A Pro Wrestling FANZINE

Transcription

A Pro Wrestling FANZINE
Presented by...
Facebook.com/CallingSpots
Visit CallingSpots.com
The Editorial
Meet the team
Richard Penaluna
Editor
Nik Towers
Artist
@Penaluna
@Pencil_Tree
So far, 2014 has been a funny old year for pro
wrestling, specifically in New York; be it DanielBryan-gate at the Royal Rumble, Boo-tista’s
controversial spot in the WrestleMania main event,
#HijackRAW or CM Punk taking a page out of
Stone Cold Steve Austin’s book. Luckily, you don’t
have to worry about any of that nonsense here.
Calling Spots is a safe place where you can have fun
while reading about such topics as Tom Billington’s
pride and the worst match in DragonGate history.
Sounds good, right…?
Chad Engle
Artist
Lee Goodfellow
Indy Expert
@ChadEngleArt
@HellionLee
Paul Cooper
Graphics
@Something_Says
Dashing Neil
Rogers
Writer
@xtreme_neil
Matt Hardy
Wordsmith
@mtthrdy
James Musselwhite
Photographer
@Y2jimbob
Visit callingspots. com today
Our team for issue eight contains a few new
(handsome?) faces as we continue to bring you the
very best independent journalism from the world of
pro wrestling. At the turn of the year we were
disappointed to learn that one of our favoured
wrestling websites - CollarAndElbow.com - was
closing its doors. Due to our likeminded approach
to wresting journalism, we always had a good
relationship. With that in mind, it gives me great
pleasure to be able to offer the former C&E writers
a platform to be able to continue their excellent
work here in Calling Spots, starting with James
Musselwhite. James is a fantastic photographer, a
smart and witty writer as well as being somebody
who enjoys a plethora of different wrestling
products. He has penned a short article, to wrap up
this issue, in order to introduce himself to our
readers and already has some fantastic ideas for
some projects he wants to bring to our fanzine in
2014. We are also joined by the marginally lessfamous counterpart of former WWE United States
champion Matt Hardy. Matt will be starting his
work for us with an analysis of how ex-WWE
wrestlers have faired in Ring of Honor. I also want
to give a mention to a Brett Hadley. Brett is a super
talented photographer who shoots wrestling shows
up and down the UK and has provided some
fantastic shots for the ’zine. You can check out
more of his work by following him on Twitter
@magic_bert.
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Twitter @CallingSpots
I also want to say thanks to these people because they are brilliant: Our official sponsor
for issue eight; The Attitude Era Podcast, Lauren Soar, FremantleMedia, Tidal International Pro Wrestling, Violet Vendetta, Alix McMurdo, Simon Rothstein, Larry Carlin,
Chris Duke, Northumbria University, Kris Travis, Martin Kirby, Jim, Jon and Glen at
PROGRESS Wrestling, HighSpots.com, Awesome Merchandise and the beautiful Jeni.
As always, thank you so much for picking up this copy of Calling Spots. Your support
not only means the world to us but also keeps us doing what we do. To thank you for
your support, we are giving away an exclusive LIMITED EDITION print from the
brilliant Paul Cooper of Something Studios. The print is of the exclusive Calling Spots
Hall of Fame artwork on the next page. There are only two of these print in the whole
world; one is on the wall of our office and the other could be stashed under your bed in
a tube, if you’re the lucky winner. To enter, all you need to do is TWEET somebody
telling them why they should check out @CallingSpots. There is no limit on how many
times you can enter. Each tweet will get you another entry. We will draw a winner after
WrestleMania 30. Good luck.
Check out Paul’s work on Twitter @something_says and at
Something-Studio.com
Make sure to check out CallingSpots.com for some extra content with this issue, including a full HD photo shoot gallery with 1/2 of our cover stars Violet Vendetta, the
answers to our epic word search and loads more.
Enjoy this issue of Calling Spots
Much love. Richard Penaluna (Editor-in-chief) x
Image used with thanks to Brett Hadley
Drop us a line: @CallingSpots or [email protected]
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Calling Spots Hall of Fame
Class of 2014
And so it begins. After two years of producing our professional wrestling fanzine; during
which time we have had some of the most respected journalists, artists and people from
the world of wrestling media enter our office and discuss our passion, we have now
opened the doors to the hallowed Calling Spots Hall of Fame. In 2014, three men are to
be inducted to receive this award, all voted for by the readers of Calling Spots. We will
celebrate the achievements of these men with an article dedicated to each. So without
further ado, let me introduce you to your Calling Spots Hall of Fame class of 2014.
Our first inductee was in a three horse race for
his spot in the Hall of Fame, as our readers
clearly separated the men from the boys in this
category. Being inducted for his 'contributions to
British wrestling', we are delighted to welcome
'The Dynamite Kid' Tom Billington as our
first inductee. Dynamite receives this award, despite spending the majority of his career between
Canada, Japan and the United States, with just
under 29% of the votes. It was a tight affair however, with both Johnny Saint and the late, great
Mick McManus both receiving just over 26% of
the votes each. The three men were in great company in their bracket, with Dynamite being voted
in ahead of Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, Lord
Alfred Hayes and Brian Dixon. Dynamite is one
of the most gifted athletes to ever grace the
squared circle, so it is fantastic for us to see our
readers acknowledge the man for his ring work,
despite his well-documented troubles outside of
the ring. We are very pleased to welcome The
Dynamite Kid as our first ever Hall of Famer.
Our second inductee is to be welcomed into the
Hall of Fame because of his 'contributions to
Calling Spots'. For this category, all former interviewees of our fanzine were eligible. This list
includes; one of the UK's hottest rising stars Noam Dar. DragonGate:USA and Evolve
booker - Gabe Sapolsky. The creative genius
behind Botchamania - Maffew Gregg. Former
NWA World Champion - Adam Pierce. TNA
star - Christopher Daniels. Former Ring of
Honor World Champion and zoo enthusiast Kevin Steen. A man who has held many championships in WWE, WCW and ECW - Lance
Storm. WWE, ECW and TNA alumni Jerry
Lynn. One of the UK's finest female wrestlers
Kay Lee Ray. ICW ring announcer and stand-up
comedian Billy Kirkwood. And of course the
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latest inductee into the Calling Spots Hall of
Fame - Martin Kirby. We originally got our interview with Martin backstage at a small show in
South Shields where we spoke about blood in pro
wrestling and wrestlers in their undies. Martin is
self-admittedly a man who does not like to partake in interviews, so we were very grateful for
his time. Afterwards Martin was happy to express
his enjoyment of the interview and has kept in
touch with us in the office ever since. We had a
blast chatting to Martin in the hallway of a community centre and we are delighted that you guys
liked to enough to vote him into our Hall of
Fame.
Our final inductee is one of the most decorated
wrestlers of all time, with 16 world championships and two WWE Hall of Fame rings to his
name. For his 'contributions to pro wrestling' we
are delighted to welcome 'The Nature Boy' Ric
Flair into the Calling Spots Hall of Fame. Ric
defeated his old Rival Hulk Hogan to this award
with the highest number of votes of all of our
categories, 31% vs Hogan's 24%. Flair saw off his
stiffest competition to-date, with 'Stone Cold'
Steve Austin (19%), The Undertaker (14%),
Bruno Sammartino (5%), John Cena (5%) and
The Rock (2%) all in the running. Our readers
left hundreds of comment with their votes, including "The guy broke his back in a plane crash
and was back within a year, wrestled in a time
when schedule was far busier than Bruno's and
gave his life to the business" and is perhaps best
summed up with the comment "Simply the greatest professional wrestler I have ever seen". Ric
Flair is often considered the wrestling fan's wrestler; with that in mind, we are delighted to welcome The Nature Boy into the Calling Spots Hall
of Fame, class of 2014.
Mask and eventually reaching his peak when he
and his cousin Davey Boy Smith won the WWF
tag-team championships. Speaking about bringing him from the UK to Calgary, Bruce Hart
described his first thoughts on Dynamite as "the
greatest thing to happen to pro wrestling". The
territory was historically a 'big man territory',
meaning that the roster was full of large wrestlers who would wrestle a certain style due to
their physical attributes and limitations. The
initial thought was that Dynamite would not fit
in with the roster or be able to have a good
match there due to the clash in styles; however,
after seeing what Billington was able to do in the
ring, it wasn't long before Stu Hart's territory
had an entire Junior-Heavyweight division in
place just to showcase their new centrepiece.
Bret Hart speaks about this time in great detail
in his book 'Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling' even stating "I wanted
to be just like Dynamite".
Yet, despite a career of hard-work and very solid
matches, Dynamite's decline was sudden. Today,
Tom Billington lives in Manchester, England,
where he is wheelchair bound with paralysis of
the left leg. But where did it all go so wrong for
this once great British warrior?
"Whether it was the constant pounding on
my back from all the suplexes and piledrivers, or whether it was the steroids, or a
combination of both, at the age of 25, my
back was starting to give me some serious
pain. Sometimes my ribs, my kidneys, my
whole body just ached. But I never
thought of cutting the high-risk moves
out. They were part of what the people had
paid to see."
Many of Dynamite's peers will recall back to his
jovial side with fondness, recounting instance
after instance of his ribs and hilarious jokes
backstage and on the road. Others will label him
as a bully, somebody who constantly went too
far and made others miserable. Dynamite was
known to have a dark streak, becoming more
aggressive in the ring over the years. "I have
never taken it easy in the ring", says Billington in
his autobiography. "When you are there, in a full
arena, fans shouting your name, you want to do
it". Whether it was related or not; many of Billington's peers from this time period recall back
to his ever increasing use of steroids and his
constantly growing physique as the years rolled
on, making reference to the known impacts that
the drug can have on a person's mental health.
Dynamite has never shied away from his steroid
use, and in a recent documentary by HighSpots
titled 'Dynamite Kid - A Matter of Pride' he
even states that this is not something he has any
regrets about at all, despite his physical health
conditions later in life and subsequent stroke in
- Tom Billington, Pure Dynamite, 1999.
The story of The Dynamite Kid is a sad one. It's
a story of one of the most technically gifted
professional wrestlers our country has ever produced, one of the most gifted in the world in
fact. It is a story about a genuine, renowned
tough guy. However it is a story that most people will remember for the drug abuse, steroid
abuse, domestic abuse and abuse of other people. Dynamite achieved a great deal in his career;
from his time in Stu Hart's Stampede territory in
Canada to his 5-star matches (Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards, 1983) with Tiger
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late-2013. A well documented incident took
place between Dynamite and his young cousin
Davey Boy Smith, who would later become The
British Bulldog, when the latter first arrived in
Calgary. Billington had made it very clear to Stu
Hart that he did not want Davey Boy in the
territory, however when Calgary's new star attraction was scheduled to go on a long tour of
Japan, Hart had to make a decision on who
would fill the gap left by Dynamite and made
the decision to bring in Smith. When the tour of
Japan fell through, Billington had no option but
to accept that he and Davey Boy would have to
work together. As it happened, the pair had a
series of superb matches, despite never working
together before. That was until one night, when
Billington sliced Davey Boy's head with a razor
from one side of his forehead all the way to the
back of his scalp while helping him "blade". To
this day, it is unknown if Billington did this as an
act of malice or if this was just a then-routine
stunt that had gone wrong.
In his book, Bret Hart recalls an incident while
on a tour of Japan where Billington hung out of
the window of the tour bus to beckon over a
homeless man. As the man approached the bus,
Billington made as if he was going to offer him
some money or food, only to spit in the man's
face when he got close enough. Bret talks about
remembering how he felt seeing that incident
and hearing Billington's hearty laugh, as if he
was proud of his 'joke'. Bret talks of pinpointing
that moment as the time that he thought that,
one day, karma would come back to haunt Dynamite Kid. That karma was eventually forthcoming....
The Rougeaus by either stealing or vandalising
their clothing while they were out in the ring.
For whatever reason, on the night that led to
this incident, the Rougeaus were not happy with
Billington and stood up to him, verbalising their
contempt. Several days later, Jacques Rougeau
was playing cards backstage at a show in Miami
when Billington punched him in the face with a
cheap shot from behind. Dynamite continued to
assault Rougeau until his brother Raymond
stepped in, despite him being on crutches. Billington threatened Raymond to which Raymond
is reported to have asked if he was "going to
beat up a guy on crutches?". Dynamite replied
"No, I'll wait for you to heal and then I'll beat
you up". Weeks went by and Jacques planned
his revenge. He had been assaulted by Billington
for standing up to him and he would not let that
go unpunished. The entire time, every day, in
front of Jacques, Billington would ask Raymond
"how's the leg?" - implying that he was not going to forget and the next fight would take place
soon. After a conversation with his father,
An infamous incident took place between Dynamite and The Rougeaus, specifically Jacques
Rougeau, while both were big players in the
WWF's tag-team division during the late 80's.
