The Two Sheds Review

Tuesday, 19 March 2019

RE-POST; UK Pitbulls: The Video - Video Review

To commemorate the 34th birthday of Big Dave Waters (hey, I know it was last month, but I’ve been busy!), my latest review takes a look at a video release from the most dominant tag-team in Britain today, as we look at U.K. Pitbulls: The Video.

This past July, British wrestling’s biggest and most successful tag-team, the U.K. Pitbulls, sat down at the FWA Academy to record the latest in the series of British Shoot Interviews.

It was in April 2001 that I first took notice of Roy Bevis, the Zebra Kid. Since then I’ve followed his career with great interest, both at close range and long distance, and his career hit the heights and then the lows following two prison sentences. Which is why I was eager to see the latest in the World Association of Wrestling Shoot Interview series – Zebra Kid: Stiff as F**k.

It’s been almost five months since I reviewed a shoot interview, so what better place to return to this particular genre than my old stomping ground, the World Association of Wrestling, as the English Rose herself talks to the cameras in “Sour Touch From The Sweet Saraya”.

Having recently reviewed the latest in the World Association of Wrestling Shoot Interview series, I thought it would be quite apt to go back to the first DVD release of this series, featuring WAW head honcho in Ricky Knight: Shut It!

In eager anticipation of the Zebra Kid's debut for the most publicised wrestling company in the U.K., I made my way to the F.W.A.'s Carpe Diem show, eager to get a taste of a company I had heard so much of in the past year. The show actually started later than advertised (an ominous sign, perhaps?), but at least I was getting the chance to sample another promotion.

My first professional wrestling review of 2009 will in fact be the end of an era (more on that later), as once again I go back to my old stomping ground, the World Association of Wrestling, taking a look at the DVD release of Battle of the Champions, held at the Waveney Sports & Leisure Centre in Lowestoft in October 2004.

This release actually has quite a bit of back story. It was originally film by The Wrestling Channel for inclusion on their UK Round-Up show, with the deal being that none of the matches were included, then WAW would be allowed to release a DVD of the show. So when none of the matches made it onto television, the powers-that-be waited for their fully edited DVD. And waited. And waited. Even after seeing those responsible at countless shows and voicing their concerns, the waiting game continued.

June 19th, 2010 is the tenth anniversary of The Two Sheds Review, so to mark this momentous occasion I’m going back in time to take another look at a few “firsts”. Coming up will be another look at the first pay-per-view I ever reviewed (WWF Summerslam 2000), the first MMA show I saw (UFC 38), and the first Supercard Sunday show I saw on the now defunct Wrestling Channel (MLW Reload).

But to kick things off I’m taking another look at the first ever wrestling video I reviewed, and for that I must return to my old stomping ground, the World Association of Wrestling. October Outrage 1999 was the title, headline by “Rowdy” Ricky Knight taking on “Big” Dave Waters in a hardcore match for the British title, with Sweet Saraya and Michael Mann handling commentary duties.

RE-POST: 1 Stop Wrestling 17th November 2003

Recently, wrestling fans were treated to the site of Team FWA competing on the Challenge TV show Fort Boyard. The show, hosted by Jodie Penfold, featured Doug Williams, Paul Birchall, James Tighe, Nikita & Sweet Saraya undergoing a number of physical tasks in order to win the big prize.

The appearance of Saraya on the team has met with a great deal of debate among the FWA faithful on the Internet, leading many to ask the question - is Saraya headed to the FWA to feud with their one and only active female wrestler? The fact of the matter is that this feud has already taken place, and in this writer's opinion was woefully underbooked by the powers-that-be.

Cast your mind back to June 2002. At the FWA's Carpe Diem show in Walthamstow, Nikita came to the ring as a guest announcer for an upcoming match. As she was about to speak, the Sweet Saraya stormed the ring from the crowd, and battered her rival, taking her down with her trademark power bomb, before taking the microphone and lambasting Nikita's claim to be the best female wrestler in Britain.

