wrestlemania stage. Sadly, the twoweren’t able to reach the level of previousbattles, in part due to problems with ReyMysterio’s mask, but this is still a nice littlematch to open the show, despite being adisappointment to those involved.

Sometimes you look at the participants in

a match and think it will be terrible. Suchwas the case with Kane and the Big Showv Carlito and Chris Masters atWrestlemania 22. Not the greatestcollection of performers, but they all hadtheir working shoes on, and this lead to ahalf-decent little opening bout here. Notthe greatest ever, but still way better thanit had any rights to be on paper.

With Undertaker vs. Batista, Michaels vs.

Cena and the Vince vs. Donald Trumpbout dominating Wrestlemania 23, theUS title between Chris Benoit and MVPkind of got buried amidst the undercard.But these two contested a tremendousbout that would be far better rememberedhad Benoit not sullied his reputationforever shortly after. That year shouldhave been one to remember Benoit as agreat performer. Sadly, it will be a year heis forever remembered for what he did

outside the ring.Wrestlemania 24 opened with a greatlittle street fight featuring JBL and Finlay.Two men who won’t hold back indelivering beatings did just that here, andthe result was a fun brawl. Enjoyableperhaps for everyone who wasn’t Finlay or JBL-they must have been really soreafterwards.

Wrestlemania 25 pitted Matt Hardy and

Jeff Hardy. Both Hardys were kind of on

the downturn as far as their in ringperformances were going, but this wasdefinitely a good outing from them. Theywent all out to prove their detractors wrong

and produced a solid extreme rules match.Maybe this is better remembered thanmost of the other ‘hidden gems’, but in thecontext of a show that had the first ShawnMichaels vs. Undertaker match this isalways going to be one of the lesser remembered decent Mania matches of themodern era.

Last year’s Mania produced some moreclassics, with the HBK/Undertaker rematch topping the bill. It’s actuallydifficult to say less than twelve monthslater what won’t be remembered as the‘hidden gem’. Possibly it will be ReyMysterio v CM Punk?

So with all those hidden gems, weapproach this year’s Wrestlemania. It’scertainly a Wrestlemania with morepotential ‘hidden gems’ than major league‘must see’ matches. There’ll be surprisesand some classic moments. And again,

this may be a Mania where some of theunexpected matches deliver beyond whatwe expect.

So watch the show, enjoy the big matches,but spare a thought for those undercardguys trying their hardest to deliver their very own ‘hidden gem’ Mania moment.

n Contact Phil at [email protected]

See page 104 for our shared

Wrestlemania experiences...

© John Smolek









WWE All-stars is an arcade style wrestling game that pits current superstar wrestlers fromthe WWE and legends from earlier eras together in the same game. Classic wrestlers like

Andre the Giant, Jimmy Snuka, the Ultimate Warrior and many more face off against currentsuperstars like John Cena, Triple H, Randy Orton and Undertaker in battles designed todetermine who is actually the best of all time in the "squared circle."

The Wrestling Press, in association with THQ, has four copies of WWE All-starsto give away to four lucky TWP readers! To be in for a shot of winning this greatprize simply answer the following question :

Who did Hulk Hogan defeat at WrestleMania III?

Send your answer to [email protected] include your postal address and preferred console (Xbox or Playstation)

Competition closes 25th April. Winners will be revealed in issue 14.

PLEASE NOTE ONLY PAL (UK) REGIONS ARE AVAILABLE

4 copies of WWE’slatest game up for grabs!

In another fantastic competition The Wrestling Press has fourbottles of JR’s famous bar-b-q sauce to give away. To get yourhands on some finger licking goodness answer this simple question:

What year did Jim Ross debut in WWF?Send your answer to [email protected]

Please include your postal address. Competition closes 25th April.







Over the years, many fans, rivalsand media outlets have createdan image of Vince McMahon asan evil, cash-thirsty madman,

intent on taking over the wrestling industry.And over the years, Vince has pressedmany a wrestling rival out of business, or taken advantage of their missteps to swoopin and conquer their territory, sign awaytheir talent and, in the end, grabbed up oneof their most important assets: their tapelibraries.

If McMahon was the evil genius that manyhave painted him as throughout the years, hewould have locked all of those tapes up in avault at Titan Towers, so that no wrestling fancould ever watch them again.

But McMahon knew the resources he now hadat his disposal, and, I’m sure, just how hecould reap the benefits of those resources. Butunlike most schemes where billionaires likeMcMahon decide to charge for what they haveaccess to, the customer (that would bewrestling fans like you and me) also reap therewards.

Today, wrestling fans have the ability (for a

price, of course) to gain access to a veritablewrestling history lesson through WWE’s

OnDemand services, both through cable TVand the Internet.

And then, let’s not forget the WWE’s DVDcollection. In recent years, fans have beenable to purchase DVDs devoted to suchsubjects as Verne Gagne’s AWA and Fritz VonErich’s World Class Championship Wrestlingand “the Best of Starrcade” from Jim CrockettPromotions and the Rise and Fall of WCW andthe Rise and Fall of ECW, to name just a few.


A Royal Oversight?WHY THE WWE NEEDS TO RELEASE AJERRY LAWLER DVD?

| Words JOHN MILNER |

THEY MAY BE MISSING THE

BOAT ON ONE DVD DEVOTED TO

ONE PARTICuLAR LEGEND.. . .

Original

image © Scot

t Finke

lstein









stars from the AWA, WCCW, Memphis andPOWW, the show was headlined by a verybloody bout which saw Lawler defeat Von Erich

via a referee stoppage.And so, even with one disc for Lawler’s WWEcareer (Bret, Miz, Jake Roberts, with theKaufman feud added in), one disc for Memphisand one disc for his reign as AWA/WCCWChampion, is there still room for Lawler’s 1995stint in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, or his 1997“invasion” of ECW, that saw him team with Sabuand Rob Van Dam against Tommy Dreamer andothers?

And for every name I’ve listed above, there’sprobably two or three that others could suggest.

But no matter what the final matchlisting would be, the arguments for those matches not included are, infact, arguments that support the factthat the WWE is missing the boat innot producing a Jerry “the King”Lawler retrospective DVD.

Even if Lawler was still shouting about

“Puppies”, a WWE DVD could still reinforce thatcharacter with a montage of Lawler’s lewdcomments and video of his hosting bikinicontests, etc. (Remember his reaction to Sable’spainted on bikini?!?!?) However, in recent years,it seems as if Lawler has “matured” somewhat.He’s no longer really a heel commentator andseems even more serious and realistic than hisbroadcast partner, Michael Cole.

Although Lawler may have limited his in-ringcompetition, he still manages to step out

from behind the microphone a few times ayear (most recently he battled no less than aWWE Champion in the Miz). But, as even RicFlair and Hulk Hogan are finding out, there’s alarge portion of the wrestling fan who don’tparticularly want to see a 60-plus year old manclimb into the ring. In the case of both Hoganand Flair, their in-ring histories have beenmassively chronicled and, depending on whoyou talk to about whom, massively respected.

In Lawler’s case, his best in-ring years camebefore many modern fans were born, and came

in a territory that wasn’t readily seen by manyfans, even in the 80s. So, unless someone livedin Memphis or has a collection of issues of Pro

Wrestling Illustrated, they probably aren’t awareof Lawler’s career. And so, when Lawler stepsinto the ring on a Monday Night Raw in 2011,there will always been fans may cheer himbecause he’s a face and they see him everyweek battle verbally with Michael Cole and other visiting heels, while lauding John Cena, JohnMorrison and others. But many others willwonder (often aloud, and on message boards)just what business this old man has in the ring.

Those detractors might not be so quick to shaketheir heads at a Lawler-Miz feud if they knew thiswas a former AWA Champion stepping into thering, if they had knowledge of Lawler’s feudagainst Tommy Rich and Austin Idol, if they sawhim battle a bloody Kerry Von Erich at “Super Clash III”.

A Jerry “The King” Lawler Retrospective DVDwould not only put some extra coin in Vince’spocketbook, would not only let long-time fansrelive some of the King’s great moments, wouldnot only introduce new fans to those greatmoments, but it might even help the modern-dayproduct.

n Contact John at [email protected]


“© Scott Finkelstein









W hile Lawler’s voice is heardevery Monday night on Raw, itwas that very voice, and hisjob as a Memphis disc jockey

that paved the way for his entry into thesquared circle. He made a deal with a localwrestling promoter, Aubrey Griffith, whereLawler would provide free publicity for Griffith in exchange for being trained.

Lawler would receive much of his training fromthe legendary Jackie Fargo. Ironically, Lawler,who debuted in 1970, would feud with Fargo over the Southern Heavyweight Championship in themid-70s. (Lawler would hold either the NWA or AWA Southern title almost 70 times in his career.)

Initially a heel and managed by Sam Bass,Lawler would turn face after a split with Bass atthe end of 1974. By then, he was known as “theKing” Jerry Lawler.

In 1980, with several title reigns to his credit,Lawler had to put his career on hold due to abroken leg. However, he would return to the ringand soon found himself in one of the biggestangles of his career. In 1982, Lawler tookexception to comedian Andy Kaufman’s skitswhere he wrestled women as the Intergender

Heavyweight Champion.On April 5th, Lawler challenged Kaufman to amatch. After two piledrivers, Kaufman was sentto the hospital with an injured neck. On July29th, Lawler and Kaufman would have another altercation on Late Night With David Letterman,where Kaufman threw coffee in the King’s faceafter Lawler slapped him. (The feud, and the truestory behind it, were later immortalized on film inthe Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon.)

While Lawler would spend much of his career in the 80s in Memphis, winning title after title

(the AWA International Championship, Mid-America Championship, AWA InternationalChampionship), he would also travel to Japan(winning the Polynesian Pacific Championshipin 1985). He would also challenge visitingNWA and AWA World Championships whenthey came through Memphis.

Lawler would become one of the most popular,if not the most popular athlete in Memphis’history. In 1999, he ran for Mayor, finishing 3rd

with 11.7% of the votes. Ten years later, he ranagain, and finished 5th.


JERRY LAWLERbio By JOHN M. MILNER

LAWLER WOuLD BECOME ONE OF

THEMOST POPuLAR ATHLETES

IN MEMPHIS’ HISTORY. . . .








In 1987, the right to face AWA World ChampionNick Bockwinkle caused Lawler to feud withAustin Idol, Tommy Rich and Paul E.

Dangerously. During one steel cage matchagainst Idol, the King was attacked andhospitalized by Rich and Dangerously, who hadbeen hiding under the ring. The fans rioted,some even tried to climb into the cage, and ittook several hours for police to clear the arena,so the participants could leave.

Lawler would finally win the AWAChampionship, defeating Curt Hennig in May1988. As AWA Champion, Lawler would enter into a cross-promotional feud with World Class

Championship Wrestling HeavyweightChampion Kerry Von Erich that culminated inthe Super Clash III pay-per-view in December of that year.

Issues with Verne Gagne led to Lawler leavingthe AWA and being stripped of the World title,but the King would continue to wrestle inMemphis as part of the United States WrestlingAssociation. He would team with Jeff Jarrettagainst the Moondogs over the USWA Tag

Team titles.Lawler was involved in another cross-promotional program in the early 1990s, thistime with the WWE. After announcing he wouldbe in attendance at a WWE show in 1992,Lawler jumped the barricade during a Bret Hartmatch. Although nothing happened between thetwo, Hart and Lawler would feud in the WWE,beginning in 1993.

For much of the early – to – mid-90s, Lawler

worked in the WWE (as a heel commentator and sometime wrestler) and in Memphis (as aface), as part of a cross-over promotion thatincluded Randy Savage, Bret and Owen Hartand even Vince McMahon.

While his biggest feud in the WWE was withBret Hart (started after Lawler attacked Hartafter the 1993 King of the Ring, declaringhimself the only true King in the WWE), hewould also feud with Roddy Piper, JakeRoberts, the Ultimate Warrior and Doink theClown.

In 1994-1995, Lawler also traveled to SmokyMountain Wrestling, capturing the SMW titlefrom Tony Anthony in January 1995. In 1997,

Lawler was involved in another cross-promotion, this time with ECW. After criticizingECW on WWE TV, Lawler appeared at theECW event Wrestlepalooza ‘97, attackingTommy Dreamer. Dreamer would later defeatLawler at ECW’s Hardcore Heaven event.

During the latter part of the 90s, Lawler wouldremain behind the mic on Raw, although hewould occasionally step into the ring (includingagainst Tazz).

In February 2001, Lawler’s then-wife,Stacy “the Kat” Carter (they marriedin September 2000) was releasedfrom WWE and Lawler quit out of protest. Lawler would makeappearances on the independentcircuit before returning to the WWEin November. (Lawler and Carter separated in the summer, with thedivorce becoming finalized inOctober 2003.)

Back teaming with Jim Ross on Raw, the Kingwould, on several occasions find himself stepping into the ring in defense of hisbroadcast partner. Lawler teamed with Rossagainst Al Snow and Jonathan Coachman in2003 and faced against Tazz again in 2008.Lawler would also face Booker T, Randy Orton,Chris Jericho and others in the ring.

In November 2010, Lawler began his feud withthe Miz. He would receive a title shot in a TLCMatch on Raw, only to lose due to interferencefrom his broadcast partner, Michael Cole.Lawler would, over the next few months, findhimself facing the Miz in various matches,including several tag bouts.

In January 2011, Lawler won a 7-man RawRumble, earning the right to challenge the Mizfor the WWE Championship at the EliminationChamber pay-per-view. While Lawler lost thematch, he will still be headed to Wrestlemania toface Cole.

n Contact John at [email protected]


“









W restlemania X-Sevenwas perhaps one of

the greatestWrestlemania events

of all time, with some greatcontests included. One of the greatencounters included was the greatsemi-main event which pitted theCerebral Assassin Triple H vs TheAmerican Bad Ass version of thelegendary Undertaker. Whilewatching this battle, it was prettyobvious that this could have easily

been the main event on the card,fans ate up the match as the actionspilled all over the arena eventuallyresulting with Undertaker pinningTriple H.

Ten years later we find ourselves in aWWE Universe where ShawnMichaels has returned to the ring andsince retired, the WWF Attitude era islong gone, Stone Cold and The Rock

have now retired as in ring performersand now the end looks like it’s on thehorizon for another two of the greatestsuperstars of all time.

Wrestlemania has more to live up toyear after year, and it seems thesedays that main event title matchesat Wrestlemania just don’t cut itanymore. Management are alwayslooking for the bigger pay off and as aresult it seems the Royal Rumble

winner and subsequently the main

event World Title match atWrestlemania has taken a backseat

over the years.

Sad but true, and even when theWorld Championship matches aregiven the last spot on the card itseems most likely that fans will beexhausted after seeing a match that iscalibre for match of the year. Will

WWE take the risk and give us AlbertoDel Rio vs Edge last? Or are theygoing to play the safe card and leavefans waiting until the very end for whatpromises (and is promoted) to be thebiggest match of the night.

Ten years on from their epic battle atWrestlemania X-7 we have a verydifferent Triple H and Undertaker. Thestreak will of course be on the line asTriple H tries to defeat ‘The last

Outlaw.’ You may have noticed that


TRIPLE H vs

THE uNDERTAKERTEN YEaRs ON

| Words ANDY SHARP|

© David Seto

Main picture © John Smolek







WWE have yet to mention their previous encounter ten years ago – Atleast on TV that is.

This is the classic WWE mind-set,the reason for this is said to bebecause they don’t want to hurt theperception that Triple H is a worthycontender to end the streak. This isridiculous, what better way to addmore to the match? Logically it wouldonly increase The Game’s desire toput down The Deadman.

Also, how could you possibly ruin theperception of Triple H being a worthycontender at this juncture in hiscareer? It wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference. Triple H doesn’t need factsfrom the past to be hidden from newer fans. Surely they will get the message,when he buries Sheamus upon hisreturn, proceeds to grab a mic and telleveryone that the only challenge hehas left is to break Undertaker’s

streak.The question has to be asked, whohas the most to gain from a win in thiscontest?

From a logical standpoint it’s safe to

say that both men don’t have manyyears left in them. It’s also logical tosay that if the streak is to ever end itshould go to a guy who has at leastanother ten years ahead of him. Avictory of that calibre would guaranteea main event spot for their entirecareer and a feat that could very wellcarry that particular talent into the hallof fame.

If The Undertaker comes out victorious

then he’s only one step closer to

reaching 20-0 at Wrestlemania.Reaching 20 should signal the end of his career and he can disappear intothe dark side forever. But by doing thiswould WWE have wasted a goldenopportunity by not creating one of themost shocking defeats in wrestlinghistory?

It’s hard to judge.

Predicting what the outcome of thismatch will be is going to be a difficultdecision, but the simplest answer issometimes the best answer –Undertaker will win. But let’s accessthe situation. It’s certainly still of dreammatch calibre, even thoughUndertaker still can’t be 100% after rehabbing from his rotator cuff andTriple H, has also only just returnedfrom injury.

The fact that they’ve made this a noholds barred match shows that theycan rely on other factors in the matchrather than solely on their in-ring work.The stipulation also brings up somespeculation as to whether or not thematch will actually have a clean finish.

