Best of British IV - Futureshock Wrestling

In the fourth edition of Best of British, Marc Pearson puts his case forward for Futureshock Wrestling

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Do you ever do something in your life, and wonder how on earth you had never done it before? August 28th, 2011 was one of those times for me. Sitting in the 4th row in a small but beautiful hall, I watched two guys who I had never heard of put an absolutely brilliant wrestling match, and I was utterly hooked. 

In early 2011 I was at a crossroads in my life. Having been a wrestling fan my entire life I was at the point where I was bored of WWE, TNA and any other Wrestling company in the world. A friend of mine had been pestering me to go to a local Indy promotion called Futureshock Wrestling for a good 6 months and I always had a trusty excuse at hand - the fact that I couldn't get there. I live in the awful city of Stoke On Trent, Futureshock are based in South Manchester and while there is a big train station in Stockport I doubted that there would be a train after the show to get me home. That all changed when I passed my driving test in July 2011. No excuses now, eh? Well there was one, the very next Futureshock show featured SOME GUY called Davey Richards........and I already had plans. Very annoying to say the least. BUT, the show after that - Futureshock 53 - featured another NOBODY called Colt Cobana. I loved Colt's feud with Homicide so simply had to attend. I grabbed a fellow jaded wrestling fan and went to my first "Britwres" show!

The draw for Marc's first Brit-Wres show was Colt Cabana.

The 2 unknowns I mentioned at the top were Bubblegum and Jack Gallagher, nowadays 2 of my absolute favorite performers. That night I also saw The Models (Danny Hope & Joey Hayes), The Blackpool Blondes, Cyanide, Dave Rayne and Xander Cooper. All became firm favourites of mine. 

As a standalone show I had a really good time, and Colt was just as good as I hoped. We decided to go back for the next show and it was this one that really cemented my love for the company. I like storytelling in my wrestling, spots for spots sake or matches that happen JUST BECAUSE really get on my nerves. Futureshock have long term storylines, it wouldn't surprise me if they had a whole years worth of storyline planned out in advance. Everything makes sense, everything happens for a reason and I loved that, and still do. 

Current Futureshock Champion, Xander Cooper.

Futureshock became an obsession with me. I wanted everyone I knew to come and attend these amazing shows, to the point where all my friends had either heard of the company or been bullied/cajoled, threatened into coming to a show! Even better I became friends with loads of the guys who attended the show AND, even better than that, I became friends with some of the wrestlers, so I could pick their brains about the inner workings of the business, something I've always loved, things like WHY a match is happening or the thought process behind a heel turn. Things like that. 

Futureshock's core business is its training school. Because of this, you won't see a show loaded with imports or that many well known "Big Name" talents like at some companies. A lot of shows feature an unknown from the school making their debut and its really fulfilling seeing a talent expand and grow, all the while becoming more and more confident as they adjust to being in front of an audience. It's quite special to see a wrestler today and be able to say "I was there for his/her first match!" That's not to say that it's all trainees on the shows. Futureshock tends to bring one "name" wrestler in per show, which is great for us fans as we get to see talent from all over the country, men we wouldn't normally see. A great example of this was on their latest Underground show where Big Damo O'Connor debuted for the company in a show stealing performance against Jack Gallagher. Damo is a wrestler I'd heard great things about so it was amazing to see him in my "home" promotion.

Big Damo in his Futureshock debut against Jack Gallagher.

Futureshock opened my eyes to a world of Indy wrestling. Since 2011 I've attended well over 100 shows, all over the UK, from Morecombe to London and many places in between. Companies like PCW, Progress, Dragon Gate UK, House Of Pain, Fight Club: Pro, Infinite and so many more. Incredibly 2 companies (GPW and Great Bear Promotions) allowed me to achieve a lifelong dream by allowing me to commentate on their shows (I hated it, but that's another story for another time). I've seen so many talents that I never dreamed I would see, I met Terry Funk for goodness sake! And I owe it all to a little promotion based in Stockport who well and truly stole my heart. 

