Two Years of ATPW

Yes ladies and gentleman, it has been two whole years since the first proper article was posted on the then acrossthepondwrestling.blogspot.com. Over those two years we've developed into acrossthepondwrestling.co.uk, built a strong social media following with nearing 2000 followers on Twitter and over 1250 likes on Facebook, created partnerships with TNA Impact Wrestling and WWE Home video that continue to grow, featured numerous British wrestling promotions, and changed from a one man blog to featuring some of the most talented wrestling writers from across the United Kingdom. I'm truly proud of what ATPW has become and I look forward to seeing what the future holds. Believe me, I've got big plans for what ATPW should and could be in two years time.

I wanted to use this article to look back at our ten most popular articles over the last two years, in chronological order, to showcase the story of ATPW (so far) with the ten most important moments. Better get on with it, I suppose!

Five Questions With...Jay Hunter

Wednesday, 12th June 2013. 19:30

Five Questions With... was our first series of article, in which I interviewed a wide variety of wrestling personalities, from wrestlers to bloggers and everything in between, in a thinly vieled attempt to gain a viewership! Our most popular FQW article (and most popular article of all time) was with OSW Review's Jay Hunter. Gaining over 3000 views, Hunter discusses getting into wrestling, how OSW Review originated, the differences between 80's and modern wrestling, his top three matches of all time and more. A big thank you to Jay Hunter for the interview once more, and if you've never caught OSW Review you can check out their website here.

WWE Money in the Bank 2013 Review

Tuesday, 16th July 2013. 00:07

Our most popular PPV review ever (I'm not sure why this one get's more views than any other) with over 350 views. Money in the Bank 2013 featured Randy Orton and Damien Sandow winning Money in the Bank briefcase, whilst John Cena and Alberto Del Rio defended their respective World titles against Mark Henry and Dolph Ziggler respectively. The show received a fairly positive review from ATPW, and can viewed on the WWE Network here. 

WWE Smackdown 19th July 2013 Review

Wednesday, 24th July 2013. 00:12

The most popular review of a TV show from ATPW, was the 19th July 2013 episode of Smackdown! Back when ATPW was reviewing almost every wrestling TV shows on the market, for some reason this review has stood out and continued to get views. Whilst criticising Randy Orton for going through the motions in a main event bout with Alberto Del Rio, the review had praise for Vince McMahon announcing Vickie Guerrero as the new General Manager of Smackdown, with a rather optimistic hope that a strong heel Vickie could revitalise the waning brand.

WWE ECW Unreleased Volume 2 DVD Review

Friday, 16th August 2013. 04:30

DVD Review have been a big part of ATPW since it's inception and this one has received over 850 views, proving that there's still a hunger for ECW content out there. There's big praise for the set throughout, notably the variety of matches present on the three disc set and strong presentation from Joey Styles and Tommy Dreamer. A triple threat bout between Bam Bam Bigelow, Sabu and Taz is noted as the strongest of the set, which is still available for purchase here.

Five Questions With...Matt Striker

Wednesday, 21st August 2013. 19:30

Just two months removed from his WWE release ATPW was able to secure an interview with Matt Striker, under the FQW banner. Striker talks getting into wrestling, the circumstances involving his WWE release, his fondest memories of working for WWE, his three favourite matches and more. This is one of my personal favourite FQW interviews, with Striker engaging well with the interview style. 

WWE NXT 21st August 2013 Review

Friday 23rd August 2013. 01:47

August 2013 continued to provide articles that have kept people coming back to ATPW with this review of WWE NXT, in it's pre-WWE Network days. Of course, this was the episode that featured Sami Zayn and Antonio Cesaro battling it out in a Two out of Three Falls match. The review of this match was one of my favourite to write and one of the earlier pieces of writing I am most proud of for ATPW. The review also includes an interesting look at a bout between Dolph Ziggler and Rusev, as well as AJ Lee defending her Diva's Championship against Bayley.

