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Saturday 9 March 2019

RE-POST: WrestleTalk No More (December 2002)

British wrestling was dealt a terrible blow this week when it's biggest mainstream media outlet was suddenly yanked out from under it's feet, without so much as a warning.

The original TalkWrestling show began on Kelvin MacKenzie's TalkSport radio station sometime last year. Former children's television presenter Tommy Boyd, at the suggestion of one of his children, approached his bosses with the idea of doing a phone in radio show focused on the wrestling industry. His bosses agreed, and the first incarnation of the show was born.

Quickly realising that his knowledge of the mat game was somewhat limited, Boyd soon recruited an able sidekick in the Frontier Wrestling Alliance stalwart Alex Shane. "The Showstealer" proved a more than able radio announcer, becoming a sort of colour commentator, if you will.

Despite the fact that Boyd's lack of knowledge with regards to matters wrestling was very apparent at times, the show proved highly successful, and gained a loyal following. It wasn't long before Shane began to use the program to promote upcoming FWA shows, as the promotion began to get more and more involved with the running of the show.

With the aid of the radio station and the FWA, Boyd struck out this past February by promoting his one and only show, Revival, in Crystal Palace in London. The show, featuring British stars such as Jonny Storm, Scott Parker, Doug Williams, Jodie Fleisch, and well known American wrestlers Eddie Guerrero and Brian Christopher, was a great critical success. Boyd and Shane used the radio show to start an angle between them, with Boyd acting as a Vince McMahon-like character against the popular Showstealer. The angle continued into the show itself where Boyd "robbed" Shane of his chance to compete in the "King of England" tournament that night.

Boyd also succeeded in doing something not many people had done since 1988. Using his media contacts, Revival was recorded and shown, albeit edited, on British satellite television station Bravo. Receiving numerous airings over a number of weeks, Revival was only the second British wrestling show to be shown on a British television channel since 1988, Hammerlock's very poor Transatlantic Wrestling Challenge being the only other show aired since Greg Dyke kicked wrestling to the kerb over a decade before.

With the success of Revival behind him, Boyd promised more shows at a later date, even though Bravo had shown no further interest in the British wrestling product. Things began to look good for Boyd, until he made a fatal error.

Boyd also hosted another phone in show on Talksport, and shortly after the death of the Queen Mother, he failed to censor a caller who made disparaging comments towards the British Royal family. Days later, and Boyd was out of a job. TalkWrestling then disappeared from the airwaves.

All was not lost though. A few weeks after Boyd's dismissal, TalkWrestling was repackaged, and returned, with Shane now in the hot seat as the main presenter, with help from his FWA cohorts Dean Ayass, Nikita, Simon Lilsboy, and a few others as the weeks and months went on.

Now being staffed by a team who knew their stuff, WrestleTalk, as it became known, improved a great deal. With Shane now in charge of the show, the connection between WrestleTalk and the FWA got even stronger, and Shane used the show to heavily hype upcoming FWA shows. One criticism that was levelled at the program was the fact that the show could have been used to promote other British wrestling companies as well.

The show continued to go from strength to strength, but earlier this week, without a word of warning, Kelvin MacKenzie cancelled WrestleTalk, deciding to replace it with a show dedicated to "easy listening" music, which annoyed and confused many fans, considering that TalkSport was supposed to be a sports-related radio station.

To say that Alex Shane and his comrades were upset by this would be an understatement. On the FWA website this week, Shane and Ayass spoke of their disappointment with regards to this situation. They had no idea that the cancellation of the show was on the cards. In his statement Ayass said that if fans wanted to complain to the station controllers about their decision, they should do so in a constructive way, without resorting to insults, or questioning the parentage of the station controllers.

Despite the fact that several Internet petitions, designed to get WrestleTalk back on the air, some of which I have signed, are now doing the rounds, something tells me that this is perhaps the last we will see of WrestleTalk. A shame really, as Alex Shane and his friends showed that they were truly passionate about this project, and they deserved better treatment than this.

If you would like to air your views on WrestleTalk's cancellation, TalkSport's website can be found by logging onto www.talksport.net

Alternatively, you can find links to the various on-line petitions on the UK Fan Forum, which can be reached at www.ukff.com

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