Over the years, in print and on various shoot
interviews, many people have gave their version
of the preceding events, including both Billington and Jacques. Depending on who's side of
the story you listen to, you will hear about a
disagreement over both parties wanting to
change the order of their respective matches on
a particular evening's card in order to allow The
Rougeaus to leave early and visit their family, as
well as an incident involving Billington "ribbing"
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Jacques decided now was the time to strike,
despite Vince McMahon warning both parties
that if either started a fight they would be fired
on the spot. He got a roll of quarters from the
bank one afternoon, took them to the show and
clenched them tight in his hand as he approached Billington. "Hi Tom". As Dynamite
looked up, Jacques smashed him in the mouth
with the hardest punch he could throw, loaded
with the roll of quarters. Despite the blow
knocking out four of Billington's teeth, his pride
stopped him from leaving his feet. He stood
there and took another couple of hard shots
before it was broken up.
The Rougeaus didn't lose their job and Vince
sent The Bulldogs on a tour of Europe, although it would not be long before they handed
their notice in, citing "personal reasons". The
news that The Bulldogs were on their way out
of the WWF was bittersweet for Jacque
Rougeau. On one hand, they would soon be out
of his life for good, on the other hand, there
was the fear that they now had nothing to lose.
With Dynamite's history, and given what had
happened, Jacque was genuinely frightened for
his life. So much so that he found the address
of Tom Billington's family, wrote it on a bit of
paper, and showed it to the wrestlers who were
close to Billington, advising them that every
night he called home. If one night he didn't call
home, there would be a visit paid to that address.
Boy returned years later as The British Bulldog
without his cousin). There was no reaction from
The Dynamite Kid. The pride that had stopped
him from leaving his feet with that punch had
been damaged beyond repair. Maybe he could
not look at the boys in the back in the same way
again. Maybe he had never been humiliated like
that or had a victim of his stand up to him in
the way Jacque did. Maybe he was worried that
others would now follow suit in standing up to
him. Nobody will ever know why that moment
had such a profound impact on the rest of Tom
Billington's life other than Tom himself, but his
decline from this point has been well documented and will likely be remembered by most
more prominently than will the amazing work
he did in the ring; work which made him a role
model to people like Bret Hart, Davey Boy,
Chris Benoit and even Davey Richards in more
recent times. One thing is for sure though; Bret
knew that The Dynamite kid has this coming to
him ever since they shared that bus ride in Japan.
Image used with thanks to CNN
The British Bulldogs left the WWF at the 1988
Survivor Series Pay Per View in what was Billington's last night with the company (Davey
-Words by Richard Penaluna
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ments, it was his feud with El Ligero under the
guise of the evil 'Ego Dragon', for Cambridgeshire based 'Southside Wrestling', where we perhaps saw Kirby's finest work of his career. The
feud and its final match picked up Southside's
fan awards for feud and match of the year, with
the latter being the finest match we saw on UK
soil in the whole of 2013. At Southside's 3rd
Anniversary show, titled "End Game", Kirby
and El Ligero put together an absolute master
class in their "unsanctioned" steel cage match. It
was hard hitting and brutal, yet watching the
match felt like watching a great artist paint his
finest masterpiece.
Martin Kirby has really stepped up in 2013, taking himself from being one of the most solid
hands in the country, to a real stand-out star.
Much like his tag-team partner in Project Ego Kris Travis - you will see Martin Kirby's name
on posters for wrestling shows the length and
breadth of our country, showing the level of
dedication needed to be truly successful in this
industry. Although Martin will tell us himself,
later in this article, that one of his true highlights
of 2013 was competing against Japanese legend
Jushin 'Thunder' Liger for Preston City Wrestling, it was his work that earned him this marquee match, as well as his work since, that show
how classy Martin Kirby is. Martin started the
year making his debut with DragonGate:UK on
the Japanese promotion's three-show-tour before
going on to having some wonderful matches
against the UK's finest, with notable matches
against Noam Dar and Kay Lee Ray. Project Ego
made their debut for PROGRESS wrestling in
2013 and Martin got to face another Japanese
legend in a PCW ring, this time teaming with El
Ligero to take on Ultimo Dragon and his partner
Dean Allmark. Despite all of these accomplishFacebook.com/CallingSpots
I would just like to thank all the readers of
Calling Spots who voted for me for such an
award, especially given the high level and
calibre of fellow wrestlers also nominated.
2013 was a personal highlight for me given
all the great opponents I got to face and
meet as well as entertaining so many brilliant
fans. One of my favourite moments of the
year was getting to meet and speak backstage with one of my childhood heroes - Bret
Hart. On top of this, I then later in the year
got to compete against my other child hero
in the form of Japanese legend Jushin
'Thunder' Liger. I'm looking forward to seeing what 2014 has in store for me!
If you see the name "Martin Kirby" on a poster
near you, go and see that show.
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Image used with permission of Brett Hadley with thanks to Southside Wrestling
2013 was absolutely Martin Kirby's year, so we
caught up with him to get his thoughts on it and
to accept his induction into the Calling Spots
Hall of Fame.
on numerous occasions during his tenure with
TNA. Is Ric Flair actually god? He could be....
In the end, I feel that it speaks volumes about
the influence that Flair has had on so many
people that I have had almost every member
of the Calling Spots team knocking on the
door of my office and asking for an opportunity to say a few words about Flair on this
platform. So, I am now going to hand you
over to my esteemed colleagues who would
like to have a short say on The Nature Boy.
Matt Hardy
The first thing that pops into my head when
someone says "Ric Flair" - once I’ve stopped
screaming WOO – is that he’s pretty close to
the top of the tree when it comes to being a
great heel. His NWA promos during the ‘80s
were absolute genius; boasting of Rolexes, diamond rings, custom made suits and “woo-wooWOOing all the pretty girls”. Now we’re used
to heels these days doing the whole "girls want
me and guys want to be me” shtick, we’ve seen
it from everyone from The Rock to Randy
Orton, but in my humble opinion, Flair did it
first and did it best. It was one of these promos
where Flair coined one of the most memorable
and entertaining quotes in wrestling history:
“I’m Ric Flair! The stylin', profilin', limousine
riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin' n' dealin'
son of a gun!”
My personal favourite Ric Flair jibe will be
when he addressed Buddy Landel when he said
“Last year I spent more money on spilt liquor
in bars from one side of this world to the
other, than you MADE.” His over the top ego
was only matched by his complete dominance
of the NWA at the time, thanks to feuds with
Dusty Rhodes among others. The fact that
Flair could out wit you AND out wrestle you
made him the most detestable man imaginable,
and that’s why I love him!
How do I write an article about the most
decorated and acclaimed professional wrestler
of all time? A man who, for decades, has had
thousands of articles written about him, covering every subject and gracing the front
cover of more pro wrestling magazines than
we have issues; often making them iconic in
the process? The short answer is this; I cannot. I set out penning various articles, ultimately deciding that they didn't quite do the
job that I wanted. I was very excited at the
prospect of researching an article that would
retrospectively look at Ric Flair's five most
important matches, however within six minute of that idea entering my head I had a list
of 23 matches that would have hit triple figures if I didn't stop myself. The man won 16
world championships....sixteen. Finding just
five matches would have never happened. I
also toyed with the idea of compiling a list of
men who had defeated Flair yet not actually
went on to become "the man" themselves or
an article that would aim to either confirm or
disprove some of Ric Flair's elaborate claims;
for example Flair declaring himself as "god"
Chad Engle
My first recollection of "The Man" would be
when my great uncle introduced me to pro
wrestling. The early 80's, in a small studio. The
ladies would cheer as, stepping into frame,
would be this physically fit, tanned, bleached
blonde, stylin' in a suit, sunglass wearing champ
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Image used with thanks to Pro Wrestling Illustrated
age....or whole package (sorry Lex) of what a
pro wrestler should be. That's why so many
after him try to emulate his character!
Paul Cooper
Ric Flair, for me, has always been a polarizing
character. At times I’ve loved to hate him and
times I’ve hated to love him. This is a massive
compliment however. I’ll always remember him
as a cocky, arrogant heel; flaunting around in
expensive suits, cutting promos with such conviction, intensity and passion or strutting to the
ring in his sequined robes with such confidence
and self belief that he was the best in the
ring...the best in the business. Flair deserves
every accolade and all the praise that has been
heaped on him. A true legend of the squared
circle.
Neil Rogers
I'm a 27 year old man who got into wrestling in
the mid '90s. By that point I don't feel it would
be untrue to say that 'The Nature Boy' Ric Flair
was in the Indian Summer of his career. Other
than the archived matches, I can only remember Ric Flair having a handful of good or great
matches. Because of this fact, my favourite Ric
Flair memory is not one of his matches or promos. It's fair to say that Flair isn't just one of
the most successful wrestlers of all time he is
also one of the sport's most famous faces and
is recognised by millions around the world.
With this celebrity comes opportunities and
when you are "The Man" it's not just your normal wrestling merchandise. Over the last few
decades Flair has put his name to several products/companies and, although I appreciate the
irony in Ric Flair being the face of a credit
agency, given the well documented money
problems he has experienced in his personal
life, my favourite is his appearance in several
commercials for Command and Conquer Red
Alert 3. If you haven't seen the commercials
before I highly recommend you search the
internet for the clips or
use the QR code below
to witness of the funniest, most utterly random
piece of advertising I
have ever seen.
Ric Flair! Letting out a Wwoooo for good
measure! Gorden Solie and Ric would talk people into the arenas! Watching him wrestle over
the next few months, even as a young boy, I
could tell that whatever he was saying during
his promos were wrestling gospel. Ric believed
what he was saying, which made you believe.
You either hated him for it because it was true,
or respected him for it! He backed it up, from
George South, to Harley Race, he carried the
ten pounds of gold for a reason! And then of
course there is the Four Horsemen! Those men
were genuinely living the dream; jet setting,
parties, ladies and holding all the gold! But
that's another story! All of those accomplishments and then later on in WCW, WWF, and
back, just added to the legacy of Ric Flair! Ric
made you respect him! You might have wanted
to kill him for things he did to "your guy", but
deep down if you were in his $300 gator shoes,
you know you would have done the same
thing. Ric was the right guy at the right time
who had the look, could talk you into seats, and
have great believable matches with anyone.
Does one match, feud, promo, or highlight
come mind as the reason that I thing Ric Flair
is the Man? Absolutely not! He's the total packFacebook.com/CallingSpots
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Ric Flair IS the man, combining in ring talent,
elegance, bravado, lifestyle and charisma in one
package unlike any other before him or since.
Thank you Ric.
Richard Penaluna
I often tell people that I feel as if grew up during the wrong era of professional wrestling. As
great as it can be to watch back, I would have
loved to have lived through the days when the
National Wrestling Alliance was at its apex; and
the reason for that was simply Ric Flair and the
Four Horsemen. Life was different in the late
70's and throughout the 80's. There was no
internet, less forms of global communication
and professional wrestling had not been exposed, at least not to anywhere remotely near
the level of what it has been in 2014. Wrestling
fans were not "smart"; they enjoyed (or hated)
what they saw in front of them and took it at
face value. Because of this, fans emotions, be it
outrage or jubilation, were driven by what the
wrestling promoter put in front of them. If
they were angry, it was not because their favourite "worker" was not getting a push they
believed he deserved, but because they were
angry at the villainous acts shown by the territory's resident bad guys. Scenes of riot were not
uncommon during this era; and who was at the
forefront of wrestling villainy? None other than
Slick Ric and his mates.
Thank you to the entire Calling Spots team
for their efforts in the Calling Spots Hall of
Fame. Thank you to Nik Towers for his
awesome ‘wooo’ piece to finish up this article. Thank you to Paul Cooper for all of the
Hall of Fame graphics. Thank you to Martin Kirby, Tom Billington and Ric Flair.