4 years later they are running 21 shows this year, across three venues, most of which are either almost full or sold out. They are home for me, and I implore anyone that maybe interested to give them a try, you will not regret it! 

You can learn more about Futureshock Wrestling from their website, Facebook, Twitter or Youtube pages. You can find more about Marc Pearson on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

Best of British III - WrestleZone

       This month's Best of British see's Over The Border writer Billy Strachan take a look at WrestleZone.

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      WrestleZone have been tearing up the North East of Scotland since 2008, with a strong and rabid fanbase along with steller wrestlers and guests, I'm here to throw their name into the hat to be called "Best of British".

I had gotten the independent wrestling bug in mid-2012 when I attended SWE Hell for Lycra IX and from then on I was on the hunt to see as many shows that I could afford…which wasn’t many but it allowed me to pick and choose events. When I saw that one of my favourite wrestlers (Billy Gunn) was coming to Aberdeen of all places, I had to get along to that!

Former WWE Intercontinental Champion Billy Gunn was the man that got Billy interested.

My first experience of WrestleZone was their fifth Aberdeen Anarchy event in 2013. Before this I had attended a couple SWE shows and a W3L event so had an idea what to expect from an independent event. The main drawing point for me was the special guests, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and Billy Gunn. When I got to the Beach Ballroom to watch the event though, wow, it was the wrestlers that made me want to come back. When you kick off the show in a sold out Ballroom with Bingo Ballance vs Stevie Xavier (www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOvAElvdRm4) you know you're in for a treat. What followed was a packed show top to bottom and that's what you expect when you come to a WrestleZone event. They have their "big events" like the Regal Rumble, Aberdeen Anarchy and Battle of the Nations but they also tour the North East in places like Ellon, Huntly and Fraserburgh so that everyone gets a chance to see their roster in action.

      Their core roster is full of talented individuals, with some just coming to prominence and debuting in other promotions. The characters are well thought out and fill the needs for every person that comes to an event from comedy acts like Mr Malice, Super Executioner and the Cystos to pure wrestling like Aspen Faith or just a hero for the crowd to pull for like Scotty Swift.

Scotty Swift is a big fan favourite at WrestleZone

      Their tag team division is currently home to three very good teams from the champions The Granite City Hotshots (Bryan Tucker and Shawn Johnson) to the odd couple team of Thunder Buddies (William Sterling and Blue Thunder) and the dangerous pairing of Revolution (Damien and Johnny Lions). Two of these teams put on a fantastic display at Aberdeen Anarchy in 2014 when Thunder Buddies and The Hotshots faced off in a ladder match. It was brutal but mesmerising with a well deserved standing ovation at the end for all four competitors.

       What impresses me about WrestleZone is their production, match graphics for every match, every event. Promos from their wrestlers are produced in plenty of time and their own podcast answers any questions fans may have about the product. They excel in fan interaction and getting people involved.

An example of WrestleZone's recent match graphics.

        I went to their Regal Rumble event which saw Jack Jester win the annual battle royal to face the champion at Aberdeen Anarchy that year. This program between Jack Jester and the champion Crusher Craib was the best build up that I had seen in a very long time. It had started prior to this event when Jester handed the champion his first loss (by DQ) and gotten into the monsters head. Crusher was a monster that just booted folk in the face and left but with Jester he had become more human by showing weakness. After Jester won the Regal Rumble there was a pull apart brawl between the two which consisted of the whole roster and staff to pull the two away from each other. What happened at Aberdeen Anarchy was shocking as Jester had Crusher pleading as Jester had held one of the camera girls by the neck and threatened her with his corkscrew. The monster had become human by showing mercy. It was fantastic storytelling, with every little detail adding to the match. The video package before the match at Aberdeen Anarchy summed it up (www.youtube.com/watch?v=w32sRBoWqE8).