One of the saddest stories I had to report on happened on this very website, and was sad because the person thestory was about was, at the time, a good friend of mine.

Chris Bullard was one of the first people in WAW who actually took the time to come up to me and to introduce themselves. I met Chris in Lowestoft in December 2001, the first show I covered for WAW as their official reporter.

Chris was a really kind and nice bloke, and was actually a wrestler who had been trying to make it in the wrestling business for quite some time. In fact, he began his training at the same time as Mike and Dave Waters, who went on to achieve great success, of course.

In recent times on television we've seen examples of how certain wrestlers should remain silent, they should never speak, and should be portrayed as virtual wrestling machines, there to do one thing, and one thing only - kick ass!

I saw a fine example of this during the early days of my tenure with WAW. Because they lived just a few short miles away from me, the U.K. Pitbulls, "Big" Dave and Mike "Bulk" Waters gave me a ride whenever I had to get to a show.

Travelling with these guys, although in somewhat cramped conditions, was quite often fun. While Dave was the more serious of the two, Mike always seemed to bring a sense of fun to each journey, no matter how long it was. Naturally, we would spend most of the time talking about wrestling, sharing memories of old WWF and WCW shows as well as discussing what was going on in the British wrestling industry.

In my last column I wrote about the events around the WAW British Championship, which was declared vacant last September when Hot Stuff fell ill, and could not defend the title.

WAW announced almost immediately that at the upcoming October Outrage IV show in Norwich, Bash would be facing Ricky Knight for the vacant crown. However, at the time I came up with an idea that would have allowed WAW to use the vast majority of the wrestlers that were hired for the show - a one night tournament to crown the new champion.

OO4 was scheduled to have eight matches. In my plan, only two of those original matches would have had to be scrapped. Triple X v Fabuloz, which was basically a four minute knockoff job before the victorious Fabuloz was signed up by Lloyd Ryan in an angle which ultimately didn't go anywhere, and Jace The Ace v Lee Darren. On the night in question, although Jace v Darren was an entertaining bout it drew very little heat from the crowd.

An interesting question was asked of me some time ago why don't I stage my own wrestling show? The feeling was that as I was a man full of ideas, I would, therefore, make a good wrestling promoter.

I have been in and around the wrestling business for about eighteen months now, and the first thing I learned was that although it seems like an easy job, actually promoting a show is a damn sight harder than it looks.

Although I don't speak from experience when I say this, but if you are an aspiring, wannabe promoter looking to make a quick few quid by putting on a wrestling show in your local town hall or sports centre then you're in the wrong job. Speaking to a few people who have staged a handful of shows, most of them will tell you that they actually made a loss on their first show.

Promoting a wrestling show is a hard and thankless task, there is so much to do, and so little time in which to do it.

When I first began to take an interest in my local promotion, the World Association of Wrestling, there was one aspect of their company in which they were lacking. They were receiving hardly any exposure on the Internet.

After the big Fightmare show at the Norwich Sport Village just over two years ago, I searched the world wide web for information on WAW, but found that there was very little. A young lad by the name of Dan Quintain, nephew of WAW wrestler Steve Quintain, had put together a couple of fan sites, and, of course, the U.K. Pitbulls had their own web site, but the company itself had no web site worth speaking of.

Well, I tell a lie here. They did actually have an official web site - there just wasn't any substance to it. Whenever I logged onto the web site, all I saw was a "coming soon" kind of message. They had a fan forum, but nothing else.

In the past few months, some people have heavily criticised me for the way that I defend WAW, particularly when so-called "smart marks" lash out at anyone connected with the company, including yours truly.

Regular visitors to my website, particularly those who read my Personal Journals section, will know that in the summer of 2002 I suffered a nervous breakdown. I won't go into the exact circumstances here, but for many months I suffered from severe depression.

December 15th, 2001 was a momentous point in my writing career, as my official connection with British wrestling started on that day, in the Suffolk town of Lowestoft.

