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2017 UK DISCUSSION THREAD


RIPPA

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It is close enough to Jan 1 in the UK anyway so I start this thread.

This is for the non-WWE UK stuff.

The new World of Sport has started. UK Wrestling Twitter immediately starts bitching.

God save the Queen

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World of Sport has started... and finished. It was a one-off special. There's nothing confirmed as to whether it'll return or not. I hope it does though, as I said in the 2016 thread, the roster is much stronger than WWE-UK's is. I mean, having Rampage and Mastiff alone outclasses most everyone. Telling us that Grado vs Mastiff are the new versions of Daddy and Haystacks... in terms of telling the audience they're stars, that's fine. But in terms of them working, they're ten times the workers that Daddy and Haystacks were.

In terms of it being World of Sport, it really wasn't. It was American Wrestling with British Wrestlers. Gibson vs Ligero was the only match that even tried to be anything like WoS style (because of Gibson). World of Sport is rounds and public warnings, not backstage promos and pyro. I'm not saying it was bad, it wasn't bad, it was good. But it wasn't World of Sport.

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I haven't seen it yet (is it on catchup, anyone in the UK know?) but I just read this review:

 

Quote

Final thoughts: I’m thinking of buying a new sofa. But yeah, the ringwork was passable, though not representative of the quality the UK has to offer, and that’s a disappointment. More than that, however, the presentation and booking (such as it was) was largely an embarrassment. The idea to have one story throughout the two-hours is fine, but in most other respects this was everything I feared it would be and worse. To think Triple H organised a whole tournament as a response to Grado Making History™ – HAHAHAHA. That’ll get me through 2017.

Anyway, I’m back with a Wrestle Kingdom 11 preview on Monday and a review of the show on Wednesday. I’m wondering if it’s too late for New Japan to cancel, though, because they’ll never top this

Is that genuine enough? I heard Harry Smith debuted, if so i'd have put the strap on him (or number one contender) and pushed him to the moon as their face of the company. I've always been embarrassed terribly of English wrestling on prime time TV. It always just brings up memories of Big Daddy and really hokey English people talking (I guess i'm conditioned to smoother sounding American commentators) but i'm willing to give this a shot if it comes back on a regular basis. JR commentating i'm guessing would help.

Interesting side note, the discussion about WOS return came up among my older friends on New Years Eve (as it aired earlier in the day) and the secret got out that I was a pro wrestling fan. I was immediately met with the dated 'You know its all fake, don't you?' which I almost spit my drink out laughing. I don't know what was worse, hearing that question in 2016 (just) or that someone genuinely thought I didn't know. When I responsed with 'What's your favourite Christmas movie' "Die Hard" 'You know that's fake right' - apparently was enough to make them very angry.

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It is on catch-up, I saw it a bit later than shown yesterday. 

Some things I liked, some things I didn't like. Not too keen on all the crowd shots and the editing. But it looks like wrestling is going that way. It looked like more of a game show than a wrestling show. 

Having said that, they put in some effort with the staging and everything was well lit. The commentary from JR was good, although Alex Shane is a bit annoying. 

The wrestling itself was ok. I don't think it really showed what we've got over here at the moment. But if this leads to more shows, I'm sure they'll get the hang of it. 

In terms of booking, it made sense. It was supposed to be a one-off, so telling a story throughout the show was the right thing to do. 

All in all I think they have a good thing going here. Let's be honest, what do ITV have going on these days? They have plenty of air time to run a 60-90 minute wrestling show each week. I'll give it a watch. 

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The biggest thing to come from it is that British guys all look like stars which the British scene didn't have for years, even the old WoS dudes looked like mean old miserable buggers.

Im not sure the traditional WoS style would have worked at prime time on New Years Eve, ironically, the guy that could probably do that style the best is in WWE, the scoundrel.

Grado out to shine more here than in TNA, Mastiff just keeps getting bigger and badder. He looks like a tough son of a bitch.  Really like Samuels and Mossy as his stooges.

The tag match was the best thing on the show, Rampage is always fun to watch and the Coffey brothers are great as a team, I've only ever seen Joe in singles in ICW and Mark in his Polo promotions team.

Hope it gets picked up.