Not only do they pull out all the stops at their big events but at their smaller events the guys involved put everything into their matches and work hard to get the crowd invested into their matches. Their regular roster boasts a lot of talent from the likes of Zach Dynamite, Chris Archer, Alan Sterling and the aforementioned Scotty Swift, Crusher Craib and Aspen Faith. I’ve been to smaller shows in Fraserburgh and Nairn where the crowd may not have been big but they were loud and were left wanting more.

Crusher Craib is a regular for WrestleZone

     In the last couple of years, WrestleZone have brought over some fantastic guests that have been enthusiastic and willing to perform, no false advertising or phoning in here. The likes of the aforementioned “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Billy Gunn, Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal have come from across the pond along with Colt Cabana, X-Pac, Scotty 2 Hotty and, in May, D-Von Dudley, Chris Masters and Hardcore Holly. With these stars they’ve hosted dream matches like Grado vs Scotty 2 Hotty.

It’s not only international talent that comes through the doors at WrestleZone but the best in Britain like Drew Galloway, Joe Coffey and Lionheart having made appearances for them in the past.

Former WWE Intercontinental Champion Drew Galloway appeared for WrestleZone in August.

      WrestleZone are a company that work hard and try and give the fans something to remember at every event. They are definitely a company to keep your eye on.

    For more on WrestleZone see http://www.wrestlezonescotland.co.uk/, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

Best of British II - Insane Championship Wrestling

The Lestrange Lock's Lily Lestrange puts her case forward for Insane Championship Wrestling being the best wrestling company in the United Kingdom today!

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           It was about 2011 when my passion for wrestling rekindled itself.  I casually watched WWE whenever it was on TV before that, following the career of CM Punk as he claimed The Nexus as his own before finally winning the WWE Championship. After that I was hooked. I would talk to my fellow fans online every Monday whilst watching RAW and then the same went for any PPVs as well. This went on for ages as my amazement with the promotion grew but it wasn’t enough. I was beginning to get bored and needed something more. I asked about on Twitter and it was suggested to me that I go to live shows right here in my hometown of Glasgow, held by a promotion called Insane Championship Wrestling. Wrestling? In Glasgow? Surely there wasn’t a promotion right on my doorstep that I had no idea about?! Turns out that there has been for a good while now, more the fool me!

         I was told that ICW were branching out by putting on a show in the Edinburgh Playhouse that had matches featuring Colt Cabana and Sabu. I’d known of Colt from following Punk’s career and every wrestling fan knows of Sabu, so I got myself a ticket and off I went to their sold-out show “Dave’s Not Here Man”. This was my first time going to a live show and my first experience with an indy promotion so asides from the obscure references in their event names and the imported stars I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I mean, how could a promotion based in my city ever compare to WWE? Well let me tell you, ICW blew them out of the water that night and they have continued to do so for me to the present day. 

 

The second match on the card for that night was Kay Lee Ray vs. Carmel in a Last Woman Standing match and I was completely astounded that women could wrestle like that these days; after having to deal with the Divas division in WWE for years before now I just couldn’t believe what was in front of me. At one point Carmel DDT’d KLR from the bar and for want of a better term I marked out something stupid. These two are some of the best female wrestlers that the UK has to offer; I was sure of it at the time and after watching them feud over the past year I’ve never been more convinced of it. As soon as that DDT happened that was it; I was already booking my tickets to the next show in my mind. I was still chanting away as I wandered lost about Edinburgh on my own after the show and I didn’t even care because I had so much adrenaline running through me that I would’ve superkicked anyone that looked at me the wrong way.