It's no secret that I had been very critical of the World Association of Wrestling in the months after their Fightmare show in Norwich the previous April. I had been approached about doing some work for them, but the deal fell flat when the proposed television deal fell through.

The problem was that I was comparing WAW's product and output with that of the mighty World Wrestling Federation. This was a huge mistake. No one, with the exception of the world's biggest computer geek, and perhaps Billionaire Ted, could match the financial clout of the mighty Vince McMahon.

RE-POST: Come Home Julia (2005)

This is probably the hardest column I have ever had to write, but it’s just something I knew I had to do.

Today, October 19th, is the 34th birthday of Julia Hamer, known to wrestling fans around the world as the Sweet Saraya. By now, most of you reading this column will know that Julia has been missing since August 27th, and although she has reported in to the police a couple of times, she still hasn’t been found.

Well, it's certainly been another busy year in WAW, with some highs and lows throughout the year, and as we head towards 2005, I thought I'd take a look back at the events of the past twelve months.

Following my WAW Year in Review 2004, here's the second part of my little trilogy to end the year, as I present to you my personal Top 10 WAW Wrestlers for 2004.

Before I begin the list, I'll tell you about the ground rules I laid down for myself. Those who made the final cut are there because I enjoyed their matches this year. However, you'll notice some prominent names missing from the list, the likes of Stevie Knight, Alex Shane, Klondyke Kate, and many more prominent names who wrestled for WAW this year. The reason they are missing from the list is simple - they only made one or two appearances for WAW, so, in my opinion, it's not really fair to include someone who has only appeared for WAW once or twice, while not including someone who has appeared time and time again during 2004. So now the rules have been explained, let's start the countdown.....

As promised, it's the final part of my End of Year trilogy, and in this edition I will list my Top Ten WAW Matches for 2004. Here we go.....

As promised last week, yours truly is back with a review of the World Association of Wrestling's 10th anniversary spectacular, The War of 2004, which emanates from The Talk in Norwich this coming Saturday, September 11th. I'll be giving a brief preview of each match on the card, and offering my opinions on who will win.

RE-POST: WAW Past, Present & Future (2004)

In 1993, Ricky Knight & Jimmy Ocean were far from happy men. As the legendary Superflys tag-team, they had reigned supreme as the British Tag-Team Champions since they defeated King Ben & Kid McCoy in Bristol in 1989. Along with their glamorous manager, the Sweet Saraya, they defeated all challengers to their titles.

But they were unhappy with the way that certain aspects of the wrestling business were being handled. In their opinion, hardly any promoters in Britain were putting on shows for the fans, they were in the business just to make some fast money. Knight, Ocean & Saraya knew the fans wanted more.

So, in 1993, they formed the World Association of Wrestling, in an attempt to rectify this situation.

When I first began to work for WAW in December 2001, one of my first memories comes from attending the WAW Training Academy a couple of months later. As the trainees were put through their paces by the head trainer, the Sweet Saraya, I found myself walking around the hall and secretly predicting who had "it", and who didn't.

Now, over two years on from that date, I'd like to take a look back at some of the people who attended the academy that weekend.

When the FWA powers-that-be asked me to contribute my thoughts regarding the Zebra Kid/Ricky Knight situation, I can see why they came to me. I've chronicled the careers of both men over the past few years, so I guess I'm an expert on this situation in a way.

The thing is, many FWA fans were surprised when Ricky cost Zebra the FWA title recently. If truth be known, I could see this coming a long time ago. This situation began long before Carpe Diem.

But to get an insight into why this situation arose, you have to look into the past of these two men.

Well, it certainly has been a busy past few weeks for everyone associated with the World Association of Wrestling. If you take into account their commitments on the Pontins Holiday Camp circuit, and include their recent, six week run at the Atlantis Arena in Great Yarmouth, I think it's safe to say that they are certainly the busiest wrestling promotion in Britain at the moment.