If Triple H is to lose, he’s going to ‘dietrying’ thus will want to look good nomatter the result, The Undertaker by

the same token has so much more to


PREDICTING THE OuTCOME

OF THIS MATCH IS GOING TO

BE A DIFFICuLT DECISION

© David Seto







lose with the streak - a clean victory justmight not be on the cards. Of course, this isall just speculation and I hope it keeps to thetwo men in the ring, as it should be.

Even though this is officially the second timewe’ve seen these two compete against eachother on the grand stage, it would be unfair to access this match compared to their firstmeeting at Wrestlemania because so muchtime has passed since then.

While many see this match as a sequel, Idon’t.

Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker atWrestlemania 26 was a sequel as itobviously happened two years in a row.Triple H vs The Undertaker is more like a re-make of the original movie. This time aroundthere’s a whole lot more pressure to deliver the goods and since both men have aged tenyears and are fresh off the injury list – thiswill prove to be a difficult task.

The after-math of this match isgoing to be tough, with both menverbally admitting time and timeagain in recent weeks that theonly challenge they have left iseach other, then what’s next after mania?

Could there be a rematch at a future event or maybe even Triple H vs The Undertaker again at Wrestlemania 28 – Only next timeround both men’s careers could be on theline. Who knows?

Despite the impressive undefeated streak atWrestlemania The Undertaker has foughtKane twice, Shawn Michaels twice and thiswill be the second time against Triple H. If hewins, that’s 6 out of those 19 victories thatwere against the same people.

Even though Triple H is already on the longlist of victims when you think about it winningsimply isn’t a logical step for The Game.There are not many fans out there that will

say they want the streak to end. Nothing

seems to remain 100% intact in the sportsentertainment world: People come out of retirement several times, Titles disappear and Legacies are tarnished by personallives, so perhaps the streak is the only thingthat should stay.

It’s the one thing that can remain solid andtrue in the annals of time and can be talkedabout for generations to come.

These two icons are the last remnants of thebeloved Attitude Era. Not only will older fansbe tuning in to Wrestlemania to see their oldfavourites like The Rock and Stone Cold, butthey will also be treated to what canpotentially be one of the greatestWrestlemania matches ever – If done right.

For new fans and old alike The

Undertaker and Triple H have a lot of emotion attached to them. These arecharacters that fans really care about, butnothing can last forever.

Its matches like this on stages likeWrestlemania that these two tremendousathletes are still around for, which begs thequestion – over the course of the next year,will it be time to end the game and rest inpeace?

n Contact Andy at [email protected]


“

© John Smolek









http://www.fwauk.com/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RveSQDnAIk




E

very month the Wrestling Priestrewards individuals deserving of particular praise. These wrestlingblessings can be for actions in the

ring or out of it, in front of a camera or backstage.

In previous issues, the blessings have primarilygone to younger competitors. This issue, theblessing goes to someone at the end of their career....

The ndertakerMost likely, this Wrestlemania could beUndertaker’s last. Injuries and the general

wear and tear of wrestling for over twodecades, have taken their toll and Taker, nolonger a young man, is bound to hang up theboots very soon.

So it is appropriate then that we at TheWrestling Press give credit to the Dead Man.This is a man who has been a locker roomgeneral, a genuine wrestling star throughoutperiods that lacked real stars, and a man whoworked hard to create a persona around agimmick that really had no right to exist morethan a few months.

Originally a fairly effective midcarder in WCW(and before that in Memphis and elsewhere),Mark Callaway entered the WWF to somefanfare. The ‘mystery partner’ gimmick is a

difficult one to get right, and is usually reservedfor the introduction of a bonafide star, but as anunknown in the WWF, Callaway fitted theUndertaker gimmick to a tee, and his presence








was overwhelming from thestart. Fans literally couldn’ttake their eyes off of him.

As with the Berzerker, PapaShango, Repo Man or SabaSimba, the Undertaker wasan outlandish gimmick thatreally should have been asburied as it suggested shortlyafter. The ridiculous nature of it (a dead man whowrestles?) guaranteed itwouldn’t get over.

Yet so intimidating was theUndertaker, and so good atworking in the gimmick wasCallaway, that fans did getinto it. Even with years andyears of terrible opponents,such as the Berzerker or Giant Gonzales, theUndertaker managed to stillbe someone the fans justwanted to see.

Inevitably, the Undertaker turned babyface. Hispopularity rose and continuedto rise as he battled more andmore credible opponents and,as years went on, he beganto amass an as-yet-unmentioned winning streakat Wrestlemania.

But then the WWF began to

change. Out went thecartoonish nature of 1995, incame the Attitude era of late1997. And as the WWFbegan to morph into differentstyles, the Undertaker character morphed as well.

In order to keep the character fresh, Undertaker went frombeing a slow, plodding ‘deadman’ to a cult leader of theMinistry of Darkness, to an

‘American Badass’ on amotorcycle, to an MMAinfluenced fighter. And with

every change to his character,Callaway showed he couldadapt to different styles.

And so the Undertaker outlasted practically everyoneelse on the roster. Bret Hartleft. Steve Austin left. TheRock left. Shawn Michaelsleft. But the Undertaker carried on. And more thanthat, the Undertaker stayed

very much at the top of theWWF.

The genuine awe andpresence that Undertaker stillbrings is a great testament tothe staying power of Callaway and the character he has carefully protected for so long. Unlike many other wrestlers who go on chat

shows and act all goofy, or appear at celebrity eventsand get all starstruck at the

‘real stars’ in attendance,Undertaker is stoic andreserved wherever he isseen. He doesn’t live thegimmick, but he equally doesnot appear in any situationthat destroys the gimmick,and that has lead to himbeing the legend that he hasbecome today.

Undertaker, Mark Callaway,

we salute you. You’ve been atthe top of your game for

decades without fail, andyou’ve been a superstar when superstars were sadlylacking. We don’t yet know if this will be your finalWrestlemania, but regardless

we feel you have earned thisissue’s wrestling blessings.


THE uNDERTAKER

OuTLASTED

PRACTICALLY EVERYONE

ON THE ROSTER

All photos © David Seto









I really enjoyed the build up with Jeff Hardy andKen Anderson. The mutual respect and makingsure everything was clean is an odd way to go

when it’s in a heated feud, but I thought they dida good job of it. I’m pretty indifferent to both, soto actually get me fairly interested in their match, despite already knowing the outcome, isan achievement.

The rest of the show was just average, whichfor the most part is TV that is watchable, but notexactly enjoyable. That is until the main angle toclose the show. I hated this angle when I readthe spoilers, despite hoping it could work out. I’dread web pages and forum threads about how

bad this was. I watched it I was drawn in. A.J.Styles cut pretty much the best promo of his life.The crowd were in to it, and I really felt like itmade sense.

This to me gives TNAs younger stars, andoriginal stars a great chance to shine. Theyoung guys can stand tall, defend TNA, and bethe ones to take out the big stars and hopefullyget the rub that these names were brought in togive. With the chance of this happening, and

being caught in A.J.’s promo I was even willingto forgive continuity errors and hope that itwould be patched up next week. It’s not perfect.But with various thoughts running through mymind when the show ended, I was excited aboutTNA for the first time in a long while.

The next show was 10th of February, spoilersmade me question whether or not TNA hadactually bothered to write a storyline to go withtheir new version of who ‘THEY’ were. After A.J.’s big speech at the end of the last show, Iwas expecting a full development of the angleexplaining why Fortune left; maybe bring RicFlair in to it. Instead, we were to have EricBischoff and Jeff Jarrett run them down whilstthey argued what they did for the company. Itsounded pretty weak.

Elsewhere; Hernandez joined Immortal, which Iwas all for. Some guy dressed like Kato fromGreen Hornet continued to be pointless, andBrother Devon continued to regret the TNA

bring your children to work scheme. MickieJames and Madison Rayne continued their

Sarita and Mickie James did sound quite

terrible, the spoilers even listed it as pretty bad.The end of the show, however, just soundedincredibly bad. Maybe it was because I’dhoped for a Main Event Mafia faction return.Maybe it was because I hoped TNA wouldspring a new surprise. But to read in thespoilers that ‘THEY’ were in fact Fortunereally had me writing this show off.Afterwards I thought about this for a while,and thought the angle had plenty of chancefor success.

The idea of the originals running out theinvading ‘big names’ that were killing their company, TNA had tried before, but maybenow it could succeed. But the tone of thespoilers, coupled with the booking decisionsleading into the big reveal, completelycontradicts that Fortune were ever meant tobe the choice for ‘THEY’ had me one hundredper cent ready to write off the show as thebiggest let down of the year.

When Tuesday rolled around Iprepared for what I expected to bea pretty terrible show, capped off with an angle that failed before andnow was pointlessly restarting.

While watching, I still found the openingpromo rather turgid. I really didn’t see muchneed to mention Nash going to WWE, butwith Scott Steiner in the ring it came acrossas more of a comment at him not having his

former running buddies than themreferencing a dead in the water angle.


“

© Tony Knox







feud which is clearly meant to be thefoundation for the women’s division revival, butjust isn’t working despite good work from both

ladies.Matt Morgan lost a title match againstAnderson, which Hardy watched from on top of a ladder. No reason was given for this, andKurt Angle was given Robert Roodes place inthe main event as he teamed with A.J.Styles totake on Jarrett and Hardy. Not the best way topush the young guys. The show ended with abrawl where the two biggest heroes for theface team being Rob Van Dam, who managedto clear house for a bit on his own, and Mr

Anderson who was the only man left standingat the close. Again, why not push the younger guys here? We also had Angle sign a contractthat put his kids on the line; sigh.

As Tuesday rolled around, I again sat downready to watch a show that I felt woulddisappoint me. This time, it did, more so thanthe spoilers. The opening promo I feltcompletely failed to capitalise on any of thebuild coming out of the previous episode, withno real explanation for them working alongsideImmortal. Devon and Brothers Ray’s feud

continued to use Devon’s kids as a means of getting heat, when in actuality Ray being a

coward was doing enough to make him seemlike a prick. Bringing family in to it seemedpointless.

The title match really annoyed me.Not because of the poor quality, butbecause this was a world title match,and what did commentary choose toput over repeatedly? That the winner would get a ladder match, for the titleat Against All Odds. When a contestwith Jeff is being promoted as moreprize worthy than a match for thetitle, I totally lost interest.

The wedding and children stipulations werepathetic in writing, and no less so in spokenword.The finale with Anderson standing tall leftme baffled as to how they could end theprevious week with Fortune looking good thanksto a promo, but this week left them looking likethe bench team to not only Anderson, but alsoRVD who’d done a far better job of seeing off Immortal than anyone else. Disappointmentcould only begin to describe 10th Februaryshow.

So over the course of my two week experiment Idid manage to reach a conclusion. Spoiler reports do ruin the surprise of wrestling; theyare also a great way to keep up with key results.They are, however, not an accurate measure asto the quality of a TV show.

No matter how good, or bad something mayseem on paper, when it’s on your screen thereare a lot of extra factors to take in to accountthat can completely change your perception as

it takes place. It’s a shame, because despite mebeing disappointed when watching the secondepisode of TNA, I know a lot of people skippedthe first one because they’d not gotten the Mafiaback, and Fortune being ‘THEY’ sounded weak.

They hadn’t seen it. They had read about it, andI truly believe if some of the people got out of this mentality, judging TNA based off the writesups, they’d actually find that it’s not as bad asthose reports so often make out, intentionally or otherwise.

n Contact Martyn at [email protected]


“

© Tony Knox








“I think if a

fan is going totravel to seeus, they shouldget in free tosee the show.”TNA Owner Dixie Carter-

Salinas, Youshoot: Live

interview which took place May 2010.

TNA“STORM THE GAT

E”

Words

JAMIE KENNEDY

Photos

TONY KNOX








W hen Dixie Carter wasappointed president of TNAWrestling in the spring of 2003, she was clearly an

extremely optimistic woman regarding her chances of success in an industry whichhad been dominated by one company(World Wrestling Entertainment) for theprevious few years, having bought out its

own competitors in World ChampionshipWrestling and Extreme ChampionshipWrestling.

The thought of muscling in and eventuallysharing the obvious finances gained byoperating in the professional wrestling andentertainment markets must have seemedincredibly appealing, especially to a personwith the business mind that Carter has.

It’s common knowledge amongst those who

follow sports entertainment, even on a casualbasis; TNA wrestling do not charge for entry to

events taking place at the “iMPACT! Zone”(Soundstage 21, in Universal Studios inOrlando, Florida), their home base for eventssince 2004.

This matter has been long debated, both byfans and critics – with neither side reachinga firm conclusion as to just how beneficial or negative an impact (excuse the pun) this is tothe company and their trading’s as a pro

wrestling group. The cold hard facts state,however, that TNA receive literally zero moneyfor each show they hold at the venue. The livegate comes in at a total of $0, this is perhapsshocking to comprehend, considering howmuch money is expended per event.

Being completely fair to TNA, there arerestrictions placed on their deal with UniversalStudios for use of the sound stage for tapingsand live events, namely; the company are

simply not allowed to charge any money for tickets to shows emanating from the arena.

“THESE LARGE AND PASSION

ATE

AuDIENCES WOuLD COME

ACROSS WELL ON TV”







This obviously has itsdrawbacks, disallowing TNAfrom making a profit at their own shows, most of whichare run from UniversalStudios. The sound stage ispart of a park set-up, in whichvisitors are charged anentrance fee at the gates and

are therefore not to pay for any single park attractionafterwards.

The company has toyed withthe idea of expanding toholding more than thehandful of shows it runs per year outside the iMPACT!Zone. This has beentempered with low crowds tolive events throughout the

company’s home country, the

United States, and a failure toput a good projection of theproduct onto television. spite

of this, the company recentlydrew approximately 8,000paid fans to a taping inFayetteville, North Carolina –showing proof that there ispotential for expansionshould the promotion decideto take their product on theroad.

Wrestling fans seeminglyare not interested in paying

money to attend a TNAshow en masse, realisingthat they are not required todo so should they befortunate enough to live localto Orlando, Florida. In theeyes of many, the promotiondoes not hold the same drawas WWE in regards to seeingthe product live and in livingcolour.

This poses a problem to TNAand highlights a fatal flaw and

irony in Carter’s logic. Whyshould fans attending houseshow live events “on the

road” have to pay, whenthose fans attending TVtapings and Pay-Per-Viewbroadcasts at the iMPACT!Zone do not pay a penny?The argument of fanstravelling to the show andtherefore not being chargedis null and void, consideringthat every single personattending – whether it be at

Universal Studios or not –has travelled in some form or another to be there.

Indeed Pay-Per-View isanother entire businessmodel of which the companyfail to take advantage of. Buyrate numbers for TNA PPVevents reportedly come inaround the 10,000-20,000mark each month, withnumbers fluctuatingdepending on the stature of the event.


Footage courtesy of Kayfabe Commentaries, www.kayfabecommentaries.com

© Tony Knox





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW7rS02l3o4





Mattitude. What a soubriquet. No,that's "Tete de pissette", some-thing very different. This meansnickname. Your name is the first

thing people find out about you, most of thetime, even before they see you. When youhear about a Quentin, you're not expecting a

hairy arsed builder are you? I'm usually grab-bing my 2 by 4 and knuckledusters actually.Well, that class war won't fight itself. Your name is so important. And to saddle poor Mattwith such a clunky, such a geeky title is toshow how such little care.

Welcome to Matt's world. He's the Hardy we don'treally want. The buy one get one free deal. EnjoyJeff? Then get his beefier brother for half price!Hang on, where are you going? Come back!

There's just something lacking. He can wrestle,that's for sure, with great mat styling and somefairly high flying offence. Fairly. But that's notenough. Not when your brother is the razor'sedge-walking, improbable height-defying,charismatic mess Jeff. Be honest, even whenthey were the card-hogging Hardy Boyz, settingPPV's alight with alarming regularity in ladder matches versus the awesomeness-reekingEdge and Christian, it's Jeff and E & C youremember, having their scrotes bifurcated andteeth removed by aluminum steps.

Matt was there, yeah, but he didn't hit theheights. Like the Hart Foundation, one flew, oneremained a little more grounded, but The Anvil(and what a fine example of post-wrestlingchoices there) was a powerhouse, whilst Mattis...well, he does fly, but not quite enough to bea high flyer and he does bring the power but notquite enough to balance the team out. And sohe comes off as a not-quite-as-good version of

his brother.

A

CYNICAL

MINDwith

THE CYNIC

BROTHER, WHERE YOU BOUND?


© Tony Knox








Of course, this shouldn't matter in grappling.Look at the Blade Runners; Sting and JimHellwig, one a little tiny bit better than the other.

Look at Hogan; not too long, it can cause torpor and listlessness. He isn't a great grappler, ishe? Big boot, big leg, big bucks; he'schallenged. But we love his character, don't we?And we pour money into that pouting bouche (Iam nothing if not an internationalist) because hehas a real charisma. Even Duggan has that.