      I stayed true to it as well; for the remainder of 2013 I only missed one show and I’ve only missed a handful this year. I’ve watched the promotion go from struggling to sell out a community centre to having its own documentary on the BBC (and a sequel soon to follow), be the only promotion in the UK to have an online streaming service and selling out one of the greatest venues in the world, the Barrowlands. But how has ICW managed to achieve such greatness, you ask? Bringing in talent from overseas has definitely brought in a wider audience: we’ve had people like Prince Devitt, Paul London and Brian Kendrick become regular faces at shows plus some one-offs like Hardcore Holly who only a few weeks ago managed to leave our own Chris Renfrew’s chest looking like a pound of mince. Even WWE’s Drew McIntyre, who started his career in the ring at ICW as Drew Galloway, has come back to his roots and is currently the ICW Heavyweight Champion. 

 

      Of course, their regular roster deserves the most credit for their success. B.T Gunn and Wolfgang have been feuding for the best part of a year now and we’ve seen Wolfgang throw Gunn from a sound system and the pair of them nearly hanging each other from the ropes in a dog collar match, this year-long spat is yet to get boring. In Newcastle, Chris Renfrew vs. Jimmy Havoc in a Geordie Rules match saw Havoc spewing at ringside after having one shot of whisky too many and him jamming a dildo into Renfrew’s mouth after knocking him silly with a baking tray. Because rule one of a Geordie Rules match is that there are no rules and dildos are fair game, right? There's also been the Best-Of-5 feud between Noam Dar and Joe Coffey, two lads who don’t need gimmicks because all they have to do is step into a ring together to wow the crowds. If you like pure, unadulterated wrestling then these matches are gonna be your thing. Then of course there’s Grado, Scotland’s answer to Scotty 2 Hotty; people may question his wrestling abilities but he’s undeniably one of the greatest entertainers in the business today. You could hate him in the ring but still sing his entrance song “Like A Prayer” every time; there’s just no hating the guy, he’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face at every show. 

 

       The uniqueness of these kinds of feuds, matches and wrestlers is what makes ICW special; we have absolutely no idea what we’re going to get with the next event and that’s why we love it. Hell, they’ve even sold out shows without even announcing a match on the card before. ICW has something for everyone (as long as you’re over 18) and the sense of kinship from not only the roster but the fans themselves will have you never wanting to miss a show again. 

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      We'd like to thank Lily Lestrange for taking the time to write for us. You can find her other work at thelestrangelock.blogspot.com, as well as follow the blog on Twitter @LestrangeLock. ICW can be found at insanewrestling.co.uk, as well as on Twitter @InsaneChampWres and on Facebook here.

Best of British I - Revolution Pro Wrestling

In the first of a new series of articles, that will see British wrestling fans writing about their favourite promotion from across the country, Sean Taylor-Richardson takes a look at his favourite company, Revolution Pro Wrestling.

Photo credit - prowrestling.wikia.com

In 2013, I had a moment. As a dedicated wrestling fan of 18 years, I experienced an epiphany as it dawned on me that I had only really followed the televised American promotions. During the 1990s, when my interest was piqued and my obsession formed, I was fed a steady diet of grappling from the States: from the WWF on Sky to WCW via TNT and ECW by means of Bravo. In the noughties, WWE’s presence on Sky grew greater whilst TNA regularly found its way onto my screen. However, whilst in New York in April of 2013 (for a week of WWE related festivities), I had the chance to attend my first indy show. ROH were playing the Manhattan Centre. 

Now what happened that night is, without exaggeration, a blur (I’ll revisit the evening in a future article, Wrestling and beer: the drinking chronicles). Fortunately I managed to soak up more than pint after pint of Heineken and absorbed enough of the action and atmosphere to convince me to try indie wrestling when I returned to our British Isles. So later that year, I looked at the upcoming cards on the UK Indie circuit to see what took my fancy. In a wonderful moment of serendipity, a certain name appeared. It was the same name that appeared on my Sky Sports screen when I first fell in love with Wrestling in 1994. That name was Bret “Hitman” Hart.