TNA Impact Wrestling's Christopher Daniels Interview

Saturday, January 25th 2014. 22:42

The most popular article of 2014 was a BIG interview with then TNA star Christopher Daniels ahead of the 2014 Maximum Impact tour of the UK. Infamous for breaking the news that Daniels contract with TNA was up in April, and gaining coverage from the dirt sheets, this was an article that put ATPW on the map in terms of big name wrestler interviews. It's one of my biggest disappointments that half of the interview was lost due to a recording error, but still I spoke to Christopher Daniels for twenty minutes and no one will ever know what we spoke about!

TNA British Bootcamp's Grado Interview

Tuesday, 25th November 2014. 22:24

Recorded on the telephone in a hospital car park in Aberystywyth (it's a long story), this interview with Grado came at a time where he was featured in the final six of TNA's British Bootcamp. Actually ATPW's third interview with Grado (following a FQW interview and one recorded on the streets of Glasgow for Youtube), this one features a lot of talk about British Bootcamp, getting "over" in America, British wrestling, social media and more. Oh also the possibility of a Grado vs. Goldberg dream match!

Making Noise, Drinking Cider: Maffew at PCW Road to Glory Night 1

Friday, 27th March 2015. 19:53

The only writer other than creator James Marston to make the Top 10 is Botchamania's own Maffew! Proving instantly popular on ATPW, Maffew brought his own fanbase over to ATPW and introduced a different style of writing to the site, as he looked at the first night of PCW Road to Glory tournament. Featuring a no holds barred looked at the show, with a refreshingly honest review, Maffew also offered plenty of laughs and gags to keep things entertaining. Brit-Wres reviews always prove popular and this is the most popular of them all on ATPW.

TNA's Rockstar Spud Interview

Monday, 30th March 2015. 23:16

Coming as part of the #ATPW24 campaign that raised over £200 for MIND, there was a special interview with then TNA X Division Champion Rockstar Spud! Spud discussed the previous night's WrestleMania, changes in the Spud character, his on-screen feud with Ethan Carter III, his involvement in the second series of British Boot Camp, his return to the British indy scene and what the future might hold for Spud. It's our most popular article of 2015 so far, and for interview conducted by someone nearing 60 hours without sleep, is bloody good if I do say so myself!


I hope you've enjoyed this trip down memory lane as much as I have have, or if this is your first ATPW article has enjoyed what is ensentially a starter pack to knowing what we do here at ATPW. To all those who have viewed ATPW in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, China, Israel, Canada, Ukraine, Turkey and anywhere else over the last two years a big thankyou and I hope we continue to produce content that keeps you coming back for more. Peace, love and wrestling. James.

Five Questions With...Jay Hunter

After last week’s interview with Kevin Michael Johnson, we take a different route this week with an interview with OSW Review Host, Jay Hunter.

Hosts of OSW Review with TNA President Dixie Carter -

From Left to Right: Steve (Mr. OOC), Jay, Dixie and Steve (V1)

OSW Review Logo

Name: Jay Hunter

Age: 29

Hometown: Dublin, Ireland

Known For: Hosting an old school wrestling video podcast, "OSW Review". Also handy with a stethoscope.

1. When did you first get into wrestling and what drew you to the sport?

I have four older brothers, and our household was a wrestling household. Some of my favourite memories are watching wrestling with my family - the earliest I can remember vividly were around WrestleMania V - The MegaPowers Explode! McMahon's WWF had such a diverse collection of colourful, intense characters in interesting stories, it was impossible not to love. I have an odd view on wrestling since my brothers would prefer heels, especially Mr. Perfect, Ric Rude and Bobby Heenan, but as a kid I still loved the standard good guys like Hogan, Warrior and Tornado - so I grew up loving both. Kayfabe never really lived for me as they'd make sure to point out telling signs that it was choreographed, e.g. the superplex (where both men blatantly work together to perform the move!). They'd gravitate to whoever's the most entertaining and that's something I still do today.