Flair has had countless classic matches in his
career, my personal highlights (since I binned
off that 'top five matches' article) include: Winning his second world championship against
Harley Race at Starrcade 1983 inside the steel
cage, taking on Savage at WrestleMania eight,
Sting at the first ever Clash of the Champions,
Ricky Steamboat at Clash of the Champions VI
and of course his emotional "career ending"
match with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania
24. I'm sorry. I love you.
12
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13
Meet
Violet Vendetta
Exclusive interview by Nik Towers
Hi Violet, thank you for joining us today. I
have been a fan of your work since I saw you
in HXC with Mikey Whiplash. Your look
really stands out.
in ring debut with Dani Brooks in May 2012 at
UKW. Who am I gunning for in 2014? Well… I’m
still yet to get into the ring with ‘It Girl’ Melanie
Price! We have some unfinished business me and
that girl!
Ah, Thank you, I usually dress as a 50’s pin up,
but with it being an over 18’s show I thought I’d
do a dark little twist. *laughs* It’s been a pleasure
to work with Mikey Whiplash. I’ve been watching
him for years on the British wrestling scene, and
he comes from Stoke on Trent too! Big win!
I think women's wrestling is certainly on the
up in the UK and there are a few promotions
popping up. These have got to be exciting
times to be involved?
Yes, I’m really happy to see that women are going
to be given a chance to show that we can give as
much as the male talent can! There is a lot of new
female promotions starting, and I am very excited
and grateful to be a part of them. I am very much
looking forward to the debut show of LCW Roses
in early 2014!
A couple of Stokies. Speaking of your unique
look; you are noticeably more tattooed than
your typical 'diva'. Have you got any more
tattoos planned for 2014
I am booked for more tattoos in a few weeks!
*laughs* I think I will be having more and more
throughout the year. Tattoo’s are a big part of my
life and I love having them! They’re very addictive.
*laughs*
The show has got the potential to be really
something...
I am also looking forward seeing what The British
Bombshells have in store for their shows too.
You got into the business as a valet but in 2012
you started getting some action in the ring as
well. Anyone you're gunning for in 2014?
I had the pleasure of seeing a Bombshells
match in Leeds. They have a bright future.
LCW Roses look like a promotion coming
through with the goal of showing people what
women can do in the business. Are you happy
to play your part of that rise?
I’ve been a valet since 2011, making my debut at
AWW in Birmingham. I worked with my trainer at
the time as he wanted to give me some show experience which I was very grateful for. I made my
14
I am very excited to be working with LCW Roses,
my match has been announced for the Debut
show in January! I get to tag with the beautiful
Princess Nadia Sapphire where we become The
Pin-Up Princesses and we take on Scotland’s Viper and House Of Pain’s, Jenna!
As I mentioned earlier, you also work as a
valet; do you prefer this role or stepping into
the ring yourself?
I absolutely love being a valet. I started in 2011
and I have loved every match that I have been
involved with. I love wrestling; training with Stixx
at House of Pain has given me the confidence I
needed to help me develop as a wrestler. I love
being in the ring. I recently took on a new up-andcoming female wrestler called Jenna who is from
Preston. I very much enjoyed wrestling with her.
So in answer to your question; which do I prefer?
BOTH!
*Laughs* Great answer. Are you a 'take each
day as it comes' kind of girl or have you got a
five year plan?
To see the world doing a job that I love so much.
Have you got anyone in the business you look
up to. Someone that has inspired you?
My plan is to keep training hard and travel lots!
That’s what I’d like to be doing through wrestling.
Watching April Davids wrestle, that girl is amazing
and very inspiring to watch. April could take on
the world if she wanted to and still give an amazing match wherever it is and whoever it is with.
Is there anyone you want to mention or say
thank you too?
Yes, I do! I want to say a huge thank you to Stixx,
Mike Hough at HXC, Sam Bailey, Jca Servo Photography, Dave Mastiff and Keith Myatt. I wouldn’t be where I am today without their support. In
2014 everybody needs to keep an eye out for Joe
Vega, Lana Austin and James Drake.
Violet, thank you for joining us today.
You can follow Violet on Twitter
@VioletVendetta.
All photos used were taken by and property of
the fantastic Alix McMurdo Photography. Visit
Facebook.com/PhotosByAlix
See the extended HD
gallery of the photo
shoot by Alix
McMurdo at
CallingSpot.com or
by scanning here.
15
16
"In April 2014, Jake Roberts will be inducted
into the WWE Hall of Fame, a fitting tribute to
a legendary career. There is very little that can
be said about Jake Roberts that hasn’t already
been said a thousand times before, the man is a
source of great fascination and controversy.
Like many people who grew up watching the
Attitude Era, I was exposed to very little Jake
‘The Snake’ Roberts, at least until I watched the
quintessential wrestling documentary, Beyond
The Mat. Hearing Jake's story was the first
glimpse I'd had at how messed up the world of
pro-wrestling can be, and even outside of any-
thing related to the squared circle, Jake's story
was one of the bleakest tales of human despair
I'd ever heard. As you can imagine, I, like everyone else, was absolutely delighted as well as
relieved to see Jake’s astonishing turnaround in
the past two years. It’s the ultimate example of
the “its never too late” philosophy, and perfectly symbolised by his induction into the Hall
of Fame.”
Words and fantastic artwork by Adam Bibalo of the Attitude Era Podcast. Follow
him on Twitter @Biblops
H a s ht a g W r es t li n g
H a v e yo ur s a y
We asked you on Twitter;
@njlake Beating Dick Slater for the NWA title
and then cutting a promo on the writer who
said he would not win because Jake was leaving
for WWF in 2 weeks.. Watts and Roberts
twisted him up.
What are your favourite memories of the
new WWE Hall of Famer—Jake ‘The
Snake’ Roberts?
@SIRREAL718 Definitely his feuds with Savage, Andre, and Rude, to name a few. He was
way ahead of his time. #TrustMe
@tammckinlay9 The time he didn't appear in
Royal Rumble 2014, crushing the dreams of
millions.
@PetePrickly @SIRREAL718 Look up his
stuff in Mid South and see what got him there.
@MikeBatesy Leaving a king cobra in DDP’s
bathroom then f’ng off for a week.
#MadBastard
@WillBurns6 When @JakeSnakeDDT made
the King Cobra chew on Randy Savage's arm!
Vince's commentary of “Jake... He's, he's, he's
SIIICCCK!”
@calvin_berry When he turned on Warrior in
the summer of 91 by teaming with the Undertaker. "I'm a snake, never trust a snake". Either
the heel turn or when Jake and Taker crashed
Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth's wedding
reception.
@philallen316 One of my early memories is
seeing him with Alice copper at WrestleMania.
That and his amazing way with words.
@droptoehold87 His part in the birth of Austin 3:16 & his work with Ravishing Rick Rude.
@ggggAz He had me proper terrified as a
young’n, with what he did to Savage with Damien! #heelheat
@WrestlingTsar The feuds with Rick Rude
and Ted DiBiase are timeless and every promo
was golden! Loved the WCW run too!
@JohnD198628 It has to be his feud with
Randy Savage. It was intense, looked real and
was/is a classic.
@showtimeerict Blindfold match at WrestleMania 7 against Martel is so underrated.
@nathanna Cobra. Macho man in the ropes!
Or the wedding gift haha.
17
What is actually wrong with having a
big man ethos?
By Neil Rogers
In an early issue of this very fanzine, we looked at the "WWE style" of wrestling. The positives and negatives of this, what this meant for cultured veterans of the indy wrestling scene
around the world and the impacts this has on fans. Eight issues later, new boy Neil Rogers
delves a little deeper into the subject, specifically looking the notion that "big is beautiful"
before deciding if he agrees with this or not....
Let me start by saying that I am a wrestling fan
first and a WWE fan second. I am critical of
WWE when I feel their content is poor, the same
as I am of TNA, ROH or any other independent
organisation that I have watched or attended in
my 17 years of being a fan of the sport. That’s
right; I said sport and I stand by that. Dictionary.com defines sport as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a
competitive nature“, notice that it is often competitive not that it must be competitive.
The reason I want to make it clear that I am not
just a WWE fan boy is that the article I have written to be my debut piece (other than reviews) in
this fantastic magazine (Editor's note: You already
have the job Neil, the sucking up can stop now) is
potentially quite controversial. For as long as I can
remember, WWE has had a reputation for their
18
talent being “larger than life”. The reason I have
used the bunny ears is that this cliché has come
to mean large, body builder types who can’t
wrestle as well as their independent counterparts.
Whether this is true or not will be covered later
but the point of this article is this; IF the reputation is true, why is it used almost exclusively in a
negative context? What is wrong with the WWE
wanting their world champion, in a supposed
contact sport, to look the part?
had to, and I mean HAD TO, who would you
rather faced in fight in your local pub Andre the
Giant or Daniel Bryan? I am approximately 6” tall
and 20stone and for me the choice is clear, despite
his reputation for being one of the best in-ring
workers of all time with a history in martial arts,
Daniel Bryan please (and if asked “are you sure”
my response would “Yes! Yes! Yes!”). I’m not
naïve enough to actually believe I would win in a
legitimate contest against the former World
Champion but I do think the can of whoop ass
that would inevitably be opened on me would be
significantly smaller than if I when nose-to-nipple
with the Eighth Wonder of the World. I have
asked several others this question and I am yet to
have anyone give me a different answer. I took
this a step further and asked which WWE champion in history would you most like to face in a
fight and which would you least? For me, I would
least like to face is the Undertaker (Brock Lesnar
was a very close second) and would be significantly less scared of someone the stature of Rey
Mysterio. With very few exceptions I received a
similar sort of feedback from the people I asked
with larger or more muscular wrestlers seemingly
being far scarier than their smaller counterparts.
Realistically this comes as little surprise, fundamentally human beings are animals and in the
animal kingdom it is incredibly rare for an animal
to attack another that is larger or heavier than
itself. With this in mind why do people criticise
Vince McMahon and the WWE for mainly promoting wrestlers who are mainly tall with a large
frame.
Like everyone who will read this article, I know
people who, whenever the topic of professional
wrestling is brought up, can’t get over the fact
that it’s “fake”. Like many of you I have tried to
explain that the bumps really happen, point to
Mankind falling from the cell in 1998 as examples of how “real” the pain these men and
women endure actually is. I have also compared
it to other forms of entertainment, the easiest
example being that someone who watches Coronation Street wouldn’t be criticised because it is
“fake”. I am always willing to get into a debate
about storylines that are unbelievable, poorly
executed angles or sloppy in-ring work and feel
that I am always able to articulate a counter argument and defend the sport I love. However,
trying to explain to change someone’s opinion of
wrestling being “fake” can often be the equivalent of banging your head against a brick wall. I
believe one of the reasons for this is that many
people, rightly or wrongly, believe that wrestlers
are, to quote my mam, “soft as clarts”. However,
if we go back to pro wrestling’s origins in the
early 20th Century, when it was believed to be a
genuine athletic contest, this was almost definitely not the case. Early champions such as
George Hackenschmidt and Frank Gotch were
renowned for being able to hold off anyone who
would try (to use modern lexicon) go into business for themselves and attempt to go against
the agreed finish of the match. This was common place until as late as at least the 1970s legendary hard-men like Harley Race were entrusted to protect the NWA title from those who
may not follow the plan.
I’m sure if you ask the average man on the street
Now, I appreciate that I have moved slightly off
topic but I can return to my point; I believe that
for professional wrestling to be taken seriously it
helps if the men who are at the top of a company look like they could handle themselves in a
real brawl. Now ask yourself this question, if you
19
Many would argue that the first five are better
talkers than the second five and, although this is
a difficult point to disagree with, I would place
CM Punk higher on a list of all-time talkers that
Ultimate Warrior so this doesn’t necessarily
stand to reason.
Many will also argue that, naturally, those wrestling for the largest wrestling organisation in the
world would be more well known that those that
spent the majority of their career in small independent companies. This appears to be a strange
argument as almost every wrestler wants to be
part of the WWE and have their WrestleMania
moment, so given the chance they would prefer
to join the WWE than stay in the indies. Stories
of wrestlers turning down the WWE are few and
far between. My counter to that argument to that
is to use CM Punk for a direct comparison
against The Ultimate Warrior. Ultimate Warrior
spent approximately six years employed by the
WWE (then WWF) over three separate spells,
with the most recent being in 1996 (I feel old).