Photo Credit - Revolution Pro Wrestling

On Friday 18th October 2013, myself and my brother attended the Revolution Pro Wrestling event, An Evening with Bret Hart. Photos were taken with a childhood hero and we left the Walkabout venue thinking nothing that weekend could top the previous few hours. But then the very next day we attended Rev Pro’s other offering: Uprising at York Hall. And what a show it was! Prince Devitt vs Ricochet and Zack Sabre Jr vs Davey Richards were 5 star belters. Noam Dar vs Michael Elgin and Marty Scurll vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (which featured a Bret Hart run-in) delivered in spades. As well as state of the art 21st Century wrestling, there was incredible comedy as Colt Cobana teamed with Grado! This event was one of the best shows I’d ever attended and proved that Indie wrestling was as deserving of my time and money as the big leagues.

Since then, I’ve attended all three of the York Hall super shows held in 2014. Rev Pro guarantees the best quality imports on our shores. You want future WWE stars, Rev Pro books ‘em:  Kevin Steen and Prince Devitt (now going as Kevin Owens and Finn Balor respectively) spring to mind. How about a nostalgia act? Sting, Rikishi and Two Cool should be right up your street. If it’s the stars of New Japan, how about The Young Bucks, Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura and The Bullet Club. Invariably these acts matched up with the best of British talent: Will Ospreay, Martin Stone, Joel Redman and Sha Samuels to name a few. Samuels is particularly entertaining as he and his stable mates Terry Frazier and Josh Bodom work the crowd into a frenzy during their entrance and remind us all just how were supposed to feel about heels (speaking of Samuels, at a show in Sittingbourne, he once threw my brother’s shoe onto a window ledge).

Photo Credit - Sha Samuels

The matches work both as stand-alone, fantastic indie spectacles but also as part of on-going stories that entice you into counting the weeks until the next card. Nothing feels inconsequential. At the recent October Uprising event, world title matches and tag team wars were masterfully built for the forthcoming February show, High Stakes. This allows regular attendees to feel attached to the product and see each show as a must-see, an episode of wrestling drama not to be missed. My anticipation for Marty Scurll vs Spud and the eventual showdown between Redman/ Stone and Team Paige is undoubtedly greater for having been part of the live crowd that witnessed the electric angles unfold. 
   
Another thing that makes Rev Pro such a hot ticket is the setting: York Hall is special. Whilst the leisure centre on Old Ford Road in Bethnal Green, London garnered its reputation for
being one of Britain's best known boxing venues, it is quickly becoming a hotbed of wrestling (as evidenced by TNA recently filming some of British Bootcamp within its famed walls). Its history and legitimacy is an aspect that adds credibility to proceedings and is a factor many other indie venues just can’t match. The stars booked are skilled and the matches captivating but it is the combination of talent and venue that creates that oh-so-special atmosphere.  And the fans are fun fans to be around, loud and passionate but not too smart for their own good. There are cheers and chants but never an attempt to steal the spotlight from what happens in the ring. The people appreciate quality wrestling and show that respect by engaging purposefully with the show.

Photo Credit - UKFF

I’ve attended multiple Indie shows in the last two years. I enjoy Progress shows from Camden and had a good time at the IPW Super 8 tournament in Tonbridge. I’ve been to see Rev Pro in my local market, Sittingbourne, fairly regularly. But it’s the York Hall shows that I look forward to like I look forward to a Summerslam or Royal Rumble. The talent, the stories, the rich history of the venue; it’s a combination that in my opinion delivers the best night of wrestling that our thriving indie scene has to offer. If you haven’t checked them out yet do: in a couple of months, at February’s High Stakes show, AJ Styles is coming to play. Daniels and Kazarian step into the ring. And the most talked about podcaster of the year Colt Cobana returns in an angle already heavily promoted on the company website. Whether its hard-hitting wrestling, high spots or big gags, I can assure you Rev Pro at York Hall always delivers all that and more.

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Best of British will return in 2015! If you are interested in championing your favourite promotion, you can get in touch at acrossthepondwrestling@hotmail.com