julianradbourne.co.uk AKA The Two Sheds Review: 01/12/2004

Friday, December 31, 2004

The Trials & Tribulations of The Wrestling Channel

When The Wrestling Channel was launched in March of this year, those of us who didn't spend vast amounts of money with tape traders were very optimistic. It meant that since the demise of WCW two years before, British television viewers had a viable alternative to their weekly dose of WWE programming.

But if you were to log onto TWC's forum now, you would find it full of negative comments, with many formally loyal viewers now predicting the end of the channel only seven months since it's debut.

So what has gone wrong? Why are so many people turning against the world's first ever dedicated wrestling channel?

The Rise & Fall of the USWA

For those of you who haven't been reading in the past few weeks.....

In 1988, three regional promotions formed an alliance, Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association on Minnesota, the Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling in Dallas, and Jerry Lawler's Championship Wrestling Association in Memphis. This resulted in a pay-per-view show, the AWA's Superclash III, which was headlined by a title unification clash between AWA Champion Lawler and WCCW Champion Kerry Von Erich, which Lawler won.

But backstage, politics soon destroyed the alliance. Gagne refused to pay Lawler and the Von Erich's their share of the gate and pay-per-view revenue. This meant that Lawler refused to defend his new title in AWA territories, and the Von Erichs were depending on that money to survive.

The Rise & Fall of WCCW

In my last instalment, I chronicled the history of the American Wrestling Association, one of the wrestling promotions that was show when satellite television was first introduced in Britain in 1989. The AWA, and GLOW, were more or less up-to-date when first broadcast, but when the Lifestyle channel finished the GLOW run, they turned back the clock a few years, showing classic wrestling long before The Wrestling Channel ever did.

Think of wrestling in Texas, and you immediately think of two things, the Von Erich family, and World Class Championship Wrestling.

When the GLOW run cam to an end, Lifestyle began showing World Class shows from the early eighties. This was when the territory was still a division of the National Wrestling Alliance, and before Vince McMahon purchased Capitol Sports from his father and began his national expansion.

The Rise & Fall of the AWA

Last week I wrote about one of the wrestling promotions that appeared on satellite television when the Astra service was launched in 1989, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW), which was broadcast on the Lifestyle channel.

Lifestyle''s sister channel on Astra was Screensport. During it's time on air the channel showed a wide variety of promotions, including the National Wrestling Alliance, Jerry Lawler's USWA, and a few others. But at the start the most prominent promotion on the channel was at one time one of the big three in America, Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association.

However, the sad thing is that as far as British wrestling fans were concerned, we saw the AWA towards the end of it's existence. Although it had a national television contract with ESPN, poor business practices and an ever decreasing work force meant that by 1991, the AWA was no more.

Top 10 Supercard Sunday Shows

With The Wrestling Channel having been up and running for just over two months now, I thought I would take the opportunity to take a look back at the segment which has become the flagship of the channel, the Supercard Sunday slot, and take a look back at the past ten Supercard shows, ranking them in order of preference.

The Worst Wrestling Promotion in History

When Sky launched their television service via the Astra satellite in 1989, not only were we given four channels from Sky themselves, but various other channels catering for a variety of tastes. Some of these channels would only last a couple of years or so, and only a handful of them made it on to the Sky Digital platform.

While Sky achieved great success with the WWF, other channels had hit-and-miss affairs with companies such as the NWA, AWA, USWA, GWF, and others.

One particular channel that experimented with wrestling was Lifestyle. During the week they aimed their programming at a female demographic, but at weekends they looked for a family audience, and as Sky's family audience was glued to WWF shows, Lifestyle had a wrestling show of their own, and in my opinion, it was the worst wrestling show I have ever seen.

Founded by David MacLaine in 1986, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, or GLOW, came to us each week from the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. Each week the show began with the roster dancing in the ring, in full wrestling attire, rapping along to an early eighties synth-pop backing track.

The Stars of TWC

This week for my TWC column, I thought I'd take a look at a few of the wrestlers who seem to be getting more attention on the channel than anyone else.

I'm a JBL Fan - & Proud of It!

I think it was about eight or nine years ago when I saw the first big television match of a man mountain of a wrestler in the WWF. Dressed in a cowboy hat, carrying a cowbell to the ring, and accompanied by his Uncle Zebakiah, Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw put in a hell of an effort against the phenom himself, the Undertaker.

In those days, Bradshaw was just another generic big man wrestler in a company filled with over-the-top and sometimes outdated gimmicks, at a time when they were also being soundly beaten in the Monday Night Wars by a company that would cease to exist just a few years later.

Although I was impressed by his efforts against the Dead Man that day, I never thought that he would ever be championship material. Well, I thought he would enjoy a run as Intercontinental Champion, but as far as the big prize goes, that was certainly a no-no.

Is Mike Tyson WWE Bound?

Well, it had to happen. After nearly twenty years as one of the most feared men in professional boxing, Mike Tyson was knocked out by Britain's own Danny Williams in the fourth round this past Friday night.

Now, a lot of you may be wondering why I'm discussing the exploits of a boxer in a wrestling column. Well, read on.