Matt has Jeff. Constantly showing him howit's done. We may tut at the missed flights,the lacklustre performances, the mess. Butreally, he's got that Charlie Sheen syndrome;

birds, booze, drugs, parties which don't affect hiswork pissiboluties? We have a sneaking regardfor him, we want to know about the life he leadsand what leads him to it; the tortured artist hasalways been an attraction, but our celeb cultureand emotionalisation of the news ("the floodwaters swept away your house and everythingyou'd worked 30 years for. How did you feel?""Gutted.") means we love bad boy fuck ups.

But Matt isn't a bad boy. Even when we see the

excellent early years footage of the bros inOmega, it's clear that Jeff was the innovator,flaky perhaps but exciting whilst Matt worked tomake the fed a success; he did the nuts andbolts, but being the responsible ain't exciting isit? And neither is a booker/wrestler - BrianPillman's disparaging "I respect you, booker man" shows that.

And it gets worse for Matt. We want wrestlers tobe tough, hair trigger types, who would pummelpale, flabby men in bars if they so much aslooked at them askance. Matt was happilytogether with tattooed one-trick pony Lita. He letEdge "look after" her whilst he travelled. Edgelooked after one part of her more than another.

They became an item. Matt's ladylove stolen bythe captain of chin, Edge. We would have lovedit if he'd waffled him with a tyre iron in the car park. What did Matt do, the rough and toughMatt? Accepted it. He even sat by when Vincentturned it into a storyline, and not even one that

made him look good, one that verified the lackof passion others perceived.

It might not have been that way. But perceptionis everything.

And although Matt has pinballed around the

brands and picked up multiple titles, he didnothing with them and so wasn't allowed to runwith them. How many of his title runs would beon our top 10 lists? Do I see one? No. Thoughtnot.

He doesn't really help himself. I know we can'tall be little Goldusts, but the all-black outfitmeans you need to go something. Even if it's ashackneyed as an extreme close-up and ascream of "I'm awesome!" Matt isn't good

behind the stick so he needs to create apersona which is good to look at. We knowgrappling is an unholy amalgam of athleticismand acting.

Matt has all the quality of Martin Lawrencewithout the fat suit (although he's had momentswhen he seemed to be sporting one!); wrestlershave to inhabit the characters they are given,even if they hate them. Otherwise you get aSantana "Matador" situation. Matt simply looksuncomfortable. Not like this is beneath him, just

like he doesn't believe he can do it - that's deathfor a wrestler.

So why did he survive so long in WWE? Your guess is as good as mine. Actually, it isn't, it'smuch worse. So if I don't know, you have no

chance. Allow me to posit some possibilities.His brother was a big draw and, as said before,it's a BOGOF situation. Or maybe Matt is justthe meat and potatoes fighter you need toanchor a mid card or take the edge (Sorry aboutthat word Matt) off the crowd excitement beforea main event. Or maybe he was sounremarkable he just flew under the radar for years.

Well, he's certainly a blip now. His recent jumpto TNA has seen him pitched in next to Easy Ein the main angle, Hogan, Ditzie Carter and all.

WRESTLERS HAVE TO INHABIT

THE CHARACTERS THEY ARE

GIVEN, EVEN IN THEY HATE THEM







And what was he doing in the last "Impact"?Trying to look tough, which amounted tohanging around at the back and pouting. Did

any of us get scared? Did we hide behind thesofa? Again, this is Matt seemingly not believingin the work he's doing. He seems to haveaccepted that he will never really be a top stringsuperstar, so he's just riding out his time until hisbody tells him he needs to quit.

And he might be in just the right place. TNA isthe home of rogues and vagabonds with aslightly popular past. I would have thought thatthe financial crisis would have done for them, asthe red ink keeps flowing, but they carry on

making acquisitions, and continue to pay thosewho simply cannot perform (did you SEE ScottSteiner last week?) so perhaps Matt is in acomfy, undemanding bolthole to see out hiscareer.

But you never know. Little brother could be sentdown and then he'd have no support. He needs

to take some responsibility for his own career;coasting won't help him now. He needs a newcatchphrase - and "Matt Hardy v3" or "Mattitude

2011" don't count. He could do with some helpin simply talking; for this, love him or hate him,he has the man who made it his forte, a mannow called Immortal.

He could do with losing some weight

perhaps, to help his ring performance.

But that is all presuming he actually

can muster up interest for a business

which he's been in for so long. And he

could change that "pony tail but no

sideburns" abhorrence of a haircut

too.

He needs to look at what he's doing, otherwiseit could be ROH, then independent weekenddates and then the shoot interview market. Andhe doesn't want that; does he?

n Contact The Cynic at

[email protected]


“












http://www.amerchandise.co.uk/



Indie EventsTaking Place During

WrestleManiaWords ARI BERENSTEIN ([email protected])

A Look at The 2011 Independent Wrestlemania Weekend

WWE Wrestlemania 27 will emanate from the Georgia Dome on Sunday April 3rd, 2011, but it’s far from the only wrestling promotion getting in on the act that weekend. There will be at least fiveindependent shows that weekend, plus a leading name in the convention and autograph circuit andeven a comedy show all taking place just a few miles away from the Dome. Indeed, Wrestlemaniaweekend has spun away from WWE and spawned into an annual tradition for the entire wrestlingindustry. Here is some of the action available to fans in the lead-up to The Big One:


Ring of Honor

Shows: “Ring of Honor Takes Center Stage”When: April 1st & 2nd, 2011Where: Center Stage Theatre1374 W Peachtree St. NWAtlanta, GA 30309Bell Times: April 1st: 8 PM; April 2nd: 1 PM

SOLD OUT

http://www.rohwrestling.comhttp://www.gofightlive.tvhttp://www.centerstage-atlanta.com/about

ROH is back with its now traditionalWrestlemania weekend shows. They have runevents in the same city as Wrestlemania for seven out of the past eight years and usuallyenjoy some of the larger crowds of their tour circuit. This time around, ROH runs in thecomparably smaller Center Stage Theatre,though the building’s rich ties to wrestlinghistory (WCW used to hold television tapingsthere) certainly adds to the eventís character.Tickets for both shows have sold out, but fans

can order internet Pay Per View from Go FightLive for a special combination price of $19.99

for both shows (or $14.99 individually). Inaddition, ROH runs a meet & greet fan festivalsession on April 2nd from 10 AM-11:30 AM(open to all with a separate ticket purchase).

Only a few matches have been announced for these shows as of press time (allowing for anyfallout from their March 18th and 19th events inPlymouth, Virginia and New York City).However, each of the matches announced hassignificance. There is an ROH World Titlematch between Roderick Str ong or Eddie

Edwards (whoever is champion) versus ‘TheFallen Angel’ Christopher Daniels and a ROH













North Carolina and then headdown about six hours and 400miles to Atlanta for two shows,

including one on the same dayas Wrestlemania!Interestingly, DGUSA hasdecided to join forces withlocal promotions in both areas,co-promoting events withCWF Mid-Atlantic andRampage Pro Wrestling at thesame venue before theDragon Gate USA events.Those who purchase tickets

are able to see both shows,effectively making it two-for-the-price-of-one.

As for DGUSA, their threeevents center around twomajor themes-the stablewarfare between thepowerful Blood Warriorsunit against the Americanupstart trio Ronin and thedefenses of major DG Japanand DG USA Titles over thecourse of the three-dayevent. On the April 2nd eventYAMATO defends thepromotionís Open theFreedom Gate Title againstAustin Aries, who has been inthe news recently for being cutfrom the WWE Tough Enoughreprise and questioning hiscareer priorities. Ariesstumped for a title shot onlineand received it with thestipulation that he would leavethe promotion if he lost (if hewins he’ll appear on the April3rd show).

The April 1st event features aStable Shootout with theaforementioned groupsparticipating in a series of

different stipulation

matches PAC & Ricochet fightChuck Taylor & Akira Tozawain a ‘Dream Partner’ Tag

Match. Then a one-on-onematch between the stablessees veteran CIMA fightagainst Johnny Gargano, theman who begged to team withhim and then reneged andformed Ronin in the first place.Then in ‘Pick Your Poison’matches, Ronin selected JonMoxley to fight the BloodWarriorís Naruki Doi, while

Sami Callahan was chosen towrestle against Rich Swann.

Also on the 4/1 card is a‘Breakout Challenge’, with thewinners of two ‘Four WayFreestyle’ matches fightingagainst each other. Bracketone will feature Arik Cannon,AR Fox, Facade and ShiimaXion while bracket two has thedebut of Jimmy Rave as well

as Jon Davis, Kyle Matthewsand Sugar Dunkerton. BrodieLee will also appear.

The CWF Mid-Atlantic showwill feature: Mid-AtlanticHeavyweight Champion LeeValiant, Kamakazi Kid, Mid-Atlantic Tag Team ChampionsThe VA Bombers of JasonBlade & Adam Page, Chiva

Kid, Ric Converse and PWIInternational Ultra J ChampionXsiris.

In addition to the previouslydetailed title match, the April2nd event features the returnof the highly praised annualDragon Gate Six-Man matchwith Blood Warriors (CIMA,Naruki Doi & Ricochet) againstRonin (Chuck Taylor, Johnny

Gargano & Rich Swann).

Other matches include anOpen The Brave Gate TitleMatch with champion PAC

defending against AkiraTozawa, Stalker Ichikawa vs.Jon Moxley. Also appearingwill be Open The Dream GateChampion Masato Yoshinoand Jimmy Jacobs.

The RPW show (for GoldenCircle and stage ticketpurchases) includes an RPWHeavyweight Title Match withJ-Rod vs. Bull Buchanan, anRPW Tag Title Match with TheUsual Suspects of Murder 1 &AJ Steele vs. Hot Like Lava of Cru Jones & Shaun Banks,Jimmy Rave vs. Kyle

Matthews and Sal Rinauro vs.Sugar Dunkerton.

DGUSA concludes with amatinee on April 3rd. Signedfor that show will be anOpen The United Gate TitleMatch with championsMasato Yoshino &PAC defending against CIMA& Ricochet, Open The

Freedom Gate ChampionYAMATO against his former Kamikaze USA stablemateAkira Tozawa in a non-titlegrudge match, Naruki Doi vs.Johnny Gargano and a six-man match with Brodie Leevs. Jimmy Rave vs. SamiCallihan vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs.Chuck Taylor vs. AR Fox, withadditional matches to be

announced.

DGuSA HAS DECIDED TO

JOIN FORCES WITH LOCAL

PROMOTIONS IN BOTH

AREAS. . . .








5 Dollar Wrestling

When: Saturday April 2nd, 2011Where: The Academy TheatreTime: 11 PM until (and I quote) “We get kicked out!!!!!”Price: $5 (of course)

http://www.highspots.comhttp://www.savefans.com

Quickly becoming the “Mystery Science Theatre 3000”of the wrestling world, Five Dollar Wrestling featuresColt Cabana and comedian Marty DeRosa dishinghumorous barbs and one-liners while watching some of the dirt worst professional wrestling and putting backsome brewskis.

WrestleReunion

Show: “Curtain Call for Bruno”When: Sunday, April 3rd, 2011Where: Atlanta Marriott Downtown160 Spring Street NW Atlanta, GA 30303Time: Opens 10 AM12 PM to 3 PM - Autograph Signing & PhotoOps

3 PM to 4:30 PM - Luncheon with BrunoSammartinoPrice: VIP Ticket (1 autograph & 1 photo opwith all WrestleReunion guests plusLuncheon): $199; Luncheon Non-VIP ticket($59); Non-VIP autograph tickets available

http://www.wrestlereunion.comhttp://www.atlantamarriottdowntown.com

This convention of wrestling stars runs onceagain after coming off the successful three-

day weekend in Los Angeles, California thispast January. The theme of the event is acelebration for Bruno Sammartino, who isreportedly making his last ‘convention’signing appearance with this show. Therewill be a luncheon held in his honor. Also setto appear: Lita, Jackie Gayda-Haas, CharlieHaas, Shelton Benjamin, New Jack and TerriRunnels plus vendor guests includingCarlito, Christy Hemme, Scott Steiner,Tommy Dreamer, Kamala, Iron Sheik &

Nikolai Volkoff, Scott Steiner, Mickie James,Wynter, Bob Orton Jr. and more.









January 26th, 2009 the day that Ring of Honor fans had hoped and dreamed

for since its debut onto PPV in 2007.It was the day that the largest Indypromotion told its fans that they had signeda TV deal with HDNet Fights for two yearsto showcase their talent.

At the time ROH had a huge roster of up andcoming talent including current WWE UnitedStates Champion Daniel Bryan (BryanDanielson), Seth Rollins aka Tyler Black, TNAtalent Nigel McGuinness (Desmond Wolfe)alongside the international flavor of Pro

Wrestling NOAH in a great talent exchangethat currently is in talks to occur again.

Others included the legendary Jerry Lynn, Indystandout Austin Aries, and of course themainstays of Ring of Honor The Briscoes. Thefans salivated at the thought of seeing these“best kept secrets” in the world of pro wrestlingpotentially on television for the first time.

The TV deal with HDNet gave wrestling fanssome of the best action on television for the

past two years including contests like BryanDanielson vs. Takeshi Morishima, KENTA vs.Chris Hero and Davey Richards vs. EddieEdwards to name a few. We also saw themuch invigorated initiative towards their tagdivision which right now is touting some of thebest feuds in recent memory.

However, the talent cannot be the onlything that Ring of Honor thrives on nineyears into their existence.

While it has always been known that sometalent would one day move on to “greener

pastures”, it has been a struggle for Ring of Honor to create the stars that will carry theminto 2011 as quickly as they did during theexodus of A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, andSamoa Joe some years before.

This coming April, the dream will be over. It hasbeen reported by major insider websites that

HDNet Fights have not signed them to a newdeal. It would be this announcement that could

ROH In A Post HDNet World

www.thewrestlingpress.com54

Words: CHRIS GST

IT WAS ANNOuNCED THAT

DELIRIOuSWAS GOING TO START HIS REIGN AS BOOKER. . . .








possibly signal the end of the road has comefor ROH when it comes to being a televisionpresence. At the same time it could be a silver lining in the clouds for several reasons.

I’ve been a fan of the promotion since itsinception in 2002, after viewing their first DVD“Era of Honor Begins”. I was hooked on their presentation of wrestling. It was a combinationof many different styles of wrestling booked inan obviously crowd pleasing combination.

It was great for the fans that were there andthe growing DVD fan base that Ring of Honor based its sales on in the beginning.After the controversy surrounding ROH in2004, a semi-dramatic change was made inthe way Ring of Honor was booked.

It became more important to get the crowd intostrong storylines than just a DVD friendlyproduct. Of course word broke out and manycurrent stars of today’s mainstream companieswere taken from ROH to compete in front of alarger crowd names such as AJ Styles, Evan

Bourne (Matt Sydal) and of course CM Punk toname a few.

Imagine if these guys had been able to stay inRing of Honor and were the top faces of ROHTV? What a show it could be, but of coursethat is the wrestling business. I do believe thatas a niche market what must be understood isthat sometimes what we like as wrestling fansdoesn’t necessarily translate to a nationalaudience.

As a steady fan of the Indy scene since about2001 I would say that certain promotionscould probably not make it on a nationaltelevision base. Promotions like CHIKARA or

even Dragon Gate USA are not cut out for nationwide television and anyone that caresto make the argument feel free to drop me aline. I do believe that ROH over the past twoyears has hit a TV friendly formula eventhough it is hardly recognizable to the formulait had at its inception, like it or not.

Many ROH fans spoke out against the subtlechanges and even more made a huge boomwhen beloved booker Gabe Sapolsky was let

ago amidst rumors that he just wasn’tcomfortable writing a TV friendly product and


Davey Richards vs El Generico








was “burnt out”, something that later on he didadmit to and has stated since that perhaps hisbeing let go was the best thing that could

have happened to him.We’ve seen two bookers since his release.Current NWA Heavyweight Champion AdamPearce took over for a bit in 2010 until Augustwhen it was announced that Hunter Johnstonknown around the Indy circuit as Deliriouswas going to start his reign as booker.Delirious is the head trainer of the ROHAcademy and was reportedly writing for ProWrestling RESPECT which is the studentbased promotion to give them exposure to a

live crowd before they are in front of a larger ROH/HDNet base.

HDNet was not in a lot of homes until the latter part of 2010 and while a lot of homes still gotHDNet, it just wasn’t a channel even with itsMMA base that a lot of people knew about.

Even with all the wrestling online press thatROH put out there for their fans to try to getHDNet, sometimes it just wasn’t possible.

HDNet Fights is not a popular channel in theUS, you can only get if you pay for highdefinition service from your TV provider. Manytimes fans have had to find other ways towatch the show or wait for the Best of HDNetDVDs to see some of the best wrestlingmatches on TV on a consistent basis.

During this time ROH really got to work onwhat they felt was a more fan/TV friendlyformat and in many ways has gotten that downa tad more in terms of shorter opening

matches, doing more TV vignettes that putover DVDs and iPPVs as well as providingsome good main events that in many waysmade the fans want to see the iPPVs or buythe DVDs to see the ends of major feuds.

Of course this is something thatthey still have to work on and it isclearly not a clean science as madeobvious in WWE and TNA who stillstruggle to find that formula to this

day.As stated before, this could turn into a silver lining in other ways. The first and foremostbeing, they could get on another channel thatcould have more exposure, there are manyregional channels and many specialtychannels such as MTV2 that showcase smaller wrestling promotions.

