Back during the pandemic of 2020 (as if you didn’t know when that was) I wrote a blog entitled ‘My Secret love of Professional Wrestling’ and was set around the WWF (now WWE) in the 90s and partly modern day. Since that time however, things have changed a lot in terms of my Wrestling watching, especially the last six months. As I’ve drifted a bit away from the North American scene and become more of a fan of the domestic British one, to which I have become a huge fan of over the last six months.
Before we come to the last six months, I want to start off first by going back to where the piece ended in November of 2020 and see my viewing being mostly that of AEW – All Elite Wrestling. The highest point of that company for me was ALL OUT 2021, with the debuts of both Adam Cole & Bryan Danielson coming out right at the end of the show, and it felt like the start of a new era. Sadly, and has been the case of AEW on many many occasions with this company, they fail to build or pull the trigger when it needs to.
In the case of 2022, it made me want to try and attend a couple of big shows that were on my doorstep so to speak, with both Progress Wrestling and RevPro holding shows in or around the Manchester area. However, I am quite introverted and despite wanting to go I couldn’t force myself to attend either, as I managed to easily talk myself out of going to both. If ALL OUT 2021 saw my fandom hit the highest in the modern day, then the whole mess of the ‘Brawl Out’ at ALL OUT the following year saw my interest really taking a bit hit and Instead, saw me choosing to listen to reviews of shows rather than watching them.
Last year saw me attending AEW’s first event in the UK, as All In took place at Wembley Stadium and saw me want to go more so for the historical relevance rather than anything else. Being someone who is introverted, the idea of going to London left me feeling quite uncomfortable due to bad experiences, and even more so going on my own with no friends. But FOMO had taken over me to the point that I just had to rebook tickets, having seen me booking with a friend originally, but he had to drop out for personal reasons.
This was also the weekend where my love for British Wrestling really got started. After getting off my train at Euston Station and running across the road in stormy conditions to check-in to my hotel, I then made a snap decision to leave my bag in the room and head across town to go to the big RevPro show at the Copper Box Arena. So a couple tube/underground changes later and I was there for the company’s 11th Anniversary show. It was also my first non-American event I’d ever attended, having been to WWF/E events back at the Manchester Arena in 1999 for the dreaded ‘No Mercy’ UK PPV and then later a house show in 2016.
After the problems of trying to find a ticket office, then buying a ticket on my phone and getting scanned through, before getting put into the cleaner’s lift so I could reach my block; I finally found my seat and realised I was sitting miles away from people on my row, or anyone at all. However, a group of lads from Hull, I think, told me to come join them so I wasn’t sitting on my own. That helped a lot to settle me down for the night, as I could just enjoy the show. It was an incredible event and saw Tomohiro Ishii v Luke Jacobs steal the show, as I hardly knew anyone on the card that wasn’t involved with a North American or Japan company, or had wrestled overseas in the past.
The show is perhaps overshadowed by the infamous quote by Jack Perry during his FTW title match with Hook, where he hit the windscreen of a car and went – “ Real GLASS. Go Cry me a River ” – this then led to an altercation with him & Punk after the match behind the curtain. As it was said that Perry has been ‘choked’ out by Punk moments before his own match to kickstart All In against Samoa Joe. The incident saw both men’s careers come to a halt in AEW, with Punk being released and returning to WWE; while Perry went to New Japan, and saw yet another unwanted black eye for the company. The highlight of the night for me was seeing STING wrestle, and as someone that was a big fan of his when I was a kid watching WCW Worldwide on ITV in the early 1990s, I never thought I’d see him.
BRITISH WRESTLING FANDOM
Two days later saw me attending another show, as I wanted to get more into the local scene and saw an ad pop up on Facebook advertising a show at the Bread Shed in Manchester, where a local company called Modern Nomads Pro Wrestling was wrestling. Their normal ‘Tuesday Night Graps’ was being replaced by a special ‘Choco Night Graps’ show, which was a play on words with the Japanese promotion Gatoh Pro – otherwise known as Choco Pro. Choco Pro is an artistic wrestling company you could say, as they don’t wrestle in a ring, but more on a mat like judo and use their surroundings as ropes. Nomads shows are more a comedic variety show than a traditional offering, but they are my favourite to attend.