Mike Tyson is one of the most famous people in the world at the moment, and one of the most controversial. Everyone knows of his exploits in and out of the ring, but you have to admit, at one time, Tyson really was the toughest man on the planet.

A Tribute to "Bomber" Pat Roach

It's a sad fact of life that as you get older, people that you've admired since you were a child pass away, seemingly before their time.

Just a few weeks ago I was watching the old World of Sport shows on The Wrestling Channel one afternoon, and, with a great deal of interest, saw a few matches featuring "Bomber" Pat Roach.

I hadn't seen Pat wrestle since I got hold of an old British wrestling video about fifteen years ago, so my memories of Pat as a wrestler were somewhat cloudy. But seeing him in action, particularly in his match against Ray Steele, reminded me just how damn good he was.

The Trials & Tribulations of Rob Van Dam

When I first heard a few weeks ago that Rob Van Dam's contract with the WWE was up for renewal, a large part of me wished he wouldn't sign an extension.

I first saw Rob Van Dam wrestle during the ECW invasion of Monday Nght Raw in 1997. I was immediately impressed. Showing a great combination of skills and charisma, it was obvious that he would go far in the wrestling world. I continued to watch his career with great interest during his long ECW TV title reign, a championship run that was only ended when he broke his ankle in a match with Rhyno.

When he joined the second ECW invasion of Raw in 2001, this time teaming with the WCW faction to form The Alliance, RVD once again showed the flashes of brilliance that captured my imagination four years previously. His high-flying, hard-hitting, hard-core style made him the most popular member of the Alliance faction, even though he was meant to be a hated heel.

What's in a Name?

What's in a name? Well, if you're trying to forge a career in the wrestling industry, a name is one of the most important things you can have.

Just ask Steve Austin. When he first entered the WWF, he was given the name of The Ringmaster. Nobody gave a rat's ass, and Austin knew it. Wanting to take on a more serious character, Austin went to the creative team and asked for a new name. They gave him a huge list of names that would suit his new serious, cold, serial killer-like character. And right at the top of that list was Chilly McFreeze.

Can you imagine this - "And that's the bottom line, because Chilly McFreeze said so!" Sends a chill down your spine, doesn't it. A short time later, Austin's ex-wife Jeannie accidentally came up with the Stone Cold nickname, and the tag stuck.

Replying to Brock Lesnar's Press Release

Last week, former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar released a statement giving the nine reasons he had quit the company. I thought it would be a good idea to offer my own views on his reasons.

The Demise of Total Wrestling

The international wrestling scene was dealt a tremendous blow this week with the announcement that Total Wrestling magazine was closing it's doors.

To say that this was a surprise to many would be an understatement. In just under two years, Total Wrestling magazine had gained one hell of a reputation on the wrestling scene.

Based in Britain and first published in 2002, Total Wrestling was the replacement for the defunct World of Wrestling and Power of Wrestling magazines. With the legendary Bill Apter as senior editor, and boasting such writing talent as Vince Russo, Mile Altamura and Jon Farrer, Total Wrestling was greeted with great fanfare at a time when more and more wrestling fans relied on the Internet as a valid news source.

Wrestlemania XX Preview

Well, we're just a few days away from the granddaddy of them all. Wrestlemania XX emanates from Madison Square Garden this coming Sunday, and with the various web sites I write for asking for my opinions on what's going to happen, I thought that I might as well jump on board, as it were. So here goes.....

The Triple Threat

This Sunday, the 29th, will be just two weeks away from the biggest show of the year, Wrestlemania 20. Wrestlemania has always been my favourite show of the year. Long-time readers of my column will know this. It's the show that, way back in 1989, kick-started my love affair with the wrestling business again. The rest, as they say, is history.

And while I'm looking forward to the WWE title match between Kurt Angle and champion Eddie Guerrero, I'm not really looking forward to the other big title match.

When Chris Benoit won the Royal Rumble almost two months ago, I cheered. I've been a Benoit-mark for years, ever since I first saw him competing for WCW. His match against Dean Malenko at Road Wild a few years back is a perfect example of excellent technical wrestling.

The Life & Times of Brock Lesnar

There are those who would have you believe that the Internet is a powerful force in the professional wrestling industry. I for one had always thought that this was not the case. However, upon seeing Wrestlemania XX this past Sunday, I've been forced to re-evaluate this way of thinking a little.

Image is Everything

It's a well known fact that in all parts of the world, image is everything, whether you are an actor, musician, politician, or a wrestler, and when one thinks of image, one thinks of Tammy Sytch.

After a stint in ECW, Tammy Sytch came to international prominence when she jumped ship, along with her boyfriend, Chris Candido, to the WWF in the mid-nineties. There, they were christened Sunny and Skip, the Body Donnas.

This gimmick didn't exactly set the world afire, at first. Although Candido was more than competent in the ring, his feud with perennial jobber Barry Horrowitz, and subsequent teaming with Dr. Tom Prichard as his "twin brother from another mother" didn't take him to the top of the tower, as it were. Instead, as time went by, more and more attention was paid to his manager at ringside.

The Natural Born Thrillaz

In the dying days of World Championship Wrestling, they were being touted as the next big superstars of professional wrestling, graduates (for