Even a few of the other promotions I listedpreviously are reportedly getting some regional

channel interest; ROH has a nationwideaudience now and requires a channel that canprovide that, even if it is a station like aMyNetwork. This of course is the station thatused to carry Smackdown for WWE. While itdoes not have any new content and only playsreruns, it would give ROH a place to be andthey might get more eyes on the productbecause MyNetwork would push it to garner higher ratings.

Of course this would be a huge step for thembut it also has a small chance of happening

www.thewrestlingpress.com56

© Scott Finkelstein “

Jay

Briscoe







with wrestling not really being a huge ratingsmachine like it used to be.

That also could be construed into somethingpositive in the state that ROH could step backa little and re-configure their business strategyto go back to the DVD market. Now I’m notsaying that they need to go back to DVDs per say. They already have a video on demandservice and this to me is the future of theonline market.

DVDs should still be made for those who donot have faster internet but with a majority of people pretty much used to downloading and

watching stuff on their computer it would makesense for them to push more out of their VODservice.

Not being on TV could make them realize thatthere is going to be more of a demand to get

revenue from this source. I do feel that theyreally missed the boat when they were on TVand didn’t seem to really push their DVDs until

the Adam Pearce regime. While it may not bethe short term fix, it is definitely a revenueaspect that they could explore more now.

All in all no one truly knows what is going tohappen. While I have received many emailsfrom fans and friends alike, a few with moreinsight than others, I can surely say that thefuture of Ring of Honor is anything butblack and white. They can still have a greatfuture even beyond HDNet no matter what

avenue they decide to partake in.In the end it is us, the fans that will benefit themost, from no doubts one of the bestpromotions of the last decade.

n Contact Chris GST at [email protected]


“IT WAS A COMBINATION

OF MANY DIFFE

RENT

STYLES OF WRE

STLING”

© Scott F

inkelstein







http://tiny.cc/xzfm7



http://www.prowrestlingnoah.co.uk/

http://www.prowrestlingnoah.co.uk/




KING OF TRIOS

FOR DUMMIESSpring time is an exciting time as a wrestling fan. After all, WrestleMania is rightaround the corner, which means not only is the WWE putting their best foot forward,but so are many of the top independent wrestling companies. Although many of those companies will be holding the shows the same weekend as WrestleMania,CHIKARA however will be running their biggest weekend of the year just a coupleweeks later: The 2011 King of Trios tournament.

Words: KEVIN FORD

For those who don’t know,CHIKARA is an independent

wrestling company based out of Pennsylvania. It’s unique blend

of different wrestling styles from aroundthe world, as well as its focus on colorfulcharacters and storylines separate it

from the rest of the companies around.

CHIKARA takes a lot of its influence fromthe Lucha Libre style of wrestling,specifically with the company focusing onteams and factions more so thanindividuals. That focus is no more apparentthan in the King of Trios tournament.

For the past four years, CHIKARA has

invited trios from all over the world to








compete in a three night single-eliminationtournament. Four of the three tournamentssaw sixteen trios compete for the title,though the 2008 installment boasted anunprecedented twenty-eight teams. After the first year, CHIKARA decided to houseall three nights at the former ECW Arenain Philadelphia, PA.

This makes travel accommodations for

fans and wrestlers alike much moresimple. Wrestlers from all around theworld come annually in an attempt tostake their claim as the top trio in all of professional wrestling. Teams from Ringof Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla,Michinoku Pro, and the WWF have seencompetition in tournaments past. Notablenames like current WWE United StatesChampion Bryan Danielson, TNA’s TheMotor City Machine Guns, former WWF

Tag Team Champions Demolition, British

wrestling legend Johnny Saint, and othershave come to vie for the King of Trioscrown.

SO WHAT ABOT THIS YEAR’STORNAMENT?

Once again, sixteen trios from around theworld will gather in Philadelphia on theweekend of April 15th to April 17th for King

of Trios supremacy. As of press time,fourteen of the sixteen teams have beenannounced. Some of them are CHIKARAregulars, such as F.I.S.T. who won the2009 King of Trios tournament (althoughJohnny Gargano is in the trio this timearound instead of former member GranAkuma). Others include The Colony of Fire Ant, Soldier Ant, and Green Ant, whomade it to the finals of the 2010 King of Trios tournament, The Osirian Portal, and

others.


KING OF TRIOS FOR DUMMIES













Years past have seen wrestlers do variousactivities with the fans, such as play Rock

Band, Fire Pro Wrestling and boardgames, karaoke, cut promos, and takeembarrassing family photos. This year,CHIKARA is bringing in melodic rock iconStan Bush to perform a miniature concertat the Conclave. Stan is best known for providing songs for the soundtracks to theoriginal “Transformers” movie and the JeanClaude Van Damme vehicle “Bloodsport”,and also provides the theme for this year’stournament: “The Touch (Stan’s Theme)”.

There’s also a bodyslam challenge, wherefans can step up to the plate to try andbodyslam Tursas (who is nearly 7 feet talland just shy of 400 pounds). More activitieswill be announced as the weeks roll on.

This year will be the third King of Triostournament I attend live. The only way to

describe the atmosphere is “addicting”. Ihave attended numerous wrestling events

over the years and I can safely say therehas been no more fun weekend of wrestling I’ve participated in than King of Trios. If you have the means, I highlysuggest attending, even if it’s just for oneof the three nights.

The DVD’s have turned out to be “must-buys” year after year and there’s noreason to believe this year will be anydifferent. Even if you’re brand new toCHIKARA, King of Trios is a fantastic entry

point to jump on board. The entirewrestling world will be paying attention towhat exactly goes down. After all, it is thelargest tournament in professionalwrestling today.

n Contact Kevin Ford at [email protected]

KING OF TRIOS FOR DUMMIES










T

he Japanese wrestling scene is

quite possibly one of the hardest

to break in to, with many up and

comers f alling to the notoriousNJPW Dojo, even bef ore getting into the

ring.

But some talents ar e bor n to succeed in this

envir onment, Shinsuke Nakamur a is no

exception. He def ied huge amounts of

pr essur e to become the youngest ever IWGP

champion at the age of 22 and continues to

have a good amount of success to this day,

consistently r anking in the top 25 of the PWI

500 f or the past 3 year s.

TWP’s Andr ew Dixon r ecently had the

oppor tunity to talk with Nakamur a and take a

chronological look at his car eer , discussing his

ear ly r ise to the top, his over seas exper iences

and his thoughts on WWE/TNA.

Hello shinuke, I’ like to tr t by king

you bout the notor iou NjPW doo wher e

you wer e tr ine. coul you tell me wht

tnr y onite of ?

Ever y wr estler has their own schedule and

tr aining methods but in my case I tr ain at the

NJPW Dojo, a local kickboxing gym, MMA gym

and swimming a lot at a near by pool. If my tour

schedule is not too tight, my day usually star ts

by visiting the Dojo in the mor ning, f ollowed by

physical/strength tr aining in the af ter noon and

either kickboxing or MMA in the evening.

Who inpir e you to get into wr etling? an

wer e you f n hil?

I loved the br ight image of New Japan Pr o-

Wr estling. Ther e wer e no par ticular wr estler s

By

ANDREW DIXON

that inspir ed me but when I saw the TokyoDome wr estling event on TV, I r eally wanted to

walk the long catwalk to the r ing. The company

pr esentation and impr ession inspir ed me to

become a wr estler.

You me your ebut f or New jpn in

2002, quikly r iing up the r nk, known

the super Rookie, o you think tht mybe

it w extr pr eur e on you to ontntly

up your gme it eeme NjPW h

lr ey eie you wer e it’ next big tr ?

interview


© cagematch.de










Upon your return, you were

prtnere with Hirohi

Tnhhi n together you

won the IWGP Tg Te

title, whih le to your

firt venture out of jpn,

efening the belt

uefully in mexio. a young guy trvelling to

nother ountry fou for

it wretling trition, i

you lern nything there

tht you oul pt into

your own tyle of

wretling?

Wrestling in Mexico taught megreat depth of wrestlingculture. Technique, timing,response of the crowd, etc. Itwas all different from Japan,but I enjoyed adjusting to suitthe Mexican fans. Also, atCMLL’s biggest anniversaryevent called Aniversario, Iwon over El Santo and ArenaMexico was shocked. I guessthat was how I was judged inMexico.

One you h lot the Tg

Te title, you hllenge

urrent UFc tr Brok

Lenr for the IWGP title,

but you were unueful.

However, following thi you

trvelle to the stte

gin n evelope

uh bigger look n

tiffer tyle. There wereoe ruour tht you

even trine with Brok.

Wht w your tie in

aeri like n how i

you buil the ?

The match with Lesnar wastough, very tough, he is anamazing athlete, but I never

trained with him. In the States,I consumed 10,000 caloriesper day to put on weight as

well as heavy cardio andweight training. Looking backat it now, trying to eat thatmuch every day was adisaster but a goodexperience for me haha.

during thi tie wy fro

NjPW, there were

reportely pln for you to

pper for WWE t the

requet of john Luriniti.

Thi w for you to gin

expoure to aerin

row but thi never

terilie, w there ny

truth to thi n wht i

your tke on the aerin

wretling ene? do you ee

yourelf working for WWE or

TNa in the future? Or even

trying to brek into UFc?

During my stay in the States, Idid get an offer from UFC but

it wasn’t the right time to me,you never know what canhappen though. RegardingWWE, I was never personallytold anything about it fromanyone. But if that were to betrue and if my contract was upwith NJPW, then I would’vejumped at the opportunity tohave a tryout at a WWE event.If there is a need for me and agood offer, I’m confident Icould perform well in WWE,TNA or any promotion.

One onth fter pturing

the title, you h wht

ny lle re

th, n you fe Kurt

angle on Februry 17th

2008, efeting hi to unify

the IGF verion of the IWGP

Hevyweight title with your

NjPW hpionhip.


The Top Ten Moves of Shinsuke Nakamura

Used with permission from TheSuicidalDragon

Mounted Punches by Nakamura© puroresucentral.com




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLsZHSCgpcc









his deter mination in accepting his f ate. The

f ans expect mor e than 100% fr om him, but

with just a little extr a, he may tur n into a

gr eater wr estler . Wear ing higher heeled boots

may help his legs look longer though... Super Star s need long legs haha.

Talking about 2011... Again, I want to continue

to br eak the dull and r outine atmospher e of

the moder n NJPW thr ough my bouts and of

cour se become the IWGP and the G1 champ.

Of the ur r ent r op of guy oming to

jpn, who o you ee f utur e tr ?

Guy like Pr ine devitt hve hown tht

with eition, it’ poible to mke it tr . Who impr ee you when you ee

them wr etle?

The Japanese f ans tend to r eject star s that

ar e “made” by the company. Many of the

Japanese wr estling f ans see the gr owth of a

wr estler and become their fans. Regar ding

Devitt, he studied the New Japan style and

adapted it into his r eper toir e and pushed his

possibilities, and then he was able to tur n the

chance he was given into gold, as is pr oven

by his cur r ent r un as IWGP Jr . Heavyweightchampion and also as Jr. Heavyweight Tag

Team champion. Along with Devitt, Kar l

“Machine Gun” Ander son and Giant Ber nar d

(f or mer ly A-Tr ain in WWE) ar e also star ting to

make a bigger mar k in the Japanese r ing.

Who woul you like to wr etle tht you

hven’t lr ey?

I don’t car e, as long as they have tr ue

technique. I believe pr o wr estling lies in the

middle of f ighting and enter tainment. A pr o

wr estler should display their mental str ength,

technique, and their body str ength. Amongst

these, I emphasise tr ue skill and expr ession

thr ough wr estling. Any wor thy opponent

should natur ally display these abilities.

an f inlly, with NjPW’ Us tour oming

up, o you ee your elf n New jpn

heing to the UK or Eur ope in the ner

f utur e too n o you hve mege f or

your f n over her e?

The US tour will be a huge step f or war d f or

the company and hopefully attr act a bigger

audience to the pur or esu style in Japan, US

f ans ar e star ting to see mor e of it on the

independent scene and if we even make one

new fan, then it’s a success.

On the UK and Eur ope, I’d f ly anywher e

ar ound the wor ld if possible, I enjoy the thr ill

of a new audience. Your cheer s will advance

me to becoming the pr o wr estler I still to this

day aspir e to become, thank you f or your

suppor t!

n Contact Andrew at

andrew.dixon_ [email protected]


I’M CONFIDENT I COuLD

PERFORMWELL INWWE, TNA

OR ANY PROMOTION. . . .

© TNA

Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi

pose the IWGP Tag Team titles

© New Japan Pro Wrestling







http://www.dragongateuk.com/

http://www.dragongateuk.com/



W ith this being my debutcolumn, it would seem highlyappropriate that mybeginnings with TWP

Magazine reflect somewhat on mybeginnings within the Pro Wrestlingindustry. As we fast approach the annual

extravaganza known as WrestleMania, wewitness the return to PPV, of the Superstar who single handedly cemented my desireto be a Sports Entertainer.

For those who have somehow missed whathas been referred to as the most obviousidolization in British Wrestling, I am of coursereferring to The Rock. It seems almost to havetoo easily fallen into place, that as I amplanning to write my first column about myinitial passion for wrestling and my desire to

get into the business, the biggest factor returnsand brings my passion back to an even greater height than it was before, mere days before thebiggest and most prestigious event in theindustry, WrestleMania.

As a young kid, I always loved watchingwrestling, convinced Hulk Hogan couldhave taken on Superman if he wanted to. AsI grew older and all of my friends grew out of it,I never really did. I went through a phase of notwatching it as much, but certainly I always

followed it in some capacity, making sure tocatch the Pay-Per-Views.

Like most who stuck with it, I moved with thetimes. My new heroes were guys like Bret Hartand Shawn Michaels, and then later The Rock.Unlike his predecessors, I never really grewout of my idolization of The Rock, and as timewent on, I knew that this was what I wanted todo, and WWE was where I wanted to be.

Fast forward a few years (ok about 10 years to

be exact, God I feel old) and I’m doing what Ilove to do and always wanted to (albeit on a


SCOTTISH WRESTLER LIONHEART WRITES EXCLUSIVELY FOR TWP

© Sarah

Barraclough

Lionheart V Superstylin Sam Bailey at a

charity event organised by the NGW© Chris Evers. Tel: 07962397209 or 01482 470136







part time basis), while stillfortunate (or unfortunatedepending how some maylook at it) enough to stillactually be a huge fan of thebusiness.

A big problem in wrestling iswhen people become involvedas performers; they becomeso embroiled in the negativeaspects they forget how to just

enjoy it and have fun.

Over the years I’ve had someamazing times, and alreadyin my relatively modestcareer have gained somegreat friends and share somegreat memories. As themonths pass and my columnsprogress, I will share some of these memories with you as

well as some stories of howon more than one occasion Iwould go into a match or asituation thinking I was thedogs bollocks, only to comeout realising that I didn’t knowshit and had just learnedmore in 15 minutes than Ihad in all the years prior.

It’s these experiences thatyou remember because they

are the ones that make you

the man you are. The firststory next month willcentre around a man,known to many in thewrestling business, a manwho is spoken of fondly bycolleagues and a man whowas and still is loved andrespected by workers andfans the world over… TracySmothers.

As an intro, this column willseem relatively short,however in the coming

months it should worth abetter read ;)

For now, I will continue to do

what I love week after week,and strive daily to reach thatlevel where I can finallyachieve the biggest of dreams and make it as a fulltime Entertainer in the worldof pro wrestling.

While that is happening Ishall be watchingWrestleMania on April 3rd,

keen to see some of the topperformers in the industrytoday, attempt to cement their legacy in show stealingmatches that are sure to takeplace.

I shall also be watching withthe excitement of a 12 year old boy, eager to witness theimpending showdownbetween the Rock and John

Cena, which I cannot wait for.

Hope you all enjoy the show.


Used with permission from LionheartUKTV / Strangeworx Productions

Jeff Jarrett takesadvantage of a

sleeping referee!

© Tony Knox





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWEfbTAL57Q



My journey from London toPortsmouth was a fairlyarduous one. I’d been inviteddown to attend a VPW show at

the Portsmouth Guildhall on February 25th,and being a Friday night the traffic wasparticularly bad. Over three hours after I leftmy house, I arrived at the Guildhall, andsettled down to watch a show featuringvirtually nobody I’d ever heard of! Or so I’dthink…

The show itself had a really nice presentation.Spectacular pyro introduced the show and themain event, the whole event itself had a giantvideo screen to present highlight packagesand interviews to the crowd.

Ring announcer Steve Lynskey enteredthe ring and introduced VPW’snumber one heel, the UK Kid. Now,to be fair, it was a little difficult tohear things due to someproblems with the microphoneand PA system, but the gist of

this opening conversation wasthat UK Kid was going to destroyJake McCluskey in a steel cage.

The crowd, largely made up of families, was into everything on thisshow. It was fun to watch peoplewho remembered how to enjoy awrestling show rather than sit therecriticizing it.