In comparison CM Punk has been employed
since 2005 and made his TV debut back in 2006
in ECW. Strange as it sounds, CM Punk has
spent more time employed by WWE than The
Ultimate Warrior, has held the WWE Championship longer than The Warrior (462 days versus
Warrior's 292 days) and, despite proclaiming
himself as “The Best In The World”, it is safe to
say that he is far less well known to the average
person than The Warrior. So why is it that almost two decades after appearing for the WWE
The Ultimate Warrior is still better know across
the world than CM Punk despite being less of a
technician, and less acclaimed on the microphone?
to name a wrestler they are far more likely to
name someone from the WWE (such as Hulk
Hogan, The Undertaker or The Rock) than they
are to name Kevin Steen, Colt Cabana or Adam
Pearce. I think it is also more likely that someone
would name The Ultimate Warrior or “Stone
Cold” Steve Austin before they named current
WWE superstars like CM Punk or Daniel Bryan.
So why is it that someone that hasn’t wrestled a
meaningful match in years is better known than
someone who wrestlers on a regular basis? Many
would argue that the Steen, Cabana, Pearce,
Punk and Bryan are better technicians than their
better known counterparts (and I would agree
wholeheartedly). Let’s explore this point; the
WWE is a business and, to paraphrase Triple H,
they want “what’s best for business”. Therefore
it stands to reason that if people want to see
great technicians then they would pay to see
them, and if more people want to pay then the
WWE would offer this so they can capitalise on
the demand and supply this to their audience
(Economics 101). So, the fact that this isn’t what
they are renowned for offering their customers
suggests that there is more to becoming a wrestling superstar than being a technician.
To me the answer appears to be obvious, and I
will try to be as succinct, professional and concise as I can when I give my explanation. Simply
put, the man was HUGE. Whether he achieved
his physique naturally or with the help of additional substances (It is well documented on YouTube that he admits to using, but not abusing,
anabolic steroids) the fact remains that he had a
cartoonlike appearance which was a huge reason
for him being pushed over stars of the time. I
think it is a fairly safe bet that if The Ultimate
Warrior and CM Punk had each other’s physique
then Wrestlemania 6 would have been headlined
20
by a different match and CM Punk wouldn’t
have had to wait as long to graduate to the main
Smackdown/Raw roster.
the WWE themselves are aware that many wrestling fans are not as fanatical of their product in
2014 as they once were however they are undoubtedly the largest wrestling company in the
world, the preferred destination of almost every
wrestler to ever lace up a pair of boots and are so
financially secure it is impossible for me to imagine any of that changing in the near or distant
future. Rather than criticise the WWE for pushing the type of wrestler that dwarves the average
man and let’s praise them for consistently being
the best wrestling organisation in the world with
more fans than any other. Like it or loathe it,
history has shown that the WWE know how to
be successful with their style and method and,
unless the majority of the viewing public change
their preference, this is unlikely to change in the
next 50 years.
CM Punk and Daniel Bryan have proven, like
other before them, that if a performer is talented
enough and has a supporter behind the scenes, a
loud enough fan base and/or some luck on their
side then WWE will push smaller wrestlers, if
they feel that they will be able to sell enough
tickets and merchandise. Again, WWE are a
business and no business doesn’t want to be
successful.
The problem is that, history tells us that this is
unlikely to change. If we look back at WWE
champions over their history it is clear that, going all the way back to the second holder of the
championship Bruno Sammartino, the belt has
been held by men of above average height and
build. The lineage of the title can be traced
through behemoths such the aforementioned
“Superstar” Billy Graham, Hulk Hogan, Yokozuna and Batista among others. It is also well
documented that when the WWF bucked this
trend in the early 1990s (after the steroid scandal
that forced them to introduce testing for anabolic steroids) they saw one of the worst periods
in their history for ratings and show attendances
despite the era being headlined by legends such
as “The Heart Break Kid” Shawn Michaels and
Bret “The Hitman” Hart (Hart’s first PPV title
defence against Michael’s at Survivor Series ‘92
had a PPV buyrate of 1.4 which was the lowest
Survivor Series total at the time). It appears that
historically more people will pay to see large men
pretending to beat each other up than smaller
men do the same so the WWE inevitably go
back to their tried and tested formula.
Neil Rogers
The Daniel Bryan and Bret Hart portraits
were pained by the super-talented Gemma
of GH Portraits. Gemma’s passion for pro
wresting is obvious from some of the masterpieces she has painted, including a
wonderful portrait of The Undertaker’s
WrestleMania 29 entrance for our office.
You can check out more of her work over
on her Facebook page by searching “GH
Portraits” and on Twitter @GHPortraits
Gemma currently take commissions, wrestling related or otherwise, so please get in
touch with her via social media to place
your order, see her work or just to stop by
and say hello.
This phenomenon isn’t exclusive to professional
wrestling either; the most famous boxing
matches and boxers, until recently, were almost
always involving heavyweights than their lighter
counterparts. Despite being second (to “Sugar”
Ray Robinson) in ESPN’s list of all time great
fighters, Muhammad Ali won BBC’s Sports Personality of the Century and is without a doubt
one of the best known and beloved sportsmen
of all time.
In summary, I appreciate that not everyone is a
fan of the WWE style/ethos and I believe that
21
Photo copyright of Alix McMurdo Photography. Used with owner’s permission. Face-
22
23
Oh Shit Its Vince Russo
by Kevin Mahon
Vince Russo. Vinny Ru. Vic Venom. Cornette’s kryptonite. Captain Swerve. Tank Abott’s
advocate. These are but some of the names (made up or otherwise) for the most polarising and controversial figure in wrestling since the mid 90s. Who’d have thought all those
years ago, that the guy who was giving us the inside skinny in Raw magazine and
“shooting” on Dok Hendrix on Livewire would become ingrained in every smart fans
mind for years to come? I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed with the man, and unlike many fans,
I wouldn’t say I hate him either. He’s done two books, countless lengthy shoot interviews, a timeline with Kayfabe Commentaries and even a live Q&A that was broadcast on
iPPV. And yet still in my mind, the man is a mystery. It takes a certain combination of
personality, success and failure to be so overly exposed in the world of wrestling like
Vince Russo is and still be viewed as “polarising”. Surely by now we’ve enough evidence
to say whether he is indeed a genius, Satan himself ( - Jim Cornette quote, probably) or
somewhere in between? I’m going to attempt to answer that now.
Like many fans who grew up during the Attitude
Era and lived in my house (so me and my
brother basically), access to “insider info” was
limited. The closest thing I got to dirt-sheets was
stories of my older sibling accessing WWF.com
in his school’s computer lab. I thought 200x200
pixel photos of the Big Bossman standing in
front of a blue background was about as much
dirt an average fan could hope to muster together. But then in late 1999, a truly significant
moment came, as Mick Foley released “Have a
Nice Day!”. For me, this was my first exposure
to a vast majority of terms, history and personalities. At the ripe age of 11, I finally knew what a
face was, what a heel was, what a Bill Watts was
and most importantly, what a Vince Russo was.
The revelation that wrestling was scripted was
nothing new, and therefore not a revelation, but
the revelation that wrestling currently had writers
was something that actually warranted the use of
the term revelation. I was soon enthralled by this
Vince Russo character. Initially I thought it was a
misspelling, and that Mick surely had meant to
write “Vince McMahon”? Surely no-one else in
the WWF would have the balls to also have the
name as the chairman? For many more internetless years, Vinny Ru would remain a mysterious
figure. 'Beyond the Mat' finally gave me a
glimpse of the man. Rumblings from my brothers internet savvy friends in early 2000 about his
role in making WCW “woefully shite” made me
doubt the man’s credibility. I thought he “wrote”
the shows I loved? My friends and I all mutually
agreed that he wrote the show. Therefore he
wrote the promos, the matches, the spots, the
24
finishes and everything in between? WHO WAS
THIS MAN?
integral as I initially thought to the success of the
Attitude Era, but by 2009/2010, I started to get
the feeling that Vince Russo was now a whipping
boy, a man whom it was your duty as a wrestling
fan to despise. Youtube became a larger part of
my life, and along with it came a trebuchet of
regular updates on the like of Jim Cornette and
every swinging dick with a podcast/radio show. I
started to question my stance. When I came
across fans at a small family show at Leisure
Land in Galway trying to get a FIRE RUSSO
chant going as Gangrel battled Heidenreich (5
stars) I started to realised what had happened.
The poor man was a caricature. He was a chant,
a punchline, a topic to bring up in wrestling conversations that were getting boring. Reading up
the lengthy history of problems in WCW, I soon
started to question that Vince Russo even killed
that company singlehandedly during his nine
months there! I WAS GOING ROGUE.
As soon as I became pubic, I gained steady access online and soon became a frequent visitor
of multiple dirt sheet sites. Soaking up all the
opinions disguised as news, wrapped up in a
false promise of nude photos of Terri Runnels, I
soon concluded that Vince Russo was a charlatan, a fraud, an idiot, a liar, a cheat, a scam…. a
no good SON OF A BITCH. It now all seemed
so obvious. Details of preposterous angles in
WCW on sites like WrestleCrap, a mystique busting breakdown of Russo’s supposed inability to
write without Vince McMahon in “Foley is
Good” and the realisation that the likes of Steve
Austin, The Rock and Mankind were extensions
of real life personalities as opposed to
“characters” made me wonder why I ever
thought the man had anything to do with my
beloved Attitude Era. Maybe all the stuff I enjoyed, like the intense feuds, the overarching
storylines and the in-your-face characters was
nothing to do with Vin-man? Maybe instead he
was in charge of all the stuff I had disliked, like
the stories that went nowhere or the failed attempts at comedy? The internet seemed to want
me to agree with them.
Reliving the Attitude Era through our wee podcast, I have regained a lot of my original respect
and admiration for Vince Russo. Something
you’ll frequently hear us say on shows we review,
even when it seems during our recap we’re
Another chastising moment came with the release of “The Wrestling Channel” in the UK.
Starting in 2003, it was my first exposure to Indy
Wrestling, and also a start-up company called
TNA, where the most of the passengers of the
“Plane ride from Hell” seemed to be working.
This was the first time I saw Vince Russo as an
on screen character. And good lord it was hideous. I knew enough at this stage to distinguish
between heel heat and someone being simply
unwatchable, but good lord, Vince Russo and his
S.E.X faction from the early TNA PPV days had
to be some of the worst crap I’d ever seen. Tedious, lengthy “shoot” promos. Liberal usage of
insider terms to no effect. Name dropping for
no reason. I had decided. This man was a fraud
and had nothing to contribute to the product I
had loved. He was, as Ric Flair once so eloquently put it, “a fucking magazine writer”.
Years passed. And as the chants of “Fire Russo”
became as overheard on TNA shows as “This is
Awesome” chants, I found myself feeling sorry
for Captain Swerve. Okay, I get it, he wasn’t as
25
ever been accused of.
For my money, if anything, Vince Russo was a
man who, if nothing else, managed for a brief
moment to convince Vince McMahon to try
something else. He’s a guy who was able to see
the benefit of adding vehicles to Steve Austin’s
segments. He’s a guy who gave everyone, from
Marc Mero to Undertaker, a full story with a
beginning middle and end, all year round. I have
written in this 'zine before about WWE whitewashing the Attitude Era. Don’t believe the
hype, Vince Russo certainly was more of an
“architect of the Attitude Era” than HHH ever
was. And if you need proof? Just watch an Attitude Era show. You’ll see Dennis Knight in a sex
dungeon and break out in a smile.
Kevin Mahon.
You can catch Kevin, Adam Bibalo and
Billy Keable on their genuinely fantastic
Attitude Era Podcast, available on iTunes,
SoundCloud, Botchamania.com and anywhere else that does Podcasts. It is superb
and you should listen to it. With so many
wrestling 'casts available in 2014, you need
to do something special to stand out from
the pack, and these gentlemen do that
with their (actually) witty banter and obscure Frasier references. Check them out
at Facebook.com/AttitudeEraPodcast or
on Twitter @AEPodcast.
having an awful time, is that “I was never bored”
or “It kept my attention”. Did Vince Russo create the Attitude Era? Of course not. But he’s
never really claimed that has he? Only bitter
WCW employees seem to claim that he said that.