Since that show back in August 2023, I’ve been to every event since with, “Do you wanna play?” which had a horror theme, ‘Santa Slam 2’ – which was a festive show in December, then a couple months back saw their last event being a fitting tribute to the late Kurtis Chapman, otherwise known as ‘Mad Kurt’. The show saw a lot of the top UK circuit names coming up and selling out the Bread Shed out for ‘MAD KURT FOREVER’, as it saw a mix of tears and laughter.
The main promotion I watch near me is Futureshock Wrestling, where this coming August sees them celebrating their 20th anniversary and has saw some big names passing through. Names like Pac, Claudio Castagnoli, Colt Cabana, Noam Dar, Nikki Storm (Nikki Cross), Doug Williams, Viper (Piper Niven) and Toni Storm plus many more. It has been the breeding ground too for those from the North West, such as: Lana Austin, Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson, James Drake) Luke Jacobs and Ethan Allen, all of whom have wrestled for the bigger UK companies in Progress or RevPro.
Since attending their 200th show in September, I’ve been to eight shows now (if you include double headers as separate ones) and soon it will be ten when they hold another double show at the Stockport Guildhall for Danger Zone. Another relatively new company in a way is Sovereign Pro Wrestling, as I’ve attended their last two shows where they attracted a massive crowd back in February this past year, with the former Coronation Street star ‘Les Battersby’ being involved and saw a bit of media coverage coming from it. To think before the big Wembley show last year that I didn’t follow British wrestling much, and now seemingly flipped from watching more UK stuff and less North American, is just crazy to me.
Following All In last August, I’ve now been to 18 shows in the UK : (Progress, RevPro, Futureshock, SovPro, Modern Nomads, Impact Wrestling (now TNA Wrestling) up in Newcastle when they hosted a UK tour, and come the end of the month, I will adding Bridge Pro Wrestling of Stourbridge to the list too. As the show has an interesting card and in truth, just fun to help just support shows. By the end of the year, I am also hoping to add three more to that list in OTT (over the top wrestling) in Wolverhampton, Atomic Wrestling in Liverpool and Odyssey Pro Wrestling in Morecambe.
FRIENDSHIPS & WRESTLERS
The Internet Wrestling Community gets a lot of bad press and deservedly so for me on many things. While I have had one minor bad experience at a show, 99% of the time has been fun and the British community overall has been great. In a short space of time, I’ve made a few friends up and down the country, with my best wrestling buddy Dean, along with Stevie who I bash into at Manchester shows and I also chat to a female fan that I can never remember her name but I think is Lyndsey and spoke at a couple of Futureshock shows. Quite recently I joined a discord wrestling chat that is home to some of the nicest bunch of people online, as we chat about things wrestling or non-wrestling. I’ve met one or two from the group, as at the last Nomad show I met Aaron, and prior to that I met Nikki who runs the group and is a good egg too, especially as I was given a gift of a small packet of popcorn to enjoy during the Sov Pro show in Feb.
I’ve interacted with a few of the wrestlers and forced myself to step out of my comfort zone and try and chat with them, even If I feel I come across as an absolute moron. However just last month, I attended a wrestling convention on the other side of town, where it saw some former WWF/E legends: Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner, Marc Mero, Maria Kanellis, Rhyno, X-Pac, Ken Shamrock, Lita and my crush in my teens, Trish Stratus. I had photos and spoke to them all at points, as I still can’t believe I chatted to them at all and I won’t mince my words here…I was shitting myself meeting them! One highlight was having Trish shouting me back for a pic, but I told her that I had a photograph booked with her already. How many people can say that they had their famous crush shout you back!
In terms of British stars, I’ve met Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster, Trent Seven and Grizzled Young Vets, along with Troy Bartram of Meat Wagon, Lily Winter, Leah Raven, Harley Hudson and Simon Miller, while also getting blindfolded by Gene Munny for a few seconds. Four people I have chatted to the most, are a pair from the West Midlands in Man Like DeReiss and Millie McKenzie, both of which are the two nicest people you could ever meet. While the other two are Kid Lykos II & the current Progress World champion in Kid Lykos, as I’ve become big fans of theirs since my first nomad show. I still can’t believe that within three years I didn’t know more, or follow the British scene as much as I do now, as I really regret not being more immersed in it beforehand. Plus I’ve bought so many Wrestling shirts now, I feel I need to stop going to merch stands.
On some occasions I have had mad thoughts of wanting to do taster sessions in getting in the ring as a wrestler or even as a referee, but the feeling of embarrassing myself and being too old far outweighs the positives for me. That said, bring on the next three years of my wrestling fandom!