Match number one saw Nathan

McKenzie take on the cockyTrevor Manners. A basic, yet fun,

match, this was a goodopener. Nothing

spectacular, other thana nice frog splashattempt by McKenzie,

but it worked well ingetting the crowd going for

the show. Manners won with areverse backcracker.

After this, Steve Lynskey tooka cameraman backstagewhere his interview withLeon Shah appeared on thebig screen for the crowd.Shah was coming backfrom injury and made shortbut effective work of his

opponent for the night,Bruce Magnum.

VPW SHOW REVIEWWords: PHIL AUSTIN

IT WAS FuN TO WATCH PEOPLE

WHO REMEMBERED HOW TO

ENJOY A WRESTLING SHOW


The UK Kid dispatches another victim! © Sarah Barraclough









Up next was a segmentintroduced by a local radioshow presenter named

Shireen. The young lassintroduced Rob Holte who,after riling up the crowd bybeing from rival townSouthampton and rubbing thatin their faces, told Shireen thatshe wasn’t pretty enough tobe on TV like his girl JemmaPalmer (from TV’s Gladiators).Shireen slapped him and, asHolte turned to answer the

slap, the lights went out and‘I’m An Ass Man’ played over the loudspeakers. Billy Gunnappeared!

The unannounced Billy Gunnwas WAY better here than Iremember him being in theWWF. A true pro, Gunn had anice back and forth bout withHolte, and knew exactly howto work the excited crowd intoa frenzy. He even got in a fewRock references in his promo.The Fame Asser finisher was

exactly what the crowdwanted to see.

Next up, Bryan Clark (a UK

wrestler, not the former AdamBomb) beat up a poor unfortunate young mannamed Robbie Everest. Clarkis large, intimidating and,when he squared off with theequally large Leon after thematch was over, I for one wasintrigued to see the impendingmatch between the two.

It was main event time. Asteel cage was set up andimpressive pyro introducedfirstly the UK Kid and thenyoung Jake McCluskey. Ihadn’t seen McCluskey sincethe dying days of the originalFWA, and he’s really come ona lot since those days. Ayoung high flier, the crowdloved this man as much as

they hated UK Kid.The match itself was great!UK Kid hit some hard looking

clotheslines and formers,while McCluskey counteredwith some spectacular highflying moves, including anice looking lionsault and astanding moonsault off of theback of UK Kid.

The highlight though was agreat cross body from the top

of the cage by McCluskey.This youngster knows no fear.

Fans of old school WWFwould get a kick out of thefinish. In shades of Hogan/Orndorff, both menclimbed down opposite sidesof the cage at the same time,with Jake just getting to thefloor first to get the win.

The crowd went home happyand Jake and Billy Gunn bothhung around to sign plenty of autographs and shake hands.A wrestling show for the familyaudience, but one that themore hardcore audiencecould enjoy as well….maybethis is what wrestling shouldbe if it wants to be successful

n Contact Phil [email protected]


Used with permission from VPW / De Cauze Films







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc2cfZK-Kok



http://www.varsityprowrestling.com/

http://www.varsityprowrestling.com/



Words: DARREN WOOD

Photos: TONY KNOX

JOHNNY MOSS

PROFILE

















Ihave been very blessed andfortunate over my wrestling career,which started actively on January 7,1994 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Working as a top player in 16 countries todate, the latest of which has been Japan, Ihave been given many spotlightopportunities that many contemporariesonly dream of. In this light, I am trulygrateful to the Good Lord above, and toeach promotion that has believed in me,

allowing me to prove my stock on thestage that has been given to me.

As anyone who knows anything about prowrestling can readily understand, success inJapan represents one of the golden grails of achievement in our business. Really, outside of Japan, Mexico is the only country of prowrestling reknown aside from the USA’s WWEand TNA. It can be argued, that almosteverything else worldwide falls into the hand-to-mouth independent category as far as

promotions and territories go, where making a

living is wishful thinking and even the bestachievement doesn’t get the spotlight onemight hope for.

Over the course of this past year, I was given atremendous spotlight opportunity to wrestle for Yoshihiro Tajiri’s new SMASH company inJapan. I had worked with Tajiri one timepreviously, in February 2010 for FCF Wrestlingin Finland, the company which I more or less

run for all intents and purposes. Based on the


STA RBUCk “THE CA NA DIA N REBE

L” WRITES EX CLUSIVELY FOR TWP

Maki ng i t i n J ap an








strength of that outing, Tajirisaw a world of potential inme – look, charisma, abilityand heart – and booked meto appear for his promotion.As I recall him saying, theJapanese fans would likemy ”fighting spirit”.

Now, I must interject herethat since the verybeginning of my career,when I first entered thegame as a commentator and ring announcer inCalgary in the fall of 1992, Ihave always held the Landof the Rising Sun to beparamount as my goal. That

is right, WWE has never

been the be-all and end-allfor me. I have alwaysunderstood that arguably,the best quality of wrestlingworldwide comes fromJapan, and only the bestreally make it there usually.Thus, to achieve a definitivelevel of success in Japan isto be recognized as beingone of the best at what youdo, period.

Never in my wildestdreams did I think that Iwould be positionedimmediately at the top,were I to make it to my goalof wrestling in Japan.

However, this is exactly

what happened withSMASH. Tajiri and hiscompany believed in me sostrongly, that they gave methe ball to run with, and leftit up to me to produce once Ihad the ball handed to me.And arguably, I haveproduced rather well, as theJapanese wrestling fansvoted me among the top fivegaijin (foreign) wrestlers of the year for 2010, coveringall the companies in Japan.That, my friends, isundeniably somethingspecial.

But what did it take for meto reach this current levelof success in Japan, andin the media’s critical eyethere? Why did it take meso many years to reach mygoal, as I booked kids that I

had trained, kids with 2-5years of experience in thebusiness, into Japan beforeI got the chance to go theremyself?

Well, professional wrestlingis not a level playing field for all intents and purposes. It’sa game of many painfultwists and turns, being in the

right place at the right time,owning the neededattributes which translateinto box office, and knowingthe right people to help youget there. Some luck andthe serendipity handeddown by the Big Manupstairs goes a long waytoo, and perhaps they makeup the remaining 5% of the

whole that puts one over theedge in the end.







The bottom line is I have paid my dues over and over again, both as a promoter and asa worker, regardless of the years I have putinto this sport.. I have – in the words of RicFlair – sweat, bled and paid the price, tobecome one of the best in Europe today atmy chosen craft: professional wrestling.That’s not being egotistical, that’s statingthe truth.

All of these factors played into the factthat once I got booked in Japan, I hadbeen seasoned enough to be granted aspot right at the top. If I had been giventhat chance earlier in my career, I very likelywould have had to climb the ladder inJapan, like most everyone else has to do,before reaching the top level. All of theblood, guts and hard work translated into

blockbuster success with SMASH for me,when the ”right” time came to fruition.

As Triple H has poignantly pointed out inthe past, every successful top nameprofessional wrestler is driven by a largeego. That is not to say those who succeedare egomaniacs, instead they have an egothat demands that they produce to live up towhat they require of themselves. Reachingand then maintaining a set standard is whatit’s all about. Knowing your own, personalpiece of business, you gimmick or your deal, whatever it is that brings you to thepay window. When you are given the ball,will you drop it or carry it to the finish line?

SMASH has grown at atremendous rate in Japan, risinglike the proverbial phoenix over the past year. The outlook for 2011 is incredibly bright, and Iam truly blessed to be a part of making history happen with thisgreat team of professionals.

At SMASH.10 on November 22, 2010, Iwas part of the biggest house in companyhistory to date at Tokyo’s JCB Hall,headlining against Tajiri for the FCFChampionship. Consistently, SMASH hasbooked me as a top name in the main or semi-main events of their cards, and duringall this time I have had the ride of my life.

At SMASH.12 & 13 this past weekend inTokyo, I fought some incredible matchesagainst Michael Kovac of Austria and Super Crazy from Mexico. The reception I receivedfrom the Japanese fans, and the heat level

of the matches themselves, in addition tothe angles afterward, were off the charts.Especially my face-off with Takao Omori,who saved Tajiri from my second piledriver at SMASH.13, which had so much tensionand heat, that never in all of my years have Ibeen involved in an angle with that level of fan response. It was crazy and beautiful atthe same time, like being in a fantasy worldwhere everything clicks and comes together.

In Osaka on January 30, I wrestled the tagteam match of my career alongside Hajime


“







Ohara against AkiraNogami and Tajiri, whichhad the fansrespondingtoeverythingwe did.And we didnot have todo stupid shit likehighspots from hell toelicit that response. Weoffered them a solid, safeand tight old school tagteam match that theycould believe in, witheveryone involved shininglike the professionals thatthey are. Even thoughOhara and I downed thebabyfaces clean in themiddle of the ring, thefans went home happy,because SMASH knows

how to do business likeno other promotion that Ihave ever worked for.Indeed, I am not kissingass when I say thatSMASH is the mostprofessional organizationI have ever worked for,and it shows.

In closing, the time one isgiven in the spotlight is

special indeed. Everyonewho reaches that specificpinnacle of personalachievement shouldrelish that fact andmoment.

Me, I’m just happy to beliving the dream!

Carpe Diem!StarBuck, www.starbuck.fi



Every year, Westside XtremeWrestling (wXw) gathers sixteentop independent wrestlers in theworld to find a winner for their

prestigious 16 Carat Gold tournament.

Often in professional wrestling, tournaments areused to give a wrestler the final push towardsstardom. Now the argument can be made as towhether or not an independent wrestler canactually reach that aforementioned stardom but

it is certain that wXw’s 16 Carat Gold weekendgets bigger every year, and that winning thetournament is an accomplishment in its own.

“The first 16 Carat Gold tournament took placein January 2006,” Tassilo Jung, one of wXw’sowners, told TWP shortly before the annual topevent. “It was at this time when US

independent wrestling was still really hot, when

IWA Mid-South, Pro Wrestling Guerilla (PWG)

and Ring of Honor vied for the attention of the

fans in Germany with Combat Zone Wrestling and Chikara right behind them.

“The big US independent tournaments werethe events everyone watched. At the very frontwas the Ted Petty Invitational (IWA Mid-South)followed by the Battle of Los Angeles (PWG).Our aim had been to attract as many non-mainstream fans as possible. We offeredtechnical wrestling, spot fests, deathmatches, hardcore wrestling, hard hittingbut we had no tournament like that. That’swhy we put it together.”

Baron von Hagen won the premiere of thetournament beating Murat Bosporus in thefinals after being victorious against DougWilliams, Ian Rotten and Iceman in theprevious contests. Although von Hagen had toretire only 23 years old due to health issues,Hagen was able to leave his mark after onlytwo and a half years in the ring. Following hisvictory in the tournament, the two-time wXwTag Team Champion went on to collect

important wins against Ricky Reyes and GoShiozaki before losing to the Swiss Ares in a


wxw 16 Carat Gold Tournament

Words DAVID SCHMIDA

© Westside X

treme Wrestling







match for wXw’s World HeavyweightChampionship in September 2006.

“After the change of leadership [at wXw] in

2007, we thought that If we stage a tournamentlike this, we do it right and make sure that aworld class starting field takes part, this willensure that from this moment onwards one of the top independent tournaments in the worldwould place in Europe.

“The tournament is so popular because we offer exactly that, thetop stars from the US Indy sceneand the superstars from Japan. Not

even the big tournaments in theUnited States offer that.

No tournament has such an internationalapproach as the 16 Carat Gold tournament.Add the special atmosphere at wXw (fansstand directly at the ring) to that – you don’tfind that any other organization worldwide.”

Chris Hero won the trophy in 2007 beatingAres in the finals. Also participating wereClaudio Castagnoli, Nigel McGuiness, El

Generico, Davey Richards, Doug Williams,Pac, Go Shiozaki, Matt Sydal, Ryo Saito, “BadBones” John Kay and Murat Bosporus. In arematch of that year’s final, Hero challengedthe then reigning World HeavyweightChampion Ares for his title five months later but was beaten by the Swiss after, believe or not, fifty-six minutes.

Another home grown talent captured thetournament victory in 2008. “Bad Bones” JohnKay beat Bryan Danielson in the finals after

putting away Ares, El Generico and Pierre CarlOulette in the previous rounds.

Naomichi Marufuji, Doug Williams, Chris Hero,Jimmy Jacobs, Mike Quakenbush and TaijiIshimori also tried to capture the victoryguaranteeing another great starting field. Asprevious winners received opportunities to winthe company’s top title, it was no surprise whenKay was granted a spot in the tournament for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship.

He beat Claudio Castagnoli in the finals atwXw’s 8th Anniversary to win the strap. The

current Tag Team Champion couldn’t hold on tothe title for long though since he lost it to BryanDanielson only three months later.

Shingo was the second competitor fromoverseas to win the 16 Carat Goldtournament. He defeated Drake Younger whichmeant that had collected his fourth win in hisfourth match for wXw. The Japanese star beatZack Sabre Jr, Tyler Black and Absolute Andy inthe previous rounds. Also participating wereBryan Danielson, Daisuke Sekimoto, ErickStevens, Chris Sabin, Doug Williams andTatsuhito Takaiwa. Later that year, in October, heclashed again with Absolute Andy for a chanceto win wXw’s World Heavyweight Title at “Openthe German Gate” but lost to the German.

“I think every nationally and internationallyrecognized success is important for your career,” Jung explained. “Chris Hero wouldhave certainly become a superstar without the

triumph and Shingo would also be at the top of Dragon Gate without it.”


© Westside Xtreme Wrestling

“







“But at the same time, they wouldn’t be wherethey are now without any other achievement inindependent wrestling in their career. Thecollection of great matches and the payoff for that in the form of many accomplishmentselevated them to where they are now. And the16 Carat Gold tournament is part of that.

“I also think that a wrestler’s standing inGermany is very much influenced by his

achievements in wXw and to a little lesser extent at German Stampede Wrestling,because these are two most activeorganizations which are being followed by theinternet fans in Germany. Therefore they arethe opinion makers. Subsequently it certainlyhelps your career to win the biggesttournament in Europe”

The Austrian colossus Big Van Walter haddebuted for wXw in May 2007 at the second

edition of the tournament, although he didn’tactually compete in the 16 carat gold

tournament itself. While he lost to Ares in thefirst round of the 2008 edition and after advancing to the second round in 2009, he

was able to win last year’s tournament beatingChris Hero in the finals.

Once again wXw put together an internationalstarting field with Claudio Castagnoli,Kagetora, Johnny Kidd, Martin Stone, YujiOkabayashi, Paul Tracey, Matt Jackson, ErickStevens, Munenori Sawa and DaisukeSekimoto. On October 2nd of the same year,Walter beat Zack Sabre Jr to capture theUnified World Championship; wXw had unifiedits lightweight and heavyweight titles, but lost

the strap in January 2011. To a man he hadbeaten on his way to win the 16 Carat Goldtournament, Daisuke Sekimoto from Japan.

Every single winner of the tournament hasgone on to success in the world of wrestling,with all of them being known far beyond theborders of Germany. Nevertheless the 16Carat Gold tournament has, as mentionedearlier, a value of its own rather than just beingan opportunity to push a wrestler. One

question remains though: Where does thewinner stand in comparison to wXw’s reigningchampion?

“The Unified World Champion (previouslyWorld Heavyweight Champion) is the best

wrestler of the promotion because he beat thelast champion. The tournament winner hasalso proven himself to be the best wrestler over a period of three days, being able to leavea world class starting field behind him.

“In the first two editions of the tournament theWorld Champion took part in the tournament,now a World Title match is one of the highlightsof the framework program. Consequently thewinner of the tournament and the world

champion are different people. Of course fanswant to know who the number one really is.


Big Van Walter vs Sekimoto, 15th Jan ‘11

© Westside Xtreme Wrestling

OF COuRSE FANS WANT

TO KNOW WHO THE NuMBER

ONE REALLY IS. . . .







“They want to know if the tournamentwinner is able to beat the champion andvice versa. Consequently once a year we

have this big singles match.”Not only has the tournament helped toinfluence careers but also the financial successof wXw since it has been constantly growingsince 2006 drawing a total of 1500 fans in2010. What does the future hold for the three-day event?

“The venue could certainly hold more than 500spectators a day. But the wXw-conceptdoesn’t. Because of the fact the fans are

standing around the ring the sight is affected ata certain point. And we want to avoid that.

“Therefore the 2010 edition reached its

pinnacle regarding the number of spectators itcan currently hold. We want to continue to offer exactly what we offer since 2007: THE topevent and tournament in Europe withinteresting participants and fantastic matches.

“The success of the tournament with itsattendance numbers and the following DVDsales is one of the main drivers of theeconomical success of Westside XtremeWrestling as a whole.”

The New Horror” SamiCallihan defeated theprevious year’s winner BigVan Walter in the finals of thisyear’s tournament to capturethe trophy. He had put awayTommy End, Yoshihito Sasakiand Davey Richards on his

way to the finals and willreceive his shot at the

company’s top title later thisyear. As of right now, it lookslike the man he’ll have to facewill be Daisuke Sekimoto.The Japanese defended thebelt three times during the2011 edition of thetournament beating “Bad

Bones” John Kay, JohnnyMoss and El Generico.