Inter-promotional angles are nothing new in the wrestling industry. In Japan, it's not uncommon for two or more promotions to stage a big show. In America, we've seen many so-called "invasion" angles over the past ten years or so. The Smokey Mountain tag-team title being defended on WWF pay-per-view ten years ago, the infamous ECW invasion of Monday Night Raw in 1997, the WCW/ECW invasion of the WWF in 2001, and the unscheduled XPW invasion of ECW three years ago.

But such an event has, to my knowledge, never happened in British wrestling. In a day when new companies are springing up virtually every month, it's quite common for the most well-known British wrestlers, and touring overseas wrestlers, to work for several of these promotions within a short space of time. However, an outright challenge from one company to another is virtually unheard of in British wrestling circles.

Bret Meadows entered the WAW training system in February 2002, and immediately made an impact. Adopting the name "The Kraft", in his first outing won the rookies battle royal at the Watton Sports Centre that same month.

It was a few weeks later where he made an dramatic entrance in his hometown of Clacton. At the Princes Theatre, as the U.K. Pitbulls fought the team of Hot Stuff and Triple X. After Big Dave Waters and Triple X were eliminated from the contest, the Bulk used every illegal tactic he could against Hot Stuff. In the heat of battle, the referee got blind sided, as was knocked out. The Kraft saw the chance to make an impact. Storming the ring, Kraft clobbered the Bulk over the head with a keyboard, giving Hot Stuff the chance to gain the victory.

I think it's safe to say that if it wasn't for Jimmy Ocean, Ricky Knight probably wouldn't be where he is today. A chance meeting at a nightclub two decades ago between the two resulted in many things: Jimmy training Ricky for the rigours of the professional wrestling world, the formation of the Superflys tag-team, a combination that dominated the tag-team ranks in Britain and beyond for years, and, of course, the formation of the World Association of Wrestling ten years ago.

Both men have had their ups and downs in wrestling. Jimmy was the original high-flyer of the British wrestling scene, doing years ago what the likes of Jody Fleisch and Jonny Storm do today. Age and injury have slowed Jimmy down a little in recent years. He competes only sporadically these days, but when he does, he still gives it his all.

It was in April 2001, at the massive Fightmare show at the Norwich Sport Village, that I saw the Zebra Kid in action for the first time. I had seen a couple of his matches on video, but these outings didn't really do him any justice.

That night, along with 2,000 other wrestling fans, I was blown away by his performance. I knew then that this kid was something special, and he would go far. Now, just a few weeks after winning the WAW British Heavyweight Championship, I thought I would sit back, reflect, and take a look back at my favourite Zebra Kid matches of the past two years.

Some of you may be wondering why I haven’t written about the mighty WWE lately. The answer is simple; I haven’t watched much of their product lately. This is because I’ve been busy attending to WAW matters.

So it’s that time of the month again when yours truly, in his role as WAW’s chief reporter, looks back at what’s happened in and out of the ring in the past month or so.

RE-POST: Lowestoft Memories (2003)

Lowestoft. Gem of the Suffolk coast. Known these days, for the most part, as the hometown of The Darkness, the biggest rock band in Britain right now. But twice a year, the World Association of Wrestling comes to town.

The Lowestoft shows are special to me not just because they are all great shows, but because it was here, two years ago, that I began my association with WAW. Saturday, December 15th, 2001 was my first night on the job as WAW's chief reporter.

So as we come up to the second anniversary of this momentus occasion, I thought I'd take a look back at my five personal favourite matches I've seen over the past two years in Lowestoft. These are listed in chronological order, and not in order of preference.

This past Saturday, instead of reporting on the latest World Association of Wrestling show in Lowestoft, I put down my pen and pad of paper, and for the second time, picked up the microphone, to commentate on the show for the video, which should be released sometime in the near future.

The journey from wrestling writer to wrestling commentator has been quite an interesting journey for yours truly. When I first began to write about this great industry nearly five years ago, actually talking about it was the furthest thing from my mind.