 2. Tell us a little about the Old School Wrestling Review and how that came about?

Our trio had been writing weekly WWE & TNA reviews for a few years on Bebo (basically myspace for Irish, English & New Zealanders) before appearing a few times on an Irish wrestling radio show. It was a huge rush, but also we narcissistically thought we could do a better job! Around the same time, my brother had given me a box of WWF Tagged Classics DVDs (each featuring a pair of old WWF events) and I thought I should put them to good use. We talked about wrestling for hours anyway, so why not record it?

 I'll admit our show is quite selfish - it's the show I wanted to watch but didn't exist, so I thought to make it myself. I love videogames and TV shows (like the Simpsons) and both readily influence the show. I wanted to make OSW Review as different as possible to other wrestling podcasts out there: Others do current wrestling, we'll do retro. Others cherry-pick events, we'll go chronologically. Others Skype, we'll do ours in person...even down to small things, like talking in current tense rather than past tense. Being Irish helps our uniqueness. Our big kicker was that whilst others would only be audio, we'll add video.

Sometimes I'd listen to WCW reviews multiple times and still not know what's going on - so why not show people what we're talking about and follow along? So that's what our show became: a roundtable review podcast cut to video footage of the show. Doing video also gives us another avenue for visual gags, photoshops and the like. Something integral to the show is being positive, having fun and enjoying wrestling, good and bad. Fill in the storyline blanks since the last PPV, throw in relevant backstage scandal and make parallels to today's WWE and you have our show. I'd hope when people watch our videos, it's like they're watching the PPV with their friends and having a laugh.

Macho Man's flamboyant outfit's lead to a game called "What Bar is He?" on the show.

3. What do you think are the main differences between the product that you review and the product that we see on Television today?

Comparing modern WWE with its early days is a lot of fun. Today's in-ring quality is FAR superior to the 80s & 90s. When you have to sit & watch the Bushwhackers stall & work the crowd for 12.5 minutes, you'll be clamouring for another Kofi Kingston/Miz rematch! The depth of strong, colourful characters with unique, entertaining promo styles in the Hulkamania Era is staggering. I don't think many WWE fans will fondly remember, say, Big Daddy V or Ken Kennedy from a few years ago, but most old-school fans will instantly recall storylines/catchphrases of say, The Million Dollar Man or Jake Roberts. These wrestlers had to draw in their respective territories before working for Vince, so their timing, promos and wrestling ability was already there. With kayfabe in full effect, crowds were really much happier, louder and would pop for basic moves by today's standards.

It's refreshing to see a time before the "cool heel" that the nWo popularised, when the heel-face divide was clear and they'd elicit the intended response from the crowd. A huge factor adding freshness to old shows is only having 4 PPVs per year, and with their competition (WCW) still afloat, it meant that every PPV brought an influx and outflow of ready-made talent. I miss having prominent names arriving in the company and shaking things up (like Ric Flair joining WWF in late '91), as opposed to today, watching wrestlers basically starting from scratch, like Antonio Cesaro. Since the average age of Hulkamania Era stars is about 7 years older than today, they command more presence and respect. Fans today would consider taking a swipe at Randy Orton, The Miz or Dolph Ziggler, but I doubt they'd dare swipe at Ultimate Warrior, Road Warrior Hawk or Bad News Brown. It's like old-school wrestlers are tough guys playing cartoon characters, and today's wrestlers play tough guys on TV.

 4. What are your Top Three matches of all time?

Third: Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (Hell in a Cell, Badd Blood 1997) - breath-taking, effective in-ring storytelling. Genius match-layout, drama, with iconic, stunning visuals.

Second: Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle, Ultimate Submission match (Backlash 2001) - I'm a sucker for crisp chain-wrestling/counter-recounters so this match was a dream come true.

First: Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock (WrestleMania X8) - my childhood hero vs. my teenage hero.

5. Where can our readers find your work and what have you got coming up?

OSWreview.com is our hub for all things old school, and our Summerslam '92 episode (from Wembley Stadium, London!) just dropped last night! Thanks, and remember, a winner is you!

You can check out OSW Review here. You can also follow Jay Hunter on Twitter @OSWReview

Follow us on Twitter @ATPWrestling and like us on Facebook. www.facebook.com/acrossthepondwrestling