Once again the weekend wasa great success for wXw asthe company was able drawa total 1500 fans again whilesetting a new attendancerecord for a Friday.

n Contact David [email protected]


wxw 16 Carat Gold Tournament 2011 Results

© We

stside Xtreme Wrestling









This interview wasdone when ChicaYeye came tohelp Dark Kitty

with intensive training tohelp Kitty make her dreamcome true. Chica Yeyecame from another statevoluntarily knowing hecould assist in helpingthis young wrestler. Atight bond between thetwo wrestlers came aboutafter spending a fewhours together and seeingthe heart each of themhave for the sport of professional wrestling.

When did you startwrestling?June 27, 2007 in the sportscenter of SalvatirraGuanajuato

What and/or whoinfluenced you most towrestle?My friends got me intowrestling but also a love

relationship that I was inlove with a wrestler.

How has wrestlingchanged your life?I think it made me feel that Iwas more capable to dothings I might not havedone if not a wrestler fromall my wrestling partnersbecause they are the onesthat make me have goodmoments

What is so special about

this sport to you?Definitely the Fans are

What other sports or hobbies do you have aninterest in?I like to help peoplebecause other tanwrestling I am a nurse.

What would you do tomake the sport better?I think the best thing tomake the sport better would be for all wrestlersto train more and maketheir moves to perfection

What are your favoritefoods, music, clothes,cars etc.?My favorite food isspagetti, music done by

Shakira, clothes anything

that looks cute, cars I likethem all

What would make youmost happy in life?To see myself improve ineverything I do

Who and what are your fans like?My largest group of fans isfrom San Luis Potosi,Salvatierra and La Piedad.Love you all and thank youfor everything.

Describe a typical day of wrestling training for you?Intensed, tiring, and most of

all fun

What is most importantand what are the thingsyou train on most?You never stop learningsomething in wrestling soit’s very important to keepup with everything new thatcomes along.

What are your best holds,pins, moves?My personal best are thearches

What are you best knownfor doing?Show, throwing kisses,glamour, sensuality, and mypresense.

What was the worst you

have ever been hurt in

ExOTIC WRESTLER CHICA YEYESTEPS P TO HELP DARK KITTY








training or a match.When I fractured my hand when my partner

jumped from the top of a two story houseand landed on my hand

Where have you wrestled?Salamanca, Irapuato, Acambaro, Apaseo elalto, Comonfort, Tangancicuaro, San LuisPotosi, Guadalajara, La Piedad and Zapote.

What titles have you held?I have not gained a title as of yet but lookingforward to winning my first title

What commentsor reaction do you get from others about

being a wrestler.That I am a crazy wrestler and that one dayI will get hurt.

In your opinion, what are your thoughtson women participating in the sport?They deserve all the respect and that is thetype of wrestling I like to watch the most.

What is your greatest regret?I have no regrets in my wrestling career

What is your most marked

characteristic?I am an exótico and the sensuality is one of

the most important parts of the wrestler Iportray.

What is your personal motto?Be proud to be who you are and not howyou should be

What is your most memorable moment?The applaus and people greeting me byname

What would you do if you couldn’t be in

wrestling?I would be working at a hospital helpingthe people that need my help

How would you describe yourself? ...Attitude, personality, likes, dislikes,strength?I am a very friendly person, a good friend,noble, and sweet to only the people thatdeserve my kindness. I like that people arehonest and I don’t like jealously andegotistical people.

Other comments or information youmight want to add?This would be everything: Alwaysremember Chica Yeye is an exotic wrestler who is sexy and fun. Kisses to all!!!

n Contact Dark Kitty [email protected]








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3nFPZ1QV3c



Words: MATT SINGH

Thus far 2011 has already been ahuge year for the UFC; the firstpay-shot of the year, UFC 125:

Resolution, pulled a strong270,000-300,000 pay-per-view buysheadlined by a low-key Frank Edgar versus Grey Maynard lightweight titlefight.

Following that UFC 126, main evented byAnderson Silva knocking out Vitor Belfort todefend his middleweight title with a co-mainevent of Forest Griffin defeating Rich Franklinvia unanimous decision drew around 750,000

buys. From there, the UFC made its secondtrip to Australia for UFC 127 on February27th, with BJ Penn and Jon Fitch fighting to a

majority draw. For UFC 127, the companypulled 18, 186 fans paying a record Australiangate of $3,500,000, and early estimatespegged the number of buys in the 300,000range, a great number considering said weakline-up.

The biggest news however in the firstthree months of 2011 was the fact the UFCsold a whopping 55,000 tickets resulting inan estimated $11 million gate to its UFC 129

show in Toronto’s Rogers Center, headlinedby Georges St Pierre defending hiswelterweight title against number onecontender Jake Shields on April 30th. It’salmost universally agreed that the UFC 129show will draw upwards of one million pay-per-view buys, as event though the main cardisn’t hugely stacked (GSP Vs. Shields andRandy Couture Vs. Lyoto Machida are theonly money fight in the main card), fans willbuy the show simply to enjoy the mass of

people in Rogers Center and the general auraof the first UFC dome/stadium show.

Barring injuries, 2011 should probably be arecord breaking year for the UFC on pay-per-view, with almost a handful of million-dollar pay-per-view fights potentially on schedule.One of the biggest pay-per-view buyrates of the year will be drawn by Brock Lesnar takingon Junior Dos Santos on June 11th, at RogersArena in Vancouver, Canada, as the twoheavyweight will clash as a result of their

coaching stints on ‘The Ultimate Fighter 13’.

UFC The yearahead sofar (Part 1)


Randy Couture

© Gage Skidmore







Lesnar is the biggest star theUFC has, drawing over onemillion PPV buys twice in a

year in 2010 (the only combatsports fighter to do so sinceMike Tyson in 1996), and ison a comeback trail after losing to the UFCheavyweight title to CainVelasquez last October atUFC 121 (the show drew1,050,000 buys), while Junior Dos Santos is the number one ranked heavyweight who

was set to fight Velasquezearlier until reigningchampion Velasquezsustained an injury.

Lesnar/JDS is already beingtalked about as a one-milliondollar-plus buyrate pay-per-view, yet the only fightofficially announced thus far is the main event of

Lesnar/JDS, but when oneconsiders that fellowheavyweights Cheick Kongoand Shane Carwin areexpected to fight at UFC 131(probably against oneanother), then it seems acertainty that UFC 131 willpull one of, if not the biggest,PPV number of the year. Thereason UFC 131 may not pull

the biggest PPV number of the year is due to the fact thatthe winner of Lesnar/JDS willreceive a heavyweight titlefight with Cain Velasqueztowards the end of the year.

If Lesnar gets past JDS, thenthat would of course set up arematch with Velasquez andagain almost certainly meananother million dollar-plus

fight, considering their first

fight drew over one millionpurchases. Even if JDS beatsLesnar gets the title show

instead, with the UFCheavyweight division on fireat the moment it’s almostguaranteed thatJDS/Velasquez would alsopull north of one million PPVbuys.

It’s not just on pay-per-viewwhere the UFC is makingrecord-breaking sums of money, as ‘UFC Fight Night24’, originally headlined by

Tito Ortiz versus AntonioRogerio Nogueira, nowheadlined by Nogueiraversus Phil Davis, in for aninjured Ortiz, has sold around13,000 tickets, an amazingnumber considering all none-pay-per-view shows areconsidered ‘B’ shows thatroutinely draw less than5,000 fans. While that

number is slightly less

impressive when factoring-inthat those fans buying ticketsdid so with the main event of

Tito Ortiz (still a big star despite the poor recentrecord) versus Nogueira, thefact remains that UFCattendance across the boardwill probably, like gaterevenue, break records in2011.

As well as heading toAustralia for the second timethis year, the UFC will travelto Brazil to stage its first pay-per-view event in the countrysince the Zuffa buy-out inAugust when the UFC runsthe HSBC Arena in Rio DeJaneiro. The last time theUFC ran a Brazil show was inOctober 1998 under theownership of SEG, and withBrazilian star fighters such as

Jose Aldo (UFCfeatherweight champion),Anderson Silva (middleweightchampion), Lyoto Machida(former UFC lightheavyweight champion) andAntonio ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira(former UFC heavyweightchampion) the UFC shouldhave no problemswhatsoever selling-out the

18,000-capacity HSBC arenain the summer.

In a continuation of booking bigger arenas for their ‘B’ shows, the UFChas planned for its ‘UFC OnVersus 5’ event to be held atthe Bradley Center inMilwaukee, on August 14th,and while no fights havebeen announced yet, it’s

almost a certainty that the


. . . .STILL A BIG STAR

DESPITE THE POOR

RECENT RECORD

Tito Ortiz

© Capt. Dawn Williams







event will draw close to the18,000 capacity that theBradley Center can hold.

The interesting thing however about the ‘B’ shows, is thatwhile the live attendance maybe rising, but it appears thetelevision numbers for thesmall shows are slowlyfalling; despite the fact thatthe latest small show, ‘UFCLive; Sanchez Vs.Kampmann’ on March 3rd,drew a record ‘small-show’8,319 fans with fans payinga $471,450 gate, the showdrew a 0.7 rating, one of thelowest of all-time for the UFCsince the Zuffa buyout tenyears ago.

Of course, one of the biggestfights of the year, and of alltime, could be the dream fightof Georges St Pierre versus

Anderson Silva for Silva’s

middleweight title later thisyear, providing GSP beatsnumber one welterweight

contender Jake Shields atUFC 129 at the end of April. If GSP does indeed get pastShields (and GSP is theheavy favourite to do so),then a fight between the twomost dominate fighters on theplanet current and of all timeis almost certainly going to bebooked probably towards theend of the year. If indeed

GSP versus Silva doeshappen, the buyrate and livegate is almost unfathomablewhen one considers that thelive gate for GSP versus JakeShields, who is nowhere near the star Silva is, totalledaround $11 million.

The pay-per-view buys andgate receipts are sure to

break the all-time UFCrecords, held currently by theUFC 100 buyrate of 1.7 millionbuys, and the aforementionedrecord UFC 129 gate. Thelocation for the dreamGSP/Silva fight are threefold;either a second event at theRogers Center in Toronto,Cowboys Stadium in Texaswith a capacity of anywhere

between 80,000-100,000 or HSBC Arena is Rio DeJaneiro on the first ever UFC-Zuffa show in August.

The latter option is theunlikely however, as GSPfights Shields in April andeven though four monthsmay seem like a long timebetween fights, when youfactor-in fight promotion,

training time and maybe even

a sting on ‘The UltimateFighter’ reality show ascoaches (there are no plans

currently for that to happen,but things could change), it’smore likely that the GSP/Silvawill in the last quarter of 2011at either Rogers Center or Cowboys Stadium. For GSP/Silva to happen though,the Canadian welterweightneeds to get past JakeShields which will by nomeans be an easy task as

Shields bested DanHenderson via decision in hislast StrikeForce fight andthen beat Martin Kampmannvia decision in his first UFCfight to earn the title shotagainst GSP at UFC 129 inApril at Rogers Center.

If Shields beats GSP, he’llhave beaten one of the best

fighters of all time andcapture the UFC welterweighttitle, but unintentionallyderailed one, if not the,biggest fights of all time, as if GSP falls to Shields it’ll bedifficult, if not impossible, tojustify giving GSP amiddleweight title shot atSilva after coming off awelterweight division loss

(and a title-losing loss atthat). So essentially, thebiggest fight of all-time(certainly in the UFC) allhangs on whether or not GSPcan beat Shields at UFC 129on April 30th.

n Contact Matt at

[email protected]

To be continued in TWP

Issue 14 out April 28th.


GSP © Bad

intentionz









MADISONRAYNE



96

Best of Raw 20102010 was a big year in WWE, the release of this3-disc DVD set runs through the mostmemorable moments and matches of the year.But does it do it justice?

It’s good to see an increasing number of concept DVD’s by WWE and I was looking

forward to this, it’s always great to see a year inretrospective. Much like 2009we find ourselves once againwith a 3 disc set lasting 9 hoursof what should promise to be thebest segments and matchesthroughout 2010.

With so much content on theDVD I’ll skim over the over allgood and bad points.

The main question for me was if WWE could execute all thegoodies properly into one DVDset? Sadly, I noticed right away thatit leaves a lot of key moments inthe year out and includes matchesthat I didn’t really care for the firsttime around.

Granted, it was pretty late in the year but theTLC match with Jerry Lawler and Miz for

example was nowhere to be seen. Bret Hart’sUnited States title victory was also missing – Apretty big deal to leave out don’t you think? AlsoBret Hart’s segments he shared with Vincearen’t included as chapters and the break up of Legacy gets little to no attention.

A lot of matches are joined in progress, this isbecause the matches were shown during thelive broadcast of Raw, where TV commercialswere placed. This gets really annoying andmakes matches short. Also the highlight videos

that are shown at the beginning of each monthsometimes give away the finishes to matches,

so if you want to remain surprised I recommendyou skip these bits.

On the plus side it’s great to re-live what were tobe the last matches of DX and Shawn Michaels.Of course the farewell speech from ShawnMichaels on the Raw after Wrestlemania aretimeless memories and it may be worth gettingthe DVD just for the moments leading up to thedeparture of HBK.

Reliving the rise of the Nexus isenjoyable, as is the battle for ‘the face of the WWE’ betweenJohn Cena and Batista. SeeingCena backed into a corner vs.the Nexus was probably oneof the most enjoyable andunpredictable segments of theyear.

All in all, this DVD comes

down to a case of how muchyou as a fan enjoyed 2010,these days to relive your favourite moments yousimply have to log on toyoutube and type a few keywords. But if you are a

dedicated modern day WWE fan however, thenthis is of course the perfect purchase for you.

As mentioned earlier it may get a little frustrating

at times to see bits left out and matches givenaway. But at the end of the day what can youexpect from the longest running episodic TVseries that WWE has to offer? To be fair there’sa hell of a lot of content to cover and even after the jam-packed 9-hour DVD, WWE are boundto have missed out some content.

For what it’s worth you might as well enjoy thisDVD for the comprehensive content that it doesprovide for fans in what was certainly a hugeyear for WWE.

ANDY SHARP

DVD

www.thewrestlingpress.com








WWE Top 50Greatest SuperstarsOf All TimeSupplier: Silvervision // Price: £17.99Discs: 3 // Run Time: 8 hours 28 minutes

When this DVDwas announced itseemed like avery good ideahowever, sincethe list of the 50greatestsuperstars in of alltime was leakedonto the internet

before the DVD’srelease there hasbeen a lot of controversysurrounding the

50 picks and it would seem the dubiousnesssurrounding the list is for good reason.

There are indeed some dubious choices mostnotably some of the more obvious contendersfor the top spot rank in the teens and even in

the twenties, while some admittedly verytalented though less significant wrestlers rankhigher.

The viewer is not told what the criteria are for the selection choices, all we’re really told is thatthey were chosen by the current roster of WWEsuperstars. Now going by some selectionchoices it would have been good if a certaincriteria were put in place for this. So at least therankings could have been explained a littlemore, without some sort of explanation there

really does seem to be no rhyme nor reason tothis.

This really is just a greatest hits package,showing some excellent clips from years goneby but nothing else. It doesn’t really delve intothe superstars’ career; it merely brushes over every superstar in the top 50, meaning there’snothing ground-breaking to really make a noteof. There’s also some nice input from wrestler’sold and new giving their opinions on who theyliked in the business and why which is a nice

touch.Throughout the DVD, we did have to wonder, if some of the rankings were affected by certainwrestlers’ decisions to leave the WWE atdifferent points in their careers. Which doesmakes you think what the selection choicesmight have been if this list were completelyhonest.

Discs 2 and 3 of this collection are really wherethis set truly comes alive, these two discs

feature a fantastic selection of bonus matchesand its likely that this content will appease fansmore than the feature itself.

While it would have been nice to see earlier decades represented a little more heavily thanthey are here, there’s still a very strongselection of bouts showcasing the talents of many of the fifty featured in the main attraction.

Say what you will about the rankings and their validity, but this is still a fun set with some great

clips and in places some interesting informationis provided. What must be remembered is veryfew people are going to agree on who the all-time best really is, and while there are somerather glaring mistakes here, there are alsosome very good solid choices.

The collection of matches on the final two discsis worth the purchase of this DVD alone, someclassic matches that definitely helps round off this DVD set very well, one for the collectionindeed.

DARREN WOOD

DVD







98

ndisputed: How toBecome the WorldChampion in 1,372Easy StepsBy Chris Jericho, Peter Thomas Fornatale

After much anticipation from his debut book: ALions Tale, Chris Jericho’s latest bookrelease: Undisputed: How to Become theWorld Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps picksup exactly where we leftoff in the previousinstalment, with thecountdown clock tickingdown to zero markingChris Jericho’s debut inthe WWE.

This time around the bookseems to be moretargeted at long-termwrestling fans who areguaranteed to have anenjoyable read from cover to cover. Basically, it helpsif you are fluent in thelanguage of wrestling and

have a certain degree of familiarity with names in thebusiness. However, even for those who aren’t exactly upto speed Jericho will keepyou entertained.