I've never been an extrovert. I've always been naturally shy, which at times made it very difficult for me to meet new people, which is probably why I'd never considered a career as a talker, as it were.

There is an old saying in professional wrestling, I think it was either Mean Gene Okerlund, or perhaps the late, great,Gorilla Monsoon who coined the phrase most often; "close only counts in horse shoes or hand grenades!"

Seeing Wrestlemania XIX this past Sunday reminded me just how close WAW came to getting certain talent in the pastyear or so.

I remember in February 2002, not long after I began to work for WAW, when supremo Ricky Knight told me that Fightmare II was on the cards. When he told me who he had in mind for the main event, the wrestling fan in me began to salivate.

We who follow the wrestling industry always hear about the great success stories. We love to hear about how well people have done, how they've battled adversaries both in and out of the ring to get to where they are. This happens in all aspects of this business.

Take yours truly for instance. I have aspirations to be on a par with the great Bill Apter one day. However, I know that for every person like me, there are probably thousands of other writers who want to achieve this goal.

The same can be said of the wrestlers. For every Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair that makes it in this business, there are countless others who, through various circumstances, just don't make it.

Sam Naylor and Craig Patterson were two such people. Sam and Perry first began to train as professional wrestlers at WAW's training school in 2001. Head honcho Ricky Knight paired the two friends together as a team, christening them "The Thetford Connection", even though neither lad actually lived in Thetford. But then again, this is the wrestling business we're talking about, so a little artistic licence is allowed.

By now the world and his wife would have heard the news. It's even causing some debate on the forums of this very web site. Nearly two weeks ago I resigned as web master and chief reporter for the World Association of Wrestling.

There are many people who want to know just why I left the company. Like vultures flying over a rotting corpse they are looking for any shred of information that may come their way, so they can try and work out just what happened.

The simple fact is that the reasons I left will probably never be known, will probably never be discussed on an open forum anywhere on the Internet. Within days of my departure I had heard some wild stories. No doubt some of you have heard some of these stories. All I can say is make of them what you will.

This month's column may embarrass some people. It's something I've been thinking of writing about for a few months now, and when the idea for this piece first came to mind, I didn't think it would be a good idea. I even got in touch with one of the wrestlers involved, and when he gave me the all clear, saying that he thought that this would make a good story, I knew I just had to write this piece.

In May 2002, the World Association of Wrestling held one of their twice yearly shows at the Waveney Sports & Leisure Centre in Lowestoft. The show was headlined by a massive eight-man tag that would further the feud between local hero Steve Quintain & "The Terminator" Sandy Scott.

Regular tag-team partners "Flying" Phil Powers and Paul Tyrell wrestled against each other in a match I thought was one of the best of 2002. In my opinion Powers and Tyrell are two of the most underrated wrestlers in the country right now, and this match was a perfect showcase for their talents.

On various fan forums recently, my esteemed employer Ricky Knight once again raised the topic of an all-British supershow, asking fans just who they would want to see on such a show.

It's been a dream of Ricky's for some time now, to promote a show where all companies put aside all of their differences, and come together for the good of the sport to hold a show that doesn't contain expensive, American or Japanese imports, just nothing but the top, home-grown talent.

It was while reading these threads that I thought it would make a good column. I've posted my views on who should be on the card, but since then I've done a bit more thinking, and I've come up with a few more ideas.

When the bods at 1 Stop Wrestling approached me about writing a series of exclusive columns for them, at first I was reluctant to accept their offer. When I first started writing on the Internet nearly three years ago, the guy I consider to be the best writer out there, SamJerry, told me never be exclusive to anyone, that your work should be seen by as many people as possible.

But ever since 1 Stop Wrestling began, they have been great supporters of the World Association of Wrestling. They've helped promote the company a great deal over the past few months, and this is my way of thanking Brett Summers and Chris Hatch for their help and support. So while my regular Two Sheds Review column wings it's way across the world wide web, visitors to 1 Stop Wrestling will get an exclusive dose of the Two Sheds medicine.