Did Vince Russo come up with a lot of ideas
that missed the mark? Of course he did. But
guess what? So did Paul Heyman. So did Vince
McMahon during the 80s. He’s a product of his
time. How come people now wistfully remember
Bill Watts as being this innovator who pioneered
a new approach to wrestling when discussing
Mid South but seem to ignore his disastrous
early 90s tenure in WCW? Why is it that most
wrestling bookers and writers, from Dusty Rhodes to the almighty Vince McMahon are judged
on their successes instead of their failures? Isn’t
Vince Russo’s “successful period” one of the
most financially lucrative times in the history of
wrestling? Why does he get judged and remembered for nine months in WCW and a tenure in
TNA where frankly, nothing was working? It’s
probably his accent. It’s probably because he has
the misfortune of having the single most entertaining detractor in the history of criticism Jim
Cornette. It’s probably his frankly awful habit of
not remembering the details of anything bad he’s
26
Two Pound Wrestling
Survivor Series 2004
£2 Wrestling is a new feature here at Calling Spots, scouring the nation's bargain buckets
and second hand shops in search of, you guessed it, pro wrestling at a cost of £2 or less.
For this issue, a wander through Durham and a stop in Grainger Games produced Survivor Series 2004, a show I missed at the time due to it taking place during my 03-06 wrestling hiatus. Was it worth the two British pounds I spent on it? Let's see...
The show kicks off with a pretty great video
package, accompanied by what sounds like a
song by Saliva (aka WWE's go-to PPV theme
band in the post-Limp Bizkit era). Turns out it
was actually by a band called "The Exies". The
opener sees Spike Dudley defend his cruiserweight title in a four way featuring Chavo Guerrero, a still-able-to-jump-out-of-the-stage-in-hisentrance Rey Mysterio and a short haired, nonjean short wearing Billy Kidman that looks absolutely nothing like the Billy Kidman I idolised as
an eight year old Filthy Animals fan. I can't concentrate on the first few minutes as I'm still trying to deal with the revelation of what Vince
McMahon did to my second favourite wrestler
while I wasn't watching. I tune back in to Rey
hitting him with a crazy headscissors from the
apron to the floor that gets a non PG chant of
appreciation. The whole match is pretty much
the Rey Mysterio show, with him flying around
and bumping like only he could at the time (in
that company, at least), though the other three
do pull off an impressive electric chair
drop/superplex spot. Rey counters Spike's Dudley Dog into the only 619 setup in history that
actually made sense, but the finish saw Spike
steal a victory after Kidman took out Chavo and
Rey wiped himself and his fellow Filthy Animals
alumni out. A pretty great opener, all the fast
paced high flying one would usually associate
with the first hour of Nitro, the kind of thing
that makes me agree with people who say WWE
27
parently it was promotion for WrestleMania 21,
somehow. Since it was in Hollywood I guess
they could have been planning a shot for shot
remake of WrestleMania 14 rather than coming
up with an original idea. Of course, it actually
turned out to be the night Batista and John Cena
rose to the upper echelons, I'll let you decide
which would have been the better route.
should bring the cruiserweight division back.
Next up…HEIDENREICH. Oh dear. He tells
Paul Heyman to go get his jacket, before an awfully grunt filled face off with Snitsky, who informs him that he's a fan of his poetry. Just as I
start to laugh, caught off guard in a good way,
Heidenreich responds with "I like what you do
to babies." WHAT?! I bust out a google search
that I knew I'd regret, and learn all about the
time when Snitsky caused Lita to have a miscarriage and punted a baby (doll) into the crowd.
Ugh. Even more shocking is that the clip I found
was part of a recent DVD release - "OMG! The
top 50 incidents in WWE history". This beats
Katie Vick as the thing WWE should really just
pretend never happened. Going PG was the best
thing this company and its clearly insane writers
ever did.
Shelton Benjamin comes out to defend his Intercontinental title and try to convince me that
becoming a wrestling fan wasn't the worst decision I ever made. Christian is his challenger.
They wrestle and it's great. How Shelton didn't
replace Kurt Angle as the world title picture's
resident super worker I'll never know. He fights
off repeated interference from Christian's buddy
Tomko and counters the Unprettier into a TBone Suplex for the win, looking awesome all
the way through. My faith in wrestling is somewhat restored.
A loaded traditional Survivor Series match kicks
off and it's clear even throughout everyone else's
entrances (Eddie Guerrero, Rob Van Dam, Big
Show, Kurt Angle and his cronies) that John
"only person the commentators are talking
about" Cena is the next big thing. He comes out
so full of fire over something Carlito and his
buddy Jesús did that they jump in their car and
flee the arena. In time this would prove to be a
recurring tactic of Cena's foes. The match was a
good time, standard super babyface elimination
formula with only RVD dropping a fall on their
team.
Maven interview time! I had no idea he was still
around at this point. He gets attacked
by…Snitsky. Just when I was starting to like
wrestling again. Maven bleeds and I feel bad for
him blading just to get SNITSKY, of all people,
over. We segway straight into the Undertaker/Heidenreich hype video. For one of the
most respected and revered performers in the
history of the industry, it's remarkable how
much garbage Taker has been saddled with in
Meanwhile, backstage, Kurt Angle lambasts
Edge about stuff from his book (which I've
read!). Kurt walks into Eugene and I realise that
this show is going to be a three hour cycle of
something great directly followed by something
terrible. This theory is immediately proven as it
gets great again with a random replay of Stone
Cold beating Shawn Michaels for the title!? ApVisit CallingSpots.com
28
his time. Heidenreich makes his entrance and I
immediately forgive him for everything on account of his brilliantly ridiculous music ("HEIDEN. HEIDENREICH. HEI. DEN.
REICH."). During Taker's walk down the aisle
there's a close up of someone holding a lighter,
not entirely sure whether it's a fan or just a really
low budget version of his druid entrance.
Orton-less Evolution have one of those "Triple
H really isn't picking up the hints that Batista is
turning on him soon" chats backstage. Orton's
super babyface entrance is the first thing to have
me laughing, a far cry from his still-generally-abad-dude face persona of 2010-14. The heel
team of Evolution plus Edge and Snitsky are
solid, but the their opponents (Orton, Benoit
and Jericho) lack the fire to create anything special for much of the match. The early highlight is
actually the bloody Maven's run in to exact revenge on Snitsky, as it turns out that attack earlier in the show did actually serve a purpose. The
finishing stretch was great though, the crowd lit
up as Edge accidentally speared HHH and left
himself prone for an RKO, before Randy took
out the champion as well. The close made it look
like there was some ace potential for face Orton,
but I guess the powers that be weren't so sure as
he turned back heel shortly after.
Referee Brian Hebner's sell of an Undertaker
glare (he pretty much dived out of the ring) is an
early highlight. Pretty much the only highlight
actually. Heidenreich's breathy and weird persona goes out the window when he enters the
ring, dissolving into a generic, dull and generally
un-entertaining foil for the Deadman. It's a perfectly acceptable mid card match really, but in
the age of Undertaker's annual sure-fire classics
it's kind of strange going back and watching him
plough through such mediocrity.
Trish vs Lita for the women's title next! This
should be…oh no, the feud spawned from the
Snitsky induced miscarriage storyline. Not good
times. Even without Snitsky in the pre-match
video it's still pretty tasteless, but Trish really
went there with the heel jibes and it did actually
get me pretty hyped for the fight. "Fight" turned
out to be a pretty accurate description, as Lita
just trashed the champion, getting DQ'd after
hitting her with a chair. Trish was left bloody, an
extremely rare and quite shocking sight for a
Divas match, even back then.
The Survivor Series matches were decent, worth
checking out if you're a Cena or Orton completist, Shelton vs Christian was good, but the
opening cruiserweight four way was the clear
highlight and the only match I'm likely to watch
again. The show took a turn for the flat around
the time Heidenreich wrestled and it didn't really
pick back up until the closing minutes, save for a
fiery Trish/Lita performance. The DVD extras
include a backstage confrontation between
champions Triple H and JBL, as well as the
Cena/Carlito US title match which was booked
on the PPV. Overall, it was fun looking back at a
period of WWE which I missed, Snitsky and
Heidenreich awfulness aside, so...
Backstage, GM Teddy Long informs Cena that
he'll be able to get his hands on Carlito at the
next episode of Smackdown. It's easy to forget
the regularity with which Cena used to say the
word "yo".
Verdict: £2 well spent
Lee Goodfellow
Booker T's challenge for JBL's WWE title just
doesn't feel like a huge occasion. I guess late
2004 was an experimental time for top flight
babyfaces, since the rise of Benoit and Eddie
across No Way Out and WrestleMania hadn't
quite filled the Lesnar and Goldberg shaped void
(which itself hadn't really filled the Rock and
Austin shaped void). By this point they would
have settled on Cena and Batista as the next top
guys, but those seeds were still being planted. An
unremarkable match except for a hilarious Josh
Matthews run in, which actually got the biggest
pop of the whole thing. They were wise not to
give this the main event spot.
29
Distributor: Tidal International Pro Wrestling
Price: DVD £10 Blu-ray £12
Link: www.tcwrestling.bigcartel.com
Having attended the Darlington leg of the debuting
Tidal International Pro Wrestling 2013 tour, I
genuinely looked forward to being able to review
the 'Tidal Wave Tour2013' DVD. The show was
filmed in The Cockpit, a famous bar and music
venue in Leeds; one that is very different to the
family-friendly leisure centres that had hosted other
legs of the tour. As a man who likes his Britwrestling gritty and grimy, that suits me just nicely.
For their debut tour, Tidal imported ROH World
Champion Adam Cole, Chuck Taylor as well as the
world's most famous independent wrestler - Colt
Cabana - to work alongside some of our country's
brightest and best.
The DVD's initial menu screen wins me over with a
cool montage package, interlaced with quick clips of
a ridiculously long suplex from Marty Scurll and
accompanied by the theme song from Pulp Fiction.
Things briefly get a bit shaky from here, literally, as
the bass from the sound system vibrates the hard
camera to the point that the DVD seem almost
unwatchable. My worries are soon alleviated when
it becomes apparent plenty of handheld cameras
being used, with the actual end product looking
very good.
The show in Darlington predominantly featured
comedy wrestling with less emphasis on technical in
-ring action; significantly more so than is to my
personal taste. Given then intimate venue and alcohol fuelled adult crowd at the DVD taping, I was
interested to see if they went in a different direction
here. The show kicks off with Party Mart Scurll taking on
The Lion Kid and it immediately becomes apparent that
there is going to be at least an element of comedy on show
in this match (a theme that, like Darlington, is apparent in
every match, albeit with different results) as Marty throws
a cheap mask on and becomes "Lion MAN". The curtain
jerker is easily the match of the night, and even one of the
best comedy matches I have watched in a very long time.
It may be the British satire or the crowd absolutely playing
their part in the entertainment, but this is a different class
to Colt's shtick in the main event. I like Colt, but this was
excellent! Marty Scurll is truly mastering his crowd interaction and this effort is a fine example, topped off by instigating the crowd to serenade Lion Kid with a rendition of
"the lion sleeps tonight" of Disney's 'The Lion King' fame.
The pop of the night however as to be accredited to referee Chris Roberts. After Lion Kid whipped Scurll into the
referee in error, Robert's natural reaction was to pick him
up for a scoop slam. Scurll took exception to this and
proceeded to push Roberts around, only for the referee to
tear his shirt off and deliver a Stone Cold Stunner. Brilliant.
We have a women's match followed by Adam Cole teaming up with his doppelganger - Mark Haskins - going up
against the always brilliant Project Ego. The match begins
as another comedy filled bout and good for some laughs.
Despite being very enjoyable watch, it is nice to see a
heavier emphasis on technical wrestling and strong style
finish to wrap up the contest. Following the interval 'The
Bastard' Dave Mastiff destroys a local wrestler called
Liam Lazarus. If you have never seen Mastiff in real life,
it's easiest to just say that you could not fight him. The
bloke is a beast.
The penultimate contest sees import 'Southern Gentleman' Chuck Taylor wrestle one of the UK's (Mexico's?)
finest, El Ligero. There is a shift in pace here as we are
treated to a fast paced in-ring contest. Our main event is
an interesting selection as Colt Cabana goes up against big
Rampage Brown. Despite having the comedy spots you
would expect from a Colt Cabana match, it is nice to see
him go toe-to-toe with Rampage in terms of taking and
dishing out some big, hard shots.