If Jericho had never made it as a wrestler or arock star he could have easily found asuitable career as a writer. His style of writingand consistent witty sense of humour makes

the book very addictive, and you will soon (if you haven’t already) become a Jerichoholic.

The book will give you plenty of laughs, buton the flipside it also has its serious topics.Undisputed provides fans with the mostcandid experience shared from someone whowas right in the eye of the storm regarding theChris Benoit tragedy. Jericho doesn’t holdanything back and after reading it from theperspective of someone who was so close toBenoit it makes the whole situation a lot more

tragic.With so many wrestling biographies beingreleased since Mick Foley started the trendit’s easy to say that perhaps the appeal has

been watered down, but Jerichofreshens up the whole sub-genreand I recommend those whohave read A Lions Tale continueon this journey that Jericho hasshared. He gives a back stagepass into the wrestling worldmore than perhaps anyone elsehas done to date.

No major criticisms really standout in this book; naturally as it’sa sequel it has the pressure of living up to the original, but for me both books kind of morphinto one another. If I had topicky though I might have toadmit that A Lions Tale is only

slightly more enjoyable,because as the saying goes:‘The thrill is in the chase’originally we were following

the Jericho who was trying to accomplishhis dream. With Undisputed we have theJericho who has realised his dream, but it’sstill a damn good dream to read about.

Just like the first book, this sequel belongs onthe bookshelf of any wrestling fan past or present.

ANDY SHARP

BOOK









TNA WrestlingGreatest MomentsSupplier: TNA Wrestling // No. of discs: 1Runtime: 180 minutes // Price: £12.29

This latest DVD release from TNA

Wrestling looks back at their GreatestMoments. A nice idea by the company,however this title only covers their recenthistory from 2007 up to Hardcore Justice2010 which took place last August.

Split into six chapters the DVD starts withthe arrival of The Immortal Hulk Hogan toTNA, this unfortunately includes theHogan/Abyss vs Flair/Styles tag teamdebacle, a greatest moment? Not in our

book.Other chapters include debuts in TNAWrestling, TNA stars capturingchampionship belts, the top 10 moments inTNA history voted by the fans plus muchmore.

Most of the interviews in the DVD are inkayfabe, which is a disappointment butsome are very honest and make for goodviewing.

While watching this DVD I realised that thisisn’t meant to be for fans that are alreadyfamiliar with TNA. With no completematches and hardly any completesegments it can get very annoying if youknow TNA, it is meant for fans that are notfamiliar with TNA and have missed out onthe past three years.

At over three hours long, the DVD features

some great moments and features lots of

match endings, tons of promos but withonly two full matches this title is a let down.

TNA Wrestling have produced some greatDVD’s such as the Asylum Years and theHistory of TNA Year 1 so I thought TNAWrestling’s Greatest Moments was going tobe another great DVD, however I waswrong which was a shame.

Hardcore TNA fans will probably want tohave it in the collection and casual fans willenjoy it. I wouldn’t recommend it though,thumbs down.

DARREN WOOD

DVD







100

Dragon Gate K:Invasion 2It would be fair to say thatJapanese promotion, DragonGate, are showing a realincentive to creating new fansboth in the United States and theUnited Kingdom. Dubbing eachrespective branch of their company “Dragon Gate USA”and “Dragon Gate UK” reallygives a local flavour toproceedings; helped by the fact that the promotionmakes use of a lot of home grown talent from thecountries they hold their shows.

This DVD offering takes in the group as they rollthrough the Burgess Civic Hall in St. Ives,Cambridgeshire on September 11th 2010 as part of

the UK Invasion tour.

The first thing to note would be the lovely job theevent crew did of setting up the venue. Simply put,it looks highly appealing and serves as a lovelybackdrop to the in-ring chaos which ensues. It’salso nice to have optional commentary to narratethe proceedings, with the chance to turn this off completely and have nothing but the ambience of the event as it was in person. Both options certainlygive a different flavour, with announcer “Irish Stew”Allan doing a great job of describing the Dragon

Gate product to newcomers.

Of course, firm fans of Dragon Gate will be mainlyinterested to know what the in-ring action is like.Needless to say, no-one will be disappointed here.

The opener between Cyber Kong and UKperformer, Marty Scurll is a slow burner whichrepresents the card as a whole – one which playsout naturally from curtain jerker to main event. It’simportant to note that in the next match, Lion Kidgives an impressive showing against “Open TheDream Gate” champion, Masato Yoshino. Muchlike his fellow Brit Scurll, the Kid gives a good

account of himself against such an establishedname.

In true Dragon Gate tradition, anyone of the last 3 matches couldhave rightfully laid claim to closingout the show. This trio of showcasebouts are the meat of the packageand are definitely worth the price of admission alone.

Susumu Yokosuka and MasaakiMochizuki are up first with a matchdripping in history, dating back tothe Toryumon promotion – thepreceding company to DragonGate. The story here is Yokosuka

and his attempt to beat his former partner andstable mate, Mochizuka for the very first time.However, the fans in attendance are treated tosome excellent comedy spots which only serve toheighten the intense action near the match

conclusion.Dragon Gate mainstay’s BxB Hulk and Naruki Doiare up next as they square off against Yamato andthe sinister Shingo. This tag war shows just howfun tag-team action can be, never once looking likeslowing down. Again, this match could haveheadlined the entire event.

The match which does take the main event slotfully deserves it. British grapple artists, MarkHaskins and “Open The Brave Gate” champion,Pac face off against aerial specialist Dragon Kid

and his partner for the evening, CIMA. The moveson display here will leave you breathless.

Between the red-hot crowd, enthusiastic in-ringperformances from all involved and a realeagerness to entertain from the Dragon Gate boys,the level of entertainment on display here isfantastic. Indeed, this show feels like a celebrationof all that is right in the world of professionalwrestling. There are better examples of the high-flying, intense action Dragon Gate provides, butoverall this DVD is a tremendous package.

JAMIE KENNEDY

DVD









Ring of Honor: TagTitle Classic IITaking place the night before the event Ring of Honor would probably consider to be their biggest of the year, Final Battle, ROH Tag TitleClassic II is a sure-fire hit amongst the ROH fan

base. Indeed, Tag Title Classic II is best viewedalongside the aforementioned Final Battle super show, as all the bouts and storylines are then incontext. On its own merits however, this show iscertainly one which cranks up the dial in termsof entertainment and there’s a lot to enjoy.

The emphasis of this event seems to be on thepromotion attempting to securetheir future by building up wrestlersthey consider to be just that.Judging by the hot trio of opening

matches, that future is extremelybright. Adam Cole and Kenny Kingare first out and put on a fantasticopener in which it was clear that their styles mixed well. This one set thetone well for the rest of the card andit’s obvious from this performance thatKenny King will someday be an ROHWorld Champion, the hardcore fans of the company obviously covet him.

Relative newcomer, “The Prodigy” Mike Bennettfaces off against the ever-popular, Colt Cabanain a short but sweet contest before Andy “RightLeg” Ridge attempts to get the first win of his 5match trial series by taking on “The FallenAngel” Christopher Daniels in a well-receivedeffort, during which Daniels did his utmost tomake Ridge become an accepted part of theRing of Honor roster.

Also on offer is a tag team contest betweenSteve Corino & Kevin Steen vs. The Briscoe

Brothers. This one starts out as a wild brawlbefore settling into itself and turning out to be a

lively tag encounter, during which Corino andSteen draw great heat from the noisy crowd inPlymouth, MA.

A 4-corner survival match pitting El Generico vs.Rhett Titus vs. Ricky Reyes vs. GrizzlyRedwood goes down well and is action packed,while youngsters Kyle O’Reilly and TJ Perkinsprovoke a polite reaction from the audience for their quick and snappy exchanges in singlescompetition.

ROH World Champion, Roderick Strong tangleswith ex-TNA talent, Sonjay Dutt in an excellentnon-title bout. Dutt looks comfortable inside thering with men who can match his athleticismand it’s exciting to see him let loose here.

Without doubt the deserving head-liner, The American Wolves vs. TheKings of Wrestling for the ROH WorldTag Team Titles is the reason why

most fans will want to check out thisDVD. Facing off for the 1st timeever, these teams leave it all in thering and end the show on a highnote with some utterly astoundingwrestling action. It’s hard to fathomjust how these guys can go at thispace night in and night out andthey truly deserve the standing

ovation following the match conclusion. Theexcitement is palpable towards the climax of this one and you won’t want to miss out.

While it would be fair to say that many fans of the promotion would be able to point to better cards, Ring of Honor have put out a greatproduct here. The satisfaction of the main eventsitting atop a packed under-card makes this aworthwhile purchase. Despite major-leagueoutfits such as WWE showing distinct dis-interest in the tag scene, tag team wrestling inNorth America is far from dead. Infact, it’s alive

and well.JAMIE KENNEDY

DVD







102

Catch WrestlingNorddeutschland:CWN in Norderstedt– Die Rückkehr

Run time: 1 hour 41 minutes // Discs: onePrice: 15 EurosDistributor: Catch WrestlingNorddeutschland (www.catchwrestling.de)

Since the DVD doesn’t offer much of a menu

or an intro, we jump right into the first match.Axel Dieter Jr. met with the Irish Paul Tracey.Both exchange some beautiful chain wrestlingas well as some very entertaining holds onthe mat while Tracey gradually increased hisheel role and even insulted the referee inGerman.

Mark Andrews from Wales celebrated his debutin Germany in an elimination tag rules matchagainst Pierre, Da Mack and El Alligator Blanco.Very good contrast to the opener with a lot of action you expect from a four-way cruiserweight

bout highlighted by Andrews’ Shooting Star Press and the finish of the contest.

Up next was the encounter between MasterpieceMarsellus and Drake Younger from the UnitedStates in a No Barbed Wire Ropes match.Marsellus is not the most athletic and agilewrestler but to my surprise, Younger pulled him toa pretty enjoyable match. Younger even brought aChristmas present for his opponent, whichinvolved some wax and Marsellus’ hairy back.

The following tag team bout between KarstenBeck teaming with Big Van Walter against

Farmer Joe and Michael Isotovinvolved a little too much comedy.Although I have to say thatseeing Beck ax-handle-blowingan apple brought to the ring byFarmer Joe was quite amusing.Nevertheless, as mentioned

earlier, sometimes they overdo itin wrestling and it was the case inthis encounter but it didn’t last toolong.

It was time for the main event.The Swiss Ares returned to CWNfor the first time in more than twoyears. The man who currentlydominates Chikara together withhis allies from the “Bruderschaft

des Kreuzes”, squared off against the fanfavorite “Bad Bones” John Kay. Kay showedsome very unique techniques here, using thechildren in the audience to weaken hisadversary while brawling outside the ring.Don’t worry they’re fine and really seemed toenjoy being used as a “weapon”. A fair handshake finished off a good event.

Although the DVD offers only five matches andno bonus features, this event was very wellworth watching with its good variety of matches.

DAVID SCHMIDA

DVD









FC 121Supplier: Clearvision.co.uk // Price: £10.99Discs: 2 // Run Time: 5 hours 3 minutes

Coming into UFC 121 BrockLesnar was arguably the biggestdraw in the UFC, CainVelasquez was arguably thebiggest Hispanic draw. So withthe two facing off in the mainevent, this card was alwaysgoing to feel like a hugelyimportant show.

The outcome of the match,whichever way it was to swingwas always going to show thedirection UFC would headafterward. When all was said

and done, the outcome leavesalmost as many questions as it gives answers.

Elsewhere on the card, we have some greatperformances from Tom Lawlor, BrendanSchaub and Matt Hamil, and handful of other

highly enjoyable matches too. The extrasincluded in the DVD is the same we’re used too,interviews, behind the scenes looks and someof the build up too, which is usually fantastic.

Don’t get me wrong, this is allentertaining and a great companionto the main show. But for the firsttime it feels like something ismissing as UFC had run a special 3part UFC Prime Time to hype themain event. Whilst snippets areincluded in the hype videos, it’s ashame they didn’t include the fullthing as there were some trulygreat parts through the special.

UFC 121 is as enjoyable andcollectable as any UFC release,and my minor gripe about the lackof inclusion of the Prime Time

special doesn’t make this DVD anyless of an important piece of any collection thanany other DVD, and at just £10.99 it’s a greatprice too for over 5 hours of heavy hitting action.

MARTYN LICCHELLI

DVD





http://www.myspace.com/thewrestlingpress



WrestleMania 6

by John Milner

Looking back, it seems almost fate thatWrestlemania VI should have happened at theSkydome in 1990. I was in my second year of college, and was close friends with a freshmannamed Dee. We were both huge wrestling fans,and Dee had been introduced to me by my“next door neighbour” in Residence. They wereboth from the same hometown of Tillsonburg,Ontario. By April, I don’t think it was a mysteryto too many people (save Dee herself) that Ihad quite a crush on her.

At first, actually going to Wrestlemania didn’tseem like it was in the cards. Tickets were fairlyexpensive for two middle-class kids, and thedrive to Toronto and back seemed a bit of a trek.And so, it seemed as if we’d just go to a localsports bar, and watch Wrestlemania on their TV,as we had with the Royal Rumble.

That was…until about a week or so before. Deeand I got to talking one night, and managed totalk ourselves into ordering a couple of ticketsand going to Wrestlemania VI.

Dee and I had a great time driving up toToronto. We talked about wrestling and gotourselves excited about the matches we weregoing to see. The rare “good guy vs. good guy”(we didn’t know to call them “faces” in thosedays) of Hulk Hogan vs. the Ultimate Warrior was the match we were most looking forward to.Dee thought Hogan would retain but I had heardthey’d put the belt on the Warrior because he

appealed to younger fans.

Seeing the crown at the ‘Dome was a lot likeseeing the crowd for Wrestlemania III on the bigscreen…only this was live and we were a part

of the over 67,000 fans there that day.

From the moment Rick Martel and Koko B.Ware came out for the “dark match” to the endof show, Dee and I enjoyed ourselvestremendously. It was great to know we’d beenpart of history when Demolition regained theTag Team titles. It was fun doing the waveduring the Jake Roberts-Ted Dibiase match.

And it was awesome to be there when DustyRhodes and Sapphire brought out Elizabeth

during their mixed tag match against RandySavage and Sensational Sherri. In the yearssince, the WWE has talked a lot about“Wrestlemania moments”. At Wrestlemania VI,there seemed to be a lot of them, and Dee and Iwere proud to be there for all of them.

Nothing prepared me for the moment whenHogan DIDN’T kick out of the Warrior’s pinattempt. I kid you not, my jaw just dropped.There it was, World title history, right in front of

my eyes. It took me a moment, but then I sawDee standing up to cheer the new champion,and I quickly joined her.

The trip home was much like the trip in, butamid the heavy metal that Dee rocked her car with back in the day, we talked about thematches, the moments and the history we’dseen. When we arrived back in the Residence,despite the later (or rather early) hour, we werelike impromptu rock stars, with everyonewanting to know how we’d enjoyed the show,


the

E xperien ce...Background picture © John Smolek








what had happened and what adventures wehad had along the way. In September 1991, justa couple of weeks after she and I had gone to a

WWE show, headlined by her favourite tagteam, the Road Warriors, she was killed in a car accident.

Even now, 20 years later, I still think of Deeoften, especially when I’m watching wrestling.And every time I see a clip of Hogan-Warrior or any other moment from Wrestlemania VI, Ismile, knowing that somewhere out in thecrowd, Dee and I are there: two young kidsenjoying one of the best times of their lives.

WrestleMania 10 – As I remember it

by RetroJunk.com

As most kids were in the early to mid-90s, I wasobsessed with the World Wrestling Federation. Iwas lured into this culture in 1989 when a manwith long blonde hair told me to say my prayersand eat my vitamins (and without questions Iate his brand of vitamins).

I was a Hulkamaniac, and soon after mybedroom looked like the inside of a RetroFitness Gym. Yellow and red as far as the eyecould see.

I will never forget the day when it wasannounced that the tenth anniversary of WrestleMania would return to where it allbegan: Madison Square Garden.

Being from Long Island I knew that it wouldn’ttake much to get to the city for the event. Ibegged, and pleaded with my parents to takeme, but I had been told that the tickets were justtoo expensive, and that we would not be going.

As you do at the age of 7, I began to cry…hysterically. I’ve lost friends, family members,

and pets, and to this day, I dont think I shed as

many tears for all of them combined as I did for finding out that there would be no Wrestlemaniafor me.

Well wouldnt you know it, my mother felt bad for me. She left me in my room in shambles, andcame back about a minute later.

She opened her hand, and there they were.Even better: They were RINGSIDE seats. Now Iwill never win a Super Bowl or a World Series,but I can imagine that the joy I felt wassomewhat similar. At the age of 7, I found outthat I would be ringside at Wrestlemania 10.

I will never forget that day: March 20th, 1994. I

remember me, my father, his friend Joe, and myyounger brother hopping on the Long IslandRailroad and heading into the city. That tripcouldn’t have been any slower.

We went to a restaurant before and I remember sitting there, watching tons of people walk inwearing their WrestleMania X t-shirts.