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WoS was weird. The show was split between legends talking up how great British wrestling used to be then cutting to current wrestlers aping WWE in-ring. I guess fans have been conditioned to want/expect that but I'd have put on a more athletic show with none of the call backs to the stuff that got them kicked off in the first place to really wow new viewers

And that was the worst ladder match I've ever seen

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I watched the World of Sport show earlier and I enjoyed it. Grado vs. Mastiff should be a fun feud. I'm not sure if I like this being an American version of World of Sport, but I guess we are way too far beyond to simply go back to the actual world of sport format of rounds for wrestling. The only complaint I have about the show is, I would hope they get out of that fake little arena set up they had. If they want to give it a more authentic feel they have to go to a real venue in the the future. I know it's easier to control things on a sound stage, but who knows. If this takes off...don't be like TNA. Try to make some money.

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Went to my first Attack/Fight Club Pro show last night (it was joint-branded between the two promotions) and had an absolute blast. Honestly not a weak bout on the card, and the main event of Moustache Mountain vs Pete Dunne & Dan Moloney was astonishing (and thats before they gave us a bonus 6 man tag match involving 2 refs competing and a member of the crowd being brought in to ref...). For guys I first saw as skinny kids (admittedly still having great matches) for Triple X, the evolution of Bate and Dunne has been a joy to watch

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On ‎1‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 6:25 AM, Adam said:

I  When I responsed with 'What's your favourite Christmas movie' "Die Hard" 'You know that's fake right' - apparently was enough to make them very angry.

Die Hard. It's still real to me, dangit.

 

Yeah, had to say it. To be on topic, how many shows will Progress likely run this year?

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They've announced 13 London dates, 4 Manchester & 2 Birmingham. There's also the 2 Freedom's Road tapings in March, the WrestleMania weekend shows, and a showcase in Germany. I'd expect a few more, too.

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This piece of news seems to have been completely lost in the shuffle yesterday:

Quote

Yet another TV player is getting in the pro wrestling business in Europe.

The big announcement this morning from Drew Galloway today is that Five Star Wrestling will be debuting on Spike TV in Great Britain starting with a live special on 1/28 from Dundee, Scotland for an event featuring Rey Mysterio Jr., John Morrison, Galloway, Carlito, Joe Coffey, Jay Lethal, PJ Black (Justin Gabriel), Nick Aldis (Magnus), Mark Haskins, Joe Hendry, Kid Fite, Jack Jester and Jimmy Havoc. Galloway also announced that Kurt Angle will be an announcer on the 1/28 broadcast.  Galloway made it clear in the announcement that the special would air over Spike TV (channel 5) in the UK, not streaming online.

Galloway also stated that the 1/28 broadcast is just the beginning as Spike has "commissioned a series for the largest tournament in the history of wrestling."  This would be the third TV product emanating from the UK in recent months following the ITV World of Sport pilot that aired on 12/31/16 and the WWE UK championship tournament, which is slated to kick off in just a few hours and is a precursor to a planned weekly series on the WWE Network.   There was no announcement as to when the series would air on the channel.

Spike TV's UK version launched in April 2015 and often features material exclusive for the British market that does not make its way over to the United States, including MMA promotion BAMMA.    It is not likely that the special or series would be broadcast here in the United States.

Tickets for the 1/28 Five Star Wrestling event in Dundee, Scotland can be purchased at www.5starwrestling.co.uk.

Credit: PWInsider

They are bringing in a lot of big names for this. I think it's safe to say this will be the third promotion, other than WOS and WCPW, that the WWEUK guys won't be allowed to work for.

Interesting that Mark Haskins is mentioned, though, since he was backstage at the UK tournament yesterday. Joe Coffey was also in the WOS special, so maybe at least those two won't be blocking guys from another.

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1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

Supposedly Matt Riddle wrestled Rampage Brown

I am giddy

For what it's worth I thought it never quite got going in the way you'd hope, but it was still Matt Riddle vs. Rampage Brown and had plenty of neat moments. Surprise Matt Riddle might be the best kind of surprise and the best kind of Matt Riddle! 

I was also at that ATTACK/Fight Club show the other week and had such a blast! The Fixxion Warehouse might be the best place to watch wrestling in the country, it's such a charming, intimate dive. And Moustache Mountain vs. Dunne/Moloney was outrageously good fun.

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They announced more than that already. There's only one more missing actually.

1. Cody Rhodes
2. Paul London
3. Matt Riddle
4. David Starr
5. Tyler Bate
6. Robert Dreissker
7. Ilja Dragunov
8. "Bad Bones"John Klinger
9. ACH
10. Timothy Thatcher
11. Koji Kanemoto
12. Marius Al-Ani
13. Mike Bailey
14. Will be determined between Jody Fleisch and Pete Dunne in London on 1/28
15. Winner of the 16 Carat Gold League
16. TBA

I wish I could go. That looks really fun.

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