I have tried to keep the words 'PROGRESS Wrestling' out
of this review until the end, however parallels in terms of
the feel of the show and the vibe of the live crowd are
evident throughout. For anybody who has followed my
writing over the last two years (or reads the PROGRESS
Chapter Nine review in this very issue) will know how
high a regard I hold the London based promotion, so that
is absolutely a good thing. Indy wrestling should always
take place in a dark, smoky room with a bar near the ring,
so kudos to Tidal. This is the standout debut show of
2013 and I expect more great things in the future. Buy
this DVD, it's a solid 8.5/10.
- Richard Penaluna
30
Distributor: FremantleMedia.
Price: DVD £19.99 Blu-ray £22.99 (RRP is £29.99 & £34.99)
Link: www.WWEDVD.co.uk
Shawn Michaels - Mr WrestleMania is easily
one of the most apt names for a DVD set and
one that documents a body of work that deserves
to be re-lived time and again. Aside from The
Undertaker, there is no other name in WWE
history that is more synonymous with WrestleMania than Shawn Michaels. At WrestleMania 14,
as Michaels entered the arena for his WWF
Championship main event match with 'Stone
Cold' Steve Austin, Jim Ross proclaimed that
"Nobody has ever - EVER - outperformed Shawn
Michaels in a big match situation". Shawn
Michaels consistently put on show-stealing performances, on pro wrestling's grandest stage, over
a period of 21 years and every one of those
matches is captured on this set, with Shawn
Michaels himself offering his views on each.
In wrestling, especially in WWE, you have some
men who consistently put on top draw performances in the ring, as well as others who consistently wrestle big, marquee, money-matches. The
biggest argument for Shawn being the all-round
best ever is in his ability to consistently do both.
When you consider that he did this every day of
the week, peaking at each year's WrestleMania,
this DVD's list of matches is essentially a list of
must-see match after must-see match, including;
his perfect match at WrestleMania 25 against The
Undertaker, the innovative ladder match with
Razor Ramon (which was introduced by the ring
announcer with the line "In this match there are
no rules. You win by climbing the ladder..."), the emotional match that ended Ric Flair's WWE career and
even his early efforts as part of The Rockers as well as
spectacular bouts with Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho
once he returned from retirement. Although they are
massively outweighed by the great matches, there are
a couple of stinkers in the set to boot. Shawn's match
in 1998 with Steve Austin is hugely hampered by the
fact that Shawn was wrestling through an injury that
would take him almost five years to recover from. As
it was the match that started the era of Steve Austin, it
is still a hugely pivotal moment in WWE history. Likewise, despite its acclaim from so many sources, the
one-hour iron-man match against Bret Hart has to be
one of the most tedious displays of Shawn Michaels’
career and one that is painful to sit through again.
With that said, the entrance and his first ever WWF
championship win are still amazing moments, it's just
a shame about the hour in between where we have to
endure Bret Hart selling absolutely nothing.
The reality is that most of these epic matches are
going to be available elsewhere in the collection of
most WWE fans, but it's great to have a complete set
all in one place. The real added-value in this DVD set
lies in the new footage provided, in which Shawn
precedes each match by giving his thoughts on both
the match itself and how it came about. We get a nice
opening sequence where Shawn is watching back all
his matches on an iPad and it's great to have his insight along the journey. Shawn doesn't just dissect the
matches, far from it, instead covering such topics as
the mental impact of wrestling in 'the popcorn
spot' (the match straight after intermission) and his
decision to go back on his word to Marty Jannetty
when they had both told Vince they were leaving
(over a dispute with a payout) only for Shawn to uturn, leading to the infamous 'barbershop window'
angle. Shawn also addresses the rumours that he was
difficult to work with at times, saying "people feel like
I was incredibly unprofessional and a big pain in
(Vince McMahon's) backside to deal with. I have
never questioned that but I always did what he asked
me to and that's why 15 years later I am still here".
If you have a relatively small collection of WWE
DVDs then I urge you to buy this set. If you're an
ardent HBK fan then no doubt you will by this DVD
regardless of what this review says. If you're in between, then the question really is, are the less famous
matches and new footage worth buying this set for?
The answer to that is, probably not. Shawn Michaels
- Mr WrestleMania gets 7/10 from us because of
how good a stand-alone DVD it is.
31
- Richard Penaluna
Distributor: FremantleMedia.
Price: DVD £19.99 Blu-ray £22.99 (RRP is £29.99 & £34.99)
Link: www.WWEDVD.co.uk
Sport is all about opinions. This is especially true
of wrestling. Take the Iron-Man match between
Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart at Wrestlemania
XII, some people see this as a five star technical
master class put on by two all time greats while
others see it as a boring, overworked snooze fest.
With this in mind, it is worth noting that any
“best of” collection is always going to have its
fans along with its inevitable detractors. With that
being said, some of the matches selected for
WWE Best Pay-Per-View Matches 2013 beggars’ belief.
This three disc collection contains 17 matches in
chronological order. Disc one is by far the best of
the three. It starts with obvious choices such The
Rock versus CM Punk from the Royal Rumble,
which is a great bout despite the poor finish. That
is followed by a six-man tag team match between
John Cena, Sheamus and Ryback facing off
against The Shield at the Elimination Chamber
PPV. This is a good contest which helped establish the “Hounds of Justice” against three of the
company’s biggest stars (Ryback is SUPER over
her with the crowd chanting “Feed Me More”,
which makes you wonder what happened?). The
next two matches are The Undertaker and CM
Punk’s instant classic from Wrestlemania XXIX
and The Rock and John Cena from the same
show in the rematch of the “once in a lifetime”
encounter from the previous year’s event. The Rock is
probably the only wrestler who can say that every match
he was featured in was selected for a collection of best
matches from any given year.
Disc three contains six matches, the pick of which is the
seven-man Money in the Bank ladder match from the
PPV of the same name. All seven entrants (Fandango,
Dean Ambrose, Jack Swagger, Antonio Cesaro, Cody
Rhodes, Damien Sandow and Wade Barrett) work hard
and put together a memorable show which ends with
the 'Intellectual Saviour of the Masses' double crossing
his then-tag team partner to win the coveted prize. Surprisingly this disc contains three matches from Payback.
I can almost make peace with the powers-that-be including Kaitlyn against AJ Lee as this is the best Diva match
in recent memory, however the inclusion of the Triple
Threat between The Miz, Curtis Axle and Wade Barrett
is an odd choice as it has no big match feel and is far
from a 'best PPV' match.
Strangely, Summerslam (one of the best WWE PPVs of
the last ten years) only has two bouts compared to Payback’s three. These are Brock Lesnar versus CM Punk
and John Cena versus Daniel Bryan (including Randy
Orton’s surprise run-in at the end) both of which are
fantastic bouts and showcase very different aspects that
makes the WWE the world’s largest wrestling company
(sorry, I mean 'Entertainment company', my mistake).
Unfortunately these are followed up with contests between Rob van Dam versus Alberto Del Rio from Night
of Champions and Natalya versus. Naomi versus Brie
Bella from the same show. In my opinion neither would
be anywhere near any “best of” collection. It is slightly
redeemed by the emotional contest from Battleground
between The Shield and The Rhodes Dynasty which was
one of the year's feel good moments. The last two
matches are both from Hell in a Cell, the first is the bythe-numbers super-Cena win over Del Rio and the other
is the epic bout between Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan
with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. This
brilliant match is for the WWE title and the right to be
the "Face of WWE".
All in all, WWE Best Pay-Per-View Matches 2013 is
great for somebody whose collection does not already
contain other PPVs from 2013 but is probably a miss for
a hardcore fan. My rating is 6/10.
By the way, in my opinion, HBK versus The Hitman is
an all time classic…
- Neil Rogers
32
The main talking point of the show, and genuine shocking
moment, was the Jimmy Havok situation. Over the past two
years, Havok has built up a true friendship with PROGRESS co-founder Jim Smallman; a journey that started
with his #BookHavok Twitter campaign and eventually saw
him become the head trainer for PROGRESS' training
school. Due to an injury sustained the night before, Havok
was off the card for CH.9, being replaced by Tommy End,
who went on to have a very hard-hitting, slow-burning
match with 'The Bastard' Dave Mastiff. Despite his injury,
Smallman asked Havok to still attend the show and draw
the winner of a charity raffle during the interval. This would
prove to be a fateful mistake when Havok turned violently
on his friend. In his very explicit tirade, Havok explained
why he hates both Smallman and the PROGRESS fans.
This is how you do wrestling without a TV platform.
Distributor: PROGRESS Wrestling
Price: DVD £12 Download £10
Link: www.ProgressWrestling.com
Many people called PROGRESS Wrestling Chapter 9 - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kick Me, Kill Me the country's best wrestling show of 2013. Anybody
who has been keeping even slightly abreast of the
goings-on of the British wrestling circuit will know
that the fans of PROGRESS tend to be very loyal
and make a lot of noise about what they like, which
could explain such claims. However, anybody who
has seen any PROGRESS show will know how
capable they are of putting on a stellar performance
and such claims could easily be warranted.
I am not going to beat around the bush; make no
mistakes about it, PROGRESS Chapter 9 is a very,
very good wrestling show. However it must be said
that, somewhat unexpectedly given their track record, what makes this show great isn't the quality of
the matches themselves (although the in-ring action
here does range from reasonably solid to absolutely
breathtaking ) but rather the other developments that
took place. As an independent wrestling promoter, it
can be somewhat difficult to build storylines into
your product with any real success. After all, it's not
like they have three hours on Sky Sports every Monday night. Fans may be new to the product or not
able to catch every show. This is where PROGRESS
really excel. Having spent the past eight shows building up their ardent fan base, using social media with
huge success and putting on show-after-show of
fantastic wrestling; now they have a platform to do
things that other independent wrestling promotions
literally cannot do.
The headline match of the show saw Stixx taking on Nathan Cruz in a bout that both had been building very well
via back-and-forth YouTube videos, all of which are recapped on the DVD. Cruz's promo videos are exceptional
as he very passionately tells Stixx what he thinks of "indy
wrestlers" who pay for their own flights, take less pay and
ultimately cost professionals, like him, money. The two
have a solid match straight after the interval which, despite
not quite living up to the excellent build, seems a more
fitting headline bout than our main event of Rampage
Brown vs. Doug Williams for the former's PROGRESS
championship.
The in-ring highlight is without doubt the triple threat between Mark Haskins, Zack Sabre Jr and Ricochet, which is
summed up by Jim Smallman on commentary with the
following question; "Have you watched a better match than
this in Britain this year? Fuck off have you". Yes Jim, it was
quite splendid. As fast paced as you would expect from
these three and some nice three-way spots to boot. The
crowd are as exceptional as ever here, deafeningly booing
Haskin out of the building as he does his own introduction
and greeting every uppercut in the match with an "OOSH"
that Keith Lemon would be proud of. Elsewhere on the
card we see Paul Robinson take on Eddie Dennis in a semifinal of the 'Natural Progression Series' - the winner of
which gets a title shot - and a comedy tag match between
Project Ego and T-Bone taking on the Bhangra Knights
and a debuting mystery partner, who the crowd went wild
for (probably because he is the funniest person in wrestling
today).
PROGRESS Chapter 9 has a bit of everything and I'm
giving it 8/10. If you love the promotion then I'm sure you
will have this DVD/download already. If you don't then go
grab a copy and I'm confident you will love PROGRESS
after watching.
-
33
Richard Penaluna
The WWE influence
How one huge company impacted Ring of Honor
In a moment of unexpected modesty, WWE.com recently released a series of interviews
highlighting the huge, positive impact one small independent wrestling company has had
on the business of sports entertainment. That company was Ring of Honor. In the article,
WWE.com cites the impact as creating “a noticeable shift in the wrestling style and type of
stars that have risen to the top of WWE.” Following on from a conversation with Calling
Spots’ editor Richard Penaluna, I thought it would be interesting to see how former WWE
talent fared, when stepping through the ropes of Ring of Honor.
Eddie Guerrero (2002)
tled in ROH again.
On February 23, 2002 at the Murphy Recreational
Center in Philadelphia - just down the street from
the former ECW Arena - a new era of prowrestling was being born. This would be the first
ROH show, fittingly called The Era of Honor
Begins. On offer, in a converted basketball gym
with a ring in the middle would be Eddie Guerrero vs Super Crazy for the vacant IWA Intercontinental Championship. Commentators explained
that Eddie was ‘taking time out’ of the WWF due
to his problems with addiction and was using the
‘purity’ of ROH wrestling as part of his therapy. In
what was an impressive, back and forth match, full
of the technical chain wrestling you’d expect from
‘Latino Heat’, Guerrero lost to Super Crazy. Guerrero would return to the (newly named) WWE in
2002.