We enter through the turnstiles at the Garden, Iam in heaven. My dad takes my brother and meto the merchandise stand. He buys me a hat

and a pair of Bret Hart glasses.

We get to the seats and oh yeah, it was sweet.Little Richard came out and sung the worstversion of America the Beautiful that I have ever heard. In fact, my brother and I made fun of itthe entire day, and still do to this day. Then thematches began.

Bret Hart losing to Owen to open the afternoonwas a shock. Little Richard could have walkedback to the ring naked, and no one would have

been as shocked.

Savage was my favourite now that Hogan wasgone, and I had visions of him beating upCrush with my help, that of course didn’thappen. I was ecstatic my favourite had won, inhis final WrestleMania match. I was glad tohave seen it.

The infamous ladder match was the coolestmatch I have ever seen live. And you can onlyimagine how cool it was up close. I will never

forget the sound that was made when Razor

BRET HART LOSING TO

OWEN TO OPEN THE AFTERNOON WAS A SHOCK. . . .








Ramon gave Shawn Michaels “The Razor’sEdge” from the top of that ladder. Holy crap.

I wish I could tell you a lot of this match, but my

father wanted to beat the foot traffic on his wayout of the building. I remember watching someof it and loving it, then being towed awayprematurely. I did get to see Bret win the matchfrom the exits, but then we bolted.

It was an awesome event and I loved everysecond of it.

WrestleMania 13 - the attitude is

buildingby Harlin S. Neal

On Sunday, March 23rd, 1997, the WorldWrestling Federation would bring its annualspring pay-per-view spectacular event,“WrestleMania” back to one of pro wrestling’sfavorite cities, Chicago, Illinois. Or morespecifically...Rosemont, Illinois, which is asuburb immediately northwest of the Chicagocity limits. The Rosemont Horizon, now known

as the Allstate Arena, had hosted 1/3 of the 3-city WrestleMania 2 show in 1986. NowChicago-area wrestling fans could experiencethe biggest event in the business again...and Iwas one of the fortunate 18,000-plus in thearena to see it live.

In comparison to other WrestleMania’s, I’d saythis show wasn’t “the greatest of all time”, but itdefinitely had a lot of “WrestleMania Moments”.The most talked about moment was the

reception of Stone Cold Steve Austin, who’s “Idon’t give a damn” attitude and theproclamation of “Austin 3:16” propelled him tobe one of the most popular wrestlers ever. Hewas cheered louder than he’d been ever cheered in a WWF ring when his “break theglass, and I’ll kick your ass” bravado walkedthrough a broken glass pane with “Austin 3:16”shining on it as he entered the ring. Hisattitude, along with a fired-up crowd, helpedAustin last through a grueling “I Quit” match

against Bret Hart.

Ironically...Austin’s appearance wasn’t theloudest pop of the night. That honor went tothe Legion of Doom, as they teamed withAhmed Johnson in a 6-man “street fight”against the Nation of Domination. The L.O.D.always got top pops whenever they performedin their hometown of Chicago. Plus, there

were rumors that the legendary tag team wasretiring after that match, so seeing that matchwas all that much more special.

The main event of the night was a no-disqualification match featuring the Undertaker vs. “Psycho” Sid for the WWF Championship.After all the pops for the Austin/Hart and LOD& Johnson/NOD match, there wasn’t much leftwhen the main event combatants came to thering. And most of us in the arena could tell theUndertaker was going to win. From where Isat, I could see the tunnel where the wrestlerscame to and left the ring area. Right beforethe end of the match, I saw purple smokecoming from out of that tunnel...and that wasthe dead giveaway the Undertaker would beatSid, and win his 2nd WWF title. The post-match celebration by the Dead Man wasanti-climatic at best, and that would end the2nd WrestleMania card in Chicago, and start a9-year wait before Wrestlemania returned tothe Windy City.

© John Smolek








WrestleMania 13 was one of the first WM’s tohave a corporate sponsor. In this case, it wasthe Sony PlayStation. There were

PlayStation booths set up throughout thearena’s concourse. Like other WM’s before or since, there were plenty of things to do for fans days before the event. Unlike today’sshows, there was no WrestleMania FanAxxess area per se, but there were eventsnear the arena where fans could interact withwrestlers. Also, there was no Hall of Fameceremony the night before WrestleMania.But, wrestling legends The Iron Sheik, BobBacklund, and Rocky Johnson were a part of

the card.My experience to being at my firstWrestleMania was a memorable one. Evenwith today’s internet rumors and instantresults, it’s fun to attend a live WrestleManiashow. If you’re fortunate enough to live in or near a city that hosts a WrestleMania showand you can get tickets go to it. Even if it’s ina domed football stadium like the GeorgiaDome, it’s still worth your while to go. Thecard I attended overall wasn’t all that great,but being in the arena brings a vibe you can’texperience on TV.

Regardless of the size of the venue,WrestleMania will always be the biggest prowrestling show of the year. Of course, thelarger venues provide a Roman Coliseum-style experience that really puts the wrestlerson a pedestal unlike any other.

The idea that wrestlers will perform in front of over 75,000 fans in Atlanta this April isdaunting for anyone. While it’s more commonfor such shows to take place in larger-than-lifelocations one thing’s for sure the RosemontHorizon helped usher in the WWF’s “AttitudeEra” in the spring of 1997 with its pinnacleshow.

I’m delighted to say that this wrestling fan wasfortunate enough to be one of over 18,000people in that building to see it happen first-hand.

WrestleMania’s 18, 23 and 26

by Aaron Wolf

I have been privileged to attend three separateWrestleMania events. The first show I attendedwas the 18th installment of the “Grand day of them all” which was held in Toronto, OntarioCanada.

It took about four hours to get to the arena andwhile not recalling the actual costs I can say itwas expensive.

The excitement of Wrestlemania 18 for me wasthe atmosphere, it was electric. The Hogan

Rock Match was a highlight and I really had noclue who to root for so I Kind of chanted for both.

The WWE Fan Axxess was great and I met alot of awesome wrestlers and got autographsGoldust gave me a high five but Mr. Perfect

© Aaron

Wolf








was rude to me when I tried to talk to him.They were doing a commentate a matchevent within the fan axxess, which you could

take home a tape of your performance but theline was humungous so I didn’t do this.

It took about a 4-6 hour drive to go to FordField in Detroit, Michigan for WrestleMania23.

The excitement for me was really enthusedespecially for my first hall of fame ceremony,it was so exciting and I got to see some realgreat wrestlers and commentators go into thehall of fame. The speeches were very good,

and it really gives some rich history andinsight into the business.

I loved the whole weekend. One of the mostawesome things was when all of a suddenpeople in my row looked behind and saw

Sandman and the rest of the ECW crewcoming down our aisle toward the ring.

Watching Bobby Lashley shave Vince’s head

was also a highlight, he looked hilarious.

I’d recommend the hall of fame for any diehard wrestling fan who wants to learninteresting stories and more about the richhistory of the participants. Once you go to aWrestleMania event you will want to go back.

is very hard to get tickets to these events sodon’t be fooled. Your best bet is to hit the boxoffice or camp out if the event is in your neck of the woods.

It took about a 1 hour plane ride from where Iflew out to get to Arizona for WrestleMania 26.While I was really looking forward to theWrestlemania event, I had low expectations for the hall of fame ceremony.

The Streak vs. Career match was one of thebest matches I’ve ever seen at a mania. Iexpected HBK to retire but not this early.

I’d recommend going to WrestleMania to any

wrestling fan. The whole weekend wasamazing.

I’m really looking forward to Wrestlemania 27HBK going into the hall of fame should be anemotional but epic induction.

The thing that makes me keep going back is Ilove Wrestling and it is my favorite event of theyear. The matches are always top notch. Iwould recommend going at least once to anyhardcore wrestling fan because it truly is a

once in a lifetime experience.

WrestleMania 20 – A Bitter-SweetSymphony, That’s Life

by Ari Berenstein

It was easy enough to make the trip to the cityfrom Brooklyn and head into the heart of Manhattan: Thirty Fourth Street and PennPlaza. It’s an hour and fifteen minutes total,

with the high point of the ride the inspiring© John Smolek








urban vista of the New York City skyline as thetrain motors over the East River. It was a far longer journey from those in over 48 states and

16 countries that travelled here, but the trip wasno doubt worthwhile, for their mutualdestination was World WrestlingEntertainment’s Wrestlemania XX at MadisonSquare Garden.

The line to enter the building stretched from thepartially outdoors Rotunda area all the wayaround 7th Avenue. Usually the entrance of The Garden is busy but moving. Here, no onewas going anywhere, at least not until securitygave the say-so. Then the WWE fans trickled

oh-so-slowly through the bottleneck; screenedand thoroughly patted-down before enteringinto the hallowed halls of The World’s MostFamous Arena.

Still, despite the crush, there was a palpablebuzz and excitement from everyone waiting toget into the building. Ric Flair inspired “Wooos”travelled among the sections of the crowd likean aural version of The Wave. Rumors anddiscussion passed back and forth amid shouts

and hollers from the concession stands.Once the screening process was concluded,one could enter the main hall and head towardsthe inner stadium. In one of those “you had tobe there” moments, none other than WWELegend Tito Santana (who wrestled on the firstnine Wrestlemanias) made his way through thejammed corridor where I and many others hadlined up. Santana was pleasant and cordial,shaking hands and smiling, though it was clear he didn’t expect to be caught up in all of thishuman traffic.

I was very excited. I was four years old whenthe first Wrestlemania took place, about a year removed from actually watching my firstwrestling match. I was not financiallyindependent enough to purchase a ticket toWrestlemania X. This was my first opportunityto see the most important wrestling show of theyear live and in my own hometown. My$104.50 ticket (before service charges) netted

a surprisingly decent seat on the 100 level (the

first raised section of seats) in-between the ringand the ramp.

It had been a huge weekend of wrestling action,

as I had attended my first-ever Ring of Honor show the previous night in Elizabeth, NewJersey (At Our Best, famous for its quality andinfamous for taking place in the midst of theRob Feinstein scandal that nearly destroyedthat promotion). The show was a revelation inenjoying live independent wrestling. However,not even ROH could beat the experience of Wrestlemania in Madison Square Garden.

One of the funnier personal situations that

occurred involved two of my cousins who hadtaken an impromptu bus trip from upstate NewYork to see the show. They happened to beseated completely on the other side of thearena. It was up to the three of us to run aroundthe building throughout the night, scrambling tofind each other amid the many ramps andcorridors. Luckily, Wrestlemania XX was atwelve-match card and nearly five hours inlength, so there was plenty of filler (such as the“Playboy Evening Gown Match” and Jesse

Ventura’s interview) and therefore plenty of timeto find and catch up with family.

The show began with John Cena (still a rappingwhite gangsta’ at this point, wearing a chain andpadlock around his neck—remember that?)winning the United States title from The BigShow to a huge pop. One year later he waswinning the biggest title in WWE.

It was somewhat of a surprise to witness TheRock & Sock Connection losing to Evolution

fourth from the bottom of the card. Both TheRock and Mick Foley received terrific reactions,but it was Ric Flair who stole the show with hismimicry of The People’s Elbow. Batista (who stillhad hair) was rough around the edges but wasshowing the signs of promise that would elevatehim to the World Heavyweight Title and themain event of Wrestlemania 21.

There were several lowlights during the show,but none as infamous and as much of ahistorical curiosity as Brock Lesnar (now a








hugely successful Mixed Martial Artist in theUFC) wrestling Bill Goldberg with “Stone Cold”Steve Austin as the special guest referee.

Though WWE tried to whitewash the wholeincident on DVD, those who watched the showlive will never forget one of the more surrealfifteen minutes in wrestling history.

It was as if the 20,000 in attendance suddenlydecided to unite in a synchronized display of disgust and rebellion against what wassupposed to be an all-time dream match. Theyall somehow knew that it wasn’t just Goldberg’slast night with the WWE, but that Brock Lesnar was leaving as well. I was caught in thisuncanny rush, not quite knowing how to react tothe visceral emotion pouring out of this massiveaudience.

The fans booed passionately. They shouted“You Sold Out” and “Boring” among other disparaging remarks. Lesnar and Goldbergspent the next five minutes having a staringcontest. The fans booed one for doing nothing,then the other for doing nothing in response tothe nothing. They cheered mockingly when

there was any actual movement. Then theywent back to booing. The most positiveresponses were for a Hulk Hogan impersonator in the crowd who was doing a pitch-perfectpantomime and for Steve Austin, who delivereda perfect farewell gift with a Stone Cold Stunner to each man.

Later on, WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero andKurt Angle proceeded to unleash a terrificwrestling match and The Undertaker returnedas “The Deadman” to fight his brother Kane.Truthfully, this was all about the entrance andthe aura of The Undertaker. The rest was fairlyun-dramatic, save for those of us that noticedthat one of the druids had left his (still lit) torchon the ramp unattended. A production crewmember hurriedly ran and doused it with a fireextinguisher-a folly that managed to stay off-screen.

Millions of pieces of confetti dropped from theceiling of The Garden after Chris Benoit won the

World Heavyweight Title, defeating Shawn

Michaels and World Heavyweight ChampionTriple H in a Triple Threat match.

It was one of the more emotional andpassionate title wins in WWE history, for bothBenoit and the MSG crowd. Many were movedwhen Benoit and Eddie Guerrero celebrated inthe ring together with their respectivechampionships, but even more were touchedwhen Benoit hugged his wife and son in themiddle of the ring after the Pay Per View hadgone off the air. It is a sobering and somewhatchilling memory now.

What Wrestlemania XX means today to thehistory of the promotion and the wrestlingindustry has been forever and irrevocablychanged (and justifiably so) by the tragic deaths

of Eddie Guerrero in 2005 and the murder-suicide of Chris, Nancy and Daniel Benoit in2007. However, back then this show was simplya moment of celebration and reveling.

I had picked up a piece of the confetti that fellonto the floor before departing Madison SquareGarden that night. I still have the tickertape,folded in-between the pages of theWrestlemania XX program. It is now a bitter-sweet symbol of the show and all that happenedafterwards.

© John Smolek








WrestleMania 22

by David Schmida

I have been soaking up everything that theworld of wrestling has had to offer since 1993,for some reason though it never reallyoccurred to me to actually go to WrestleManiaand see it live. It took many more years until Idecided to put a bit of money together andattend the biggest wrestling event on earth.

Besides noticing numerous advertisementsregarding organized trips to the differentevents, WrestleMania X8 in Toronto played asignificant role as a deciding factor. Although Inever lost the fever for the sport, I hadn’twatched too much current wrestling for a whiledue to the TV situation in Germany at that timeand bought the tape of the show fromEngland. I watched it probably five times thefirst week as it blew me away.

I decided to finally do it. I was going to attenda WrestleMania.

After postponing it a few times throughout theyears, I ended up booking a four-day-trip toWrestleMania 22 in Chicago through theaforementioned agency eight months beforethe event took place. Why so early? Of courseI fell for the oldest trick in the book: the earlybird discount.

I can highly recommend doing it through anagency. I preferred to pay a bit more and nothave to worry about anything else.

The whole thing cost me about 2500 Eurosand it was worth every single cent. Theyorganized the tickets to the Hall of Fameceremony, WrestleMania and for Raw onMonday night.

The day had arrived. Four days before the bignight I took a train to Frankfurt, Germany tocatch my plane to London. There I met withthe tour escort and the other people headingto the “Granddaddy of them all” and weboarded the plane to Chicago. In total to get ittook about ten hours to finally get to the hotel

in Chicago.

The Hall of Fame ceremony was perfect. BretHart was inducted by Steve Austin that nightand since Hart was one of the first guys I ever

saw wrestling you can imagine how it felt. I stillremember the TV guys waving at him to signalhim that he should get to the end of his speechbut he didn’t pay much attention. Later thatnight, I realized how much they had to cut it inorder to be able to include it in the TV show. Allin all, it was a perfect, emotional night andcouldn’t have been a better kick off for a greatweekend.

The excitement of actually attendingWrestleMania still lives in me today and I’m

really not overstating. I didn’t book ringsidetickets since I thought 300 Euros for a ticket inthe first rows of the ranks was enough. Add tothat that you’re not guaranteed to end up in thefirst row when you order ringside tickets.

I had almost perfect sight sitting about sixtymeters away from the ring and I can tell you:those fireworks were hot. I’m still very happyabout the fact that the 22nd edition of WrestleMania took place in a normal arenarather than one of these big domes like inToronto at WrestleMania X8. AlthoughWrestleMania taking place in a dome made medecide to attend it, I wouldn’t have had such agood sight with the tickets I had in an arena likein Detroit one year later.

Having had such a good time at this trip, I’ddefinitely go again. Nevertheless, I’d choosecarefully which edition I’d attend, taking thehost city and the size of the venue intoconsideration. Maybe WrestleMania 30,provided that it takes place at Madison SquareGarden in New York, will make me pack mybags again.

Enjoy the show folks!!!

THE ExCITEMENT OF ACTuALLY

ATTENDING WRESTLEMANIA

STILL LIVES IN ME TODAY. . . .







NExT ISSEHHTWO HGE INTERVIEWSHH

TWP Editor Darren Wood chats to wrestling legend Sid Vicious

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