It was regarded as one of the finest matches on British soil in 2002, yet the sad fact is that only the most die-hard of fans, and those within in the industry, really got what it was about.
It was regarded as one of the finest matches on British soil in 2002, yet the sad fact is that only the most die-hard of fans, and those within in the industry, really got what it was about.

I first met Phil "Flash" Barker almost two years ago, at the FWA's Carpe Diem show at the Walthamstow Assembly Rooms. This was my first taste of FWA action, and at the time, Flash was the FWA Champion, the jewel in the crown of Dean Ayass' Old School faction as they sought to take over the promotion. Flash defended the title against fellow veteran Robbie Brookside that night.

Alex Shane is probably the best-known wrestler in Britain at the moment. With his massive size, his in-ring skill, and his ability to talk like no other, many consider him the total package as far as the wrestling business is concerned.

In this instalment of The Two Sheds Review, I had intended to bring you a review of the Ultimate Wrestling Alliance's show at the Ipswich Corn Exchange last night. However, various circumstances conspired against me, meaning that I didn't actually get to the show at all.

RE-POST: WAWW Girls - DVD Review

In this edition of The Two Sheds Review we’re going to take a look at the world of women’s wrestling, and more specifically, the UK-based World Association of Women’s Wrestling, the sister company of WAW, and their compilation DVD, WAWW Girls, which features a variety of matches from various WAW shows dating back to 2005.

This past May, the World Association of Wrestling travelled down to Bournemouthto take on their counterparts in the Frontier Wrestling Alliance for the first everBritish Inter-Federation Cup, and just two months later, WAW, in association with Pinfall Productions, have released this great show on DVD.

Last September the men and women of the World Association of Wrestling paid tribute to referee Joe Williams, who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. Their Legends show, held at the Waveney Sports Centre in Lowestoft, was dedicated to him, and featured some of the greatest wrestlers to have ever stepped into a British wrestling ring. Sadly, Joe died shortly after this show took place, which makes the review of the WAW Legends DVD more poignant. Filmed by Pinfall Productions, our host for the evening was John Johnson.

In April 2001, two thousand fans filled the Norwich Sports Village at the World Association of Wrestling’s first Fightmare show. Finally, after six years, there was a sequel, with Fightmare II being held at the Waveney Sports Centre in Lowestoft in May last year, with the two disc DVD set released a few months later, and it’s this release, courtesy of the WAW powers that be, that we’re going to look at now. Our hosts for the show are Pinfall Production regulars John Johnson and Dan Ambrose.

It’s time to go back to my old stomping ground as we take a look at one of the World Association of Wrestling’s recent DVD releases, “Another Night in Yarmouth”, held at the Great Yarmouth Marina Centre in August of last year. Our host for the evening is John Johnson.

As a companion volume to their “Another Night in Yarmouth” DVD release, the World Association of Wrestling, in conjunction with Pinfall Productions, have also released “Yarmouth Uncaged”, a best of the rest compilation if you will, featuring some of the other matches from their successful run of shows at the Atlantis Arena last summer. Our hosts for this compilation are John Johnson and Dan Ambrose.

Once again I’m off to my old stomping ground, the World Association of Wrestling, looking back at their summer season at the Atlantis Arena in Great Yarmouth, a season I missed the majority of due to glandular fever, with their “Another Night in Yarmouth” DVD release, courtesy of Pinfall Productions. As always, our hosts for the evening are the ever improving John Johnson and Dan Ambrose.

It’s taken a while, but WAW, in conjunction with CDC Productions, the company responsible for the FWA and UK Round-Up shows on The Wrestling Channel, have finally released One Night In Yarmouth on DVD, filmed during WAW’s series of successful shows at the Atlantis Arena in Great Yarmouth last August.

Tuesday, 19 March 2019

Monday, 18 March 2019

Sunday, 17 March 2019

Saturday, 16 March 2019

Friday, 15 March 2019

Thursday, 14 March 2019