Raven (2003)
By the time Raven debuted in ROH in March of
2003, he’d already wrestled all over the world and
held numerous titles every promotion he’d worked
for - most notably in WWF, WCW and ECW. The
veteran Raven would enter into Ring of Honor’s
most well-known and loved feuds with a young
up-and-coming CM Punk. The feud centred
around Punk’s straight-edge lifestyle and how he
took exception to Raven’s life of excess and debauchery, comparing Raven to his own alcoholic
father. The two would face off in a ‘Raven’s
Rules’ match (essentially an ‘anything goes’ match)
with some pretty sweet spots, with CM Punk
working well with Raven to get the best in-ring
work we’d seen from Raven in years. CM Punk
credited Raven with being an enormous influence
in his character, and his overall ability in and out
the ring.
Jeff Hardy (2003)
Jeff Hardy debuted for ROH in 2003 at the Death
Before Dishonor pay-per-view in a triple threat
match against his ‘protégé’ Krazy K and Joey Matthews. However, it’s safe to say this wasn’t one of
ROH’s most eagerly anticipated debuts…
Matt Hardy (2005)
On the 11th of July, following a match between
Edge and Kane, Matt Hardy jumped Edge, took
Following comments from Hardy in his book that
he had ‘fallen out of love with the business’, the
crowd wanted to let him know exactly how they
felt. They did this by nearly tearing the roof off,
with a chorus of boos that met Hardy, even before
his music hit. With chants like ‘Fuck You, Hardy’,
‘You Got Fired’ and ‘We Want Matt’ being sung
by every person in the arena (aside from the 100
or so teenage girls that shrieked when he took his
shirt off.)
Hardy flipped off the crowd when he won the
match, which was sloppy at best and never wresVisit CallingSpots.com
34
the microphone and proclaimed, “WWE can kiss
my ass, watch me on Ring of Honor…. ROH!”
before getting tackled and handcuffed by WWE’s
security detail. Hardy then debuted in ROH a
week later facing off against Christopher Daniels.
The crowd seem to accept and be behind Hardy,
with the commentators making a point of saying
how much of a supporter he is of ROH on his
website, not to mention shouting down the microphone to the millions that watched RAW. That’s a
pretty direct sales approach!
Matt Hardy would go on to have two more ROH
matches in 2005, before a #YESmovement style
crowd reaction would see him return to WWE
where he would stay until 2010. Hardy has since
made a full time return to ROH where he has
been since 2012.
It seems that the transition from Ring of Honor to
the WWE for the current stars on the roster
(Bryan, Rollins, Cesaro etc.) has been for the better. Wrestling for the top prizes in the business,
making enormous sums of money and putting on
a show for tens of thousands of people every
week is the culmination of years of hard graft
through ROH and the WWE developmental systems. But I think the interesting story lies in what
the two different organizations represent within
wrestling.
public training sessions, full of merchandise, press
and distractions and takes him to a spit-andsawdust boxing gym to find that fire and regain
the ‘Eye of the Tiger.’ I think the same can be said
for the majority of people that left the Hollywood
rollercoaster of WWE for the simpler, more pure
of wrestling spirit Ring of Honor.
On the one hand you have the WWE: the big
leagues. A grand spectacle where pure wrestling is
given over to pure entertainment and focus on
revenue. A place where movie stars negotiate
multi-million dollar part-time contracts to boost
ratings and buy rates for pay-per-views. Where
putting what’s ‘best for business’ isn’t just a gimmick or an angle, but a frustrating reality.
This can be summed up in a quote from Eddie
Guerrero’s post-match promo, following his loss
to Super Crazy in ROH’s first show in 2002:
“Y’know, it’s not about angles, it’s not about
money, it’s not about who wants to be a bigger
star. Ring of Honor has to do with Honor, it’s got
to do with balls, man, balls up in that ring. I lost
tonight, that tells me I’ve got to get hungry again,
and Ring of Honor… this is where I wanna be.”
Ring of Honor is, by contrast, a wrestling promotion. It’s not Ring of Honor Entertainment, where
superstars come out with dancers over the top
pyro, or take part in pie-eating contests. It’s a
place where you go to watch good wrestlers, put
on good, technically sound wrestling matches.
I’ve only just started watching Ring of Honor
regularly, and it's because of ROH’s reputation of
a wrestling-first promotion, rather than a PGentertainment company. I think that that’s the
major influence the WWE has had on ROH. If
you haven’t already, please check it out. You can
watch all their weekly shows online for FREE
over at rohwrestling.com
Ring of Honor market themselves as ‘an alternative from the mainstream’, the fans chant ‘This is
wrestling”, and I think the former WWE stars that
go to ROH do so to fall back in love with wrestling.
In Rocky III - after Rocky’s manager, Mick, dies Apollo Creed takes Rocky out of the open-to-theFacebook.com/CallingSpots
Please let me know your thoughts.
Tweet me @mtthrdy
35
A wild night in Aichi
CIMA, Cyber Kong and the worst Dragon Gate match ever
In the four or five years I've been a Dragon Gate fan, there's been some good stuff. There's been
some great stuff. There's been some AWESOME stuff. But sometimes, I admit, there's been
some stuff that was a tad lacklustre. However, I don't think I've ever sat there and thought
"Wow, that was truly, utterly terrible", aside from when watching Mondai Ryu matches (which
are supposed to be that way). Two years ago (2012, for anyone who happens to be reading this in
the future), the annual May pay per view in Aichi, better known as DEAD OR ALIVE, was headlined by CIMA's Open The Dream Gate title defence against Cyber Kong. By all accounts, this
match was atrocious, so awful that the company icon CIMA actually broke kayfabe and apologised to the crowd afterwards. This thing catapulted into immediate infamy, but aside from a
select few, no one in the west ever saw it. For various reasons, it never made its way to us, seemingly destined to be talked about in hushed whispers, forever pondered by folks like me, wondering; could it really be that bad? Well, what we expected to be an eternal wait is over; the show
finally made it to the internet. Feed the dog, put the kids to bed, crack open a beer, order a pizza
and sit back; it's time to watch the worst Dragon Gate match ever. Lets set the scene...
Final Gate 2011, the 'Empire Strikes Back' of the
Blood Warriors/Junction Three (JIII) feud; heel
CIMA's underlings all retained their titles while he
personally took the Dream Gate from the JIII hero
Mochizuki. It looked like a long road ahead for the
good guys, a glorious struggle to dethrone and defeat the evil Blood Warriors, most likely culminating
in the rise of a new ace taking CIMA down at Kobe
World. However the booking committee decided to
simultaneously pull the "Cyber Kong heel turn" and
"CIMA is the ace of the universe" clauses, by having
young Akira Tozawa enlist the exiled-from-thestable Kong in an insurrection against his leader,
taking Blood Warriors as his own while CIMA automatically turned babyface. Tozawa's Warriors deVisit CallingSpots.com
stroyed Junction Three in a "Unit Disbands" match
less than a month later. There were shades of Vince
Russo in the way they burned through a good seven
months worth of story in about five minutes, but
you know what? It was pretty awesome.
As mentioned, Kong had previously been booted
from Blood Warriors due to taking the pinfall in a
"Loser Leaves The Unit" match, which led him on
the downward spiral to jobberdom. After being fed
to American newcomer Uhaa Nation, Kong decided
to make a go of it with the good guys. Naturally,
most of Junction Three didn't trust him, dude had
turned heel on them little over half a year previously, but their leader had faith. Mochizuki took
36
Kong on as his new buddy, trying to help him
rebuild his reputation and career…which lasted
about a week until Kong turned heel again. With
his return to the Blood Warriors muscle role, he
was once again presented as a major threat, despite
the rebuilding angle being pretty much fast forwarded through. Tozawa rechristened Blood Warriors as 'Mad Blankey', Kong won a 'CIMA Royale'
to become number one contender, and the stage
was set.
apparently deciding to try and turn this mess into
some resemblance of a pro wrestling match.
An awful botched powerbomb from Kong aside,
the finishing stretch that followed was sort of ok,
but the damage had been done. Two Meteoras saw
CIMA retain the title, then take to the mic to berate Kong and apologise to the people of Aichi.
He said the match wasn't worthy of the Dream
Gate title, let alone a pay per view main event, and
told Kong to get out of his ring and go back to
just being a second for important matches.
'Dead Or Alive' had a pretty damn good undercard; future Milennials - Eita Kobayashi and
Tomahawk T.T (in his imposter "Naoki Tanizaki"
guise) - had a brutal chop battle. The Jimmyz
clung on to the Twin Gate despite a fierce effort
from the veterans MochiFujii, Ricochet and
Dragon Kid tore it up in a match that saw the
latter bust out his first Dragonrana in years to
capture the Brave Gate, before World-1 bested the
Jimmyz in a high octane Triangle Gate show
stealer that was so typical of the now classic
PAC/Doi/Yoshino trio. CIMA and Kong had
quite a lot to top. Entrances were made, Kong
accompanied by his full Mad Blankey entourage,
CIMA alone with his awesome big match entrance
(complete with pyro and an orchestral intro to
"Me Gusta Cola"). The bell rang, and the soon to
be infamous match was underway.
Well…it lived up (or down) to the hype. CIMA
can blame Kong all he wants for that disaster, the
challenger's opening was weak for sure, but it was
his reactions to it that totally derailed the thing.
Kong may not be the world's best worker, but you
only have to look back to summer 2011 to see
Mochizuki carrying him to an excellent main event
match. The year that followed saw CIMA hold on
to his Dream Gate again and again in far superior
matches, while Cyber Kong was sent straight on
the train to jobberville. He began to climb up the
card again in 2013, but it was purely in a supporting role, since that fateful night in Aichi he's only
had one upper card singles match make TV (which
he lost, of course).
Moral of the story? Don't book your most undependable wrestler in a pay per view main event,
and if you do, try and help him out instead of
picking your nose.
The initial lock up attempts saw Kong throwing
some comedic kicks at CIMA then laughing at
him, to which CIMA reacted by looking legitimately pissed off, more disinterested and unimpressed than angry, the way one would expect his
character to react. This was a recurring theme
throughout the match. Kong trolled CIMA some
more by leaving the ring for a drink while his buddies tripped the champion up, which led to an
awkward period where everyone stood around
looking like they didn't know what the hell they
were doing. CIMA went for a sudden single leg
takedown, leading to a weird exchange where
CIMA got on top of him and Kong ungracefully
rolled away to escape.
Check out Lee’s band - ZombieHater.
You can find out all about them over at
Facebook.com/ZombieHaterPunk
After some CIMA stomps on the outside, there
was a stretch of lame Kong dominance full of
weak strikes and a bucket of salt, during which the
champion stared blankly out at the crowd and
didn't react to any offence, other than to pick his
nose. Seriously. Ten or so painful-to-watch minutes rolled on, then CIMA just unloaded on Kong
out of nowhere. After this vicious and stifflooking assault, the champion fired up in the ring,
37
Image used with thanks to Tidal International Wrestling
Kris Travis Interview
By Nik Towers
Kristopher Travis is a man who went from being a solid hand on the British indy wrestling scene to a genuine standout during 2013. So much so in fact that when he joined us
for this interview it was fresh on the back of a tryout match with WWE during their UK
tour this past November. Kris Travis is a man who knows the sacrifice required to make it
in this business that we all love; travelling to the furthest corners of our shores ensuring
that he is on every show possible. From South Shields to Sittingbourne, from the biggest
indy shows in the country to the most obscure shows that only 30 people will ever see;
Kris wants his name everywhere and will do whatever he needs to do to ensure that happens. He has received much acclaim for his accomplishments with his tag-team partner
in Project Ego - Martin Kirby - but more recently has stood out as a star in his own right.
A particular highlight of the year for Kris had to be his wars he had with both Chris Masters and Kevin Steen; arguably two of the bigger imports the UK had last year. With a
wonderful résumé already, Kris Travis seems destined for a bright future.
Hi Kris. Thanks joining us today mate.
Let's get straight into it; for anybody who
doesn't follow the British scene, can you
tell us who Kris Travis is?
Towards the end of last year it seemed like
everywhere I looked online you were being
awarded with UK wrestler of the year. How
has 2013 been for you?
Kris Travis the wrestler is a cocky, arrogant guy
who will do anything to get the job done. I go
out there every single night and strive to have
the single best match that the crowd have ever
witnessed. Backstage I like to think I'm a guy
the younger guys come to for advice and the
guy promoters can rely on.
Professionally I was really happy with 2013. I
had a lot of matches that I am extremely proud
of, probably my best in ring career to date.
Although I say this; I think I only gave 70% of
my actual efforts to wrestling. Personal issues
got in the way. So if that was me at 70% I'm
hoping that this year I can put 100% in and
38
really make something of myself.
with the title this year?
If that was 70% I think we'll all be looking
forward to the next 30%. With so many
professional wrestlers having their own
social media presence, it can be difficult to
buy into the legitimacy certain feuds when
people can see you all having banter with
each other on Facebook and Twitter. Ligero and Kirby overcame that with an immense feud in SWE last year. What are your
thoughts on the whole social media argument?
I'm not too fussed about wearing gold, as long
as I'm stealing the shows and up and down the
country then that's fine by me.
Million pound question; What's the next
step for British wrestling? How does it get
to the next level? We have some promotions now that should, in my opinion, be
considered amongst some of the best in the
world but often are not. What will take us
to the level?
British wrestling will only get to the next level
when promoters stop being marks for low level
imports and start putting the emphasis on the
British talent. I'm all for ex-WWE guys, but
when it becomes a random no-name import
who is presented as the star of the show then it
just makes us all appear inferior. It's bullshit
and if we don't, as a nation, value our home
talent then why should the fans?
Well myself and Kevin Steen overcame it too in
our PCW match, people genuinely thought he
hated me. I was the young up-and-comer who
was giving him grief on social media and everyone jumped on it. In my opinion, Twitter is the
future. Fans are smart to wrestling now so will
probably never buy into the whole 'two guys
hating one another' thing. But if wrestlers use it
correctly, and I am aware that I haven't always
myself, then social media is the way forward.
Great point and well said. I think the current fan base will continue to support British wrestling and hopefully all of you guys
will finally get to the level you deserve.
We've discussed this before off the record
but I'm still amazed that a promotion can
What was it like wrestling Steen? The guy
has got a massive reputation.
It was a great experience, watching some of his
work it was clear he was a hard hitting mofo so
I was nervous. But I always give as good as I
get and if someone is putting it in with me then
they has better expect it back tenfold. I think
Steen and I put on a really great match and it
was memorable by me taking a big flip spill to
the floor. It hurt like hell but looks amazing in
highlight packages. *laughs*
At the end of the day, that's what matters.
To quote white men can't jump, "rather
look good and lose than look bad and win".
Given his tweets recently; do you think
Lionheart will keep his word and give you a
PCW title shot?
I'm hoping that he keeps his word.....I love
wrestling Lionheart. He is one of the UK talents that really gets me to up my game. We
have stolen many shows with our matches and
especially our PCW stuff. His match against AJ
Styles should be something really special.
I've been following your feud and it has
been great watching it develop. Add the
PCW title into the mix and it should be
wild. Are you looking to get another run
39
sell a best of DVD or any merchandise of a
wrestler and not give the wrestler a cut of
the profit. What's your take on it?
of our 'zine that your tag team partner in
Project Ego real-life friend Martin Kirby
was essentially drooling over how great you
looked in your underpants. Do you have
any compliments you would like to pay
Martin in return on this prestigious platform?
Basically I think it's utter bullshit. The matches
are MY matches. It's a video of me. So for
anyone to tell me I can't use this footage sucks
and for anyone to make profit and share none
with me sucks even more. PCW sell Kris Travis
DVD's but they are the only official ones available right now. They give me a cut of the profits. Same with T Shirts. I have worked my ass
off for 11 years to get to where I am right now
so I've earned this. I've earned the right to
make cash from my popularity, nobody else
has.
He has a massive penis. Hashtag, #TrueStory.
*Laughs* I'm sure he will be loving this
when he reads it. If Kirby was to ever leave
Project Ego, who would replace him; Richard O'Brien, Patrick Stewart, John Malkovic, Andre Agassi or Dr Evil?
*Laughs* Andre Agassi? *laughs* With the
amount of tanning Kirby does these days then
the only person who could replace him would
be Chris Akabussi!!
Personally, l only buy 'best of' DVDs if I
know the guy is getting a cut. Right, last
question Kris and it's a tough one. I'm not
even sure if I should ask it. Are you an Austin guy or a Rock guy?
Get him to master the laugh and we're in!
Dude much love, it's been a blast, thank
you for joining us.
ALL about The Rock!
You can follow Kris on Twitter to find out
where he will pop up next @RealKrisTravis.
Image used with thanks to Brett Hadley
Good man. Before we wrap this up, you
may remember reading in a previous issue
40
Calling
Spots
Crossword
two
Answers will be available at CallingSpots.com
Across
2. Seth Rollins in RoH (5,5)
5. One of the lucha libre 'big three', movie star, WWE hall of famer
and man of a thousand masks (3,8)
7. The son of nWo founding member Scott Hall (4)
9. Author of the 'Holy Grail' (4,7)
12. Colt Cabana's WWE persona (6,7)
14. He may say he is 'the greatest' commentator 'in the history of
our sport' (4,9)
15. British wrestler who wants to take you out (5,6)
16. The Hitman's Scorpion Hold (12)
19. Popular genre of pro wrestling in Japan (8)
23. Acronym for hull based wrestling promotion (3)
25. Our first ever interviewee (4,3)
26. Steve Austin when managed by Ted DiBiase (3,10)
27. Pre-Horsemen, he battled Magnum TA over the US Championship (5,9)
29. The longest reigning PWG Champion as of January 2014 (4,4)
30. Ring of Honor's inaugural PPV (7,2,6)
31. The city location of WWE's Performance Center (7)
41
32. Won the NWA championship on TNA's first ever
show (3,8)
Down
1. WWE music composer (3,8)
3. Shows ran by PROGRESS Wrestling’s PROJO
trainees (5)
4. Famous wrestling convention (10)
6. The ninth wonder of the world (5)
8. The man that gravity forgot, pre-NXT (3)
10. WrestleMania 1 venue (7,6,6)
11. Jeff Jarrett may call you this in the year 2000 (4,4)
12. He only cares about his peaks and his freaks (5,7)
13. Forget who's next...who was first? (4,6)
17. Accused of having an affair with Bret Hart (5)
18. CHIKARA's 3-person accomplishment (4,2,5)
20. He invented crosswords (5,7)
21. He is a real mans man (7,5)
22. The inaugural WSX Champion (7)
24. WCW's B-show (7)
28. Ric Flair's belt (3,4)
Streaks
By James Musselwhite
Every year people buy WrestleMania, at least in part, on the strength of the Streak match
featuring everyone’s favourite Deadman, Dark Prince, American Badass and Conscience,
the Undertaker. Despite the mind numbing inevitability of the outcome, people spend
their hard earned cash to witness yet another strike on the twenty one bar gate, as the man
from Death Valley claims his annual victim. While this streak is impressive in it’s length, it
sits atop a gold mine of other, less famous lossless and in some cases, winless efforts from
years gone by. Here are just a few of the best, none of which have to rely on a cheap DQ
finish at Caesar's Palace against a giant in a Captain Caveman outfit.
the world his frankly supernatural sell of Van Dam’s
monkey flip.
Rob Van Dam – WrestleMania 4-0
Mr PPV lives up to his reputation with this effortless streak at the biggest Pay Per View of them all.
This is special because the original ‘Internet Darling’ should never have made it to the Grandest
Stage of them all. His formal introduction into
WWF programming came during the Invasion
angle where he, along with a selfless Jeff Hardy,
managed to get himself over with fans in a series of
breath-taking stunt-fests for the Hardcore Belt .
Unable to ignore Mr Monday Night, and with the
help of a rub from Steve Austin, Van Dam rose to
prominence on Raw, before a rub with HHH had
predictably detrimental effect.
Van Dam. Four matches, four wins, two titles, one
money in the bank contract, no losses, a remarkable
achievement for a true ECW original.
Jeff Hardy WrestleMania: 0-5 & Summerslam: 0-5
Yup…you read that right,. The Charismatic Enigma
has a grand total of 10 matches and zero wins at the
WWE’s two biggest shows. Admittedly a sizeable
Despite this, Van Dam’s WrestleMania debut was
an InterContinental Championship show opener
against William Regal. Those in attendance were
treated to a brilliant clash of styles as a Five Star
Frog Splash secured the gold. Win number two
came at WWE’s spiritual home, Madison Square
Garden, where he, along with Booker T, retained
their Tag team Gold in a four corners match. A title
encased in a briefcase that Van Dam claimed at
WrestleMania 22 as RVD beat five other competitors to the top of a ladder, both literally and metaphorically, claiming the moniker ‘Mr Money in The
Bank’. This contract would later be cashed, not at
the end of pay per view, or following a beatdown,
but with planning, forethought and a good old
fashioned challenge to John Cena at One Night
Only, a challenge that would elevate Van Dam to
WWE Champion status, before he smoked it all
away.
Finally, at WrestleMania 23, Van Dam dragged the
old school ECW Originals to a victory against the
new blood and Matt Striker in a near seven and a
half minute classic that frankly should have closed
the show, if only so Matt Striker can showcase to
42
portion of those of matches have been as part of a
tag team, so you can mainly blame his brother Matt.
You can also blame Matt for Jeff’s loss at WrestleMania 25, after he smashed his face into a steel
chair during their Extreme Rules match.
Hardy fares no better in the Summer, thanks to a
Tag Team turmoil mauling at the hands of the Acolytes in 1999, a TLC rematch with the Dudley’s &
Edge and Christian in 2000 and a brutal Ladder
match against RVD in 2001. An opening match
defeat to MVP in 2008 and failure to capture the
gold in a TLC match against CM Punk as part of
their brilliant feud leaves the high flyer with a big
old goose egg in his win column.
Lita - Survivor Series: 0-5
Jeff’s fellow member of Team Extreme, while revolutionising the role of women in wrestling and creating a whole new fan base almost singlehandedly,
totally sucked at Survivor series. A Bloody match
against Ivory in 2000 ended in defeat, as did the
following year’s six woman match for the vacant
belt. She stared at the lights for Molly Holly in
2003, and Trish Stratus beat, albeit via DQ in 2004.
Her final defeat, and final WWE match came in
2006 at the hands of the quite brilliant Mickie
James, who pinned her clean, before Cryme Time
made their way into the arena to conduct a little
“Ho-Sale” of Lita’s personal effects. Lita was gone,
but her winless record still stands.
Orton to seal a perfect record and his reputation as
the most giving performer in WWE history.
Sable – WrestleMania 3-0
Hulk Hogan – SummerSlam 6-0
Sable is amazing and mathematically at least 1/7th
as good at the Undertaker at WrestleMania. This
brilliant record stretches as far back as 1998, where
she won a mixed tag match with the remarkable
Marc Mero and bizarre Goldust & Luna. The following year she retained her Women’s title against a
cat who couldn’t wrestle, before taking a well
earned 5 year break. It’s hard to overstate the brutality of the Playboy Evening Gown Tag Team
match at WrestleMania 20. Suffice to say Sable
won again and with her undefeated streak intact she
was not only Queen of the Playboy cover but also
and the true Queen of WrestleMania.
It comes as little surprise that Hogan’s first 4 wins
came at the height of Hulkamania, mainly in tag
matches and largely in the main event.
What is more surprising however is the 14 year gap
between his win in 1991 and his victory in 2005, in
a bizarre comedy match against the Heartbreak Kid
Shawn Michaels. The Showstopper bumps around
like a kid on a bouncy castle who’s guzzled on too
much Coca-cola and Haribo, and it’s joy to watch.
The following year Hogan selflessly pinned the
company’s youngest ever WWE Champion Randy
Disclaimer (and all that business):
We here at the Calling Spots Fanzine are in no way affiliated with WWE, TNA, RoH or any other
wrestling promotion or entity. The views expressed in each segment, regardless of media type, are the
individual’s own and not that of Calling Spots. All the content you have enjoyed here is owned by
Calling Spots Fanzine contributors and has been used with their permission. Likewise, any content
found in these pages can only be used with the owner’s permission. None of the content of this fanzine is to be re-published online or anywhere else. Any queries, please contact us at:
[email protected]
43
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A Pro Wrestling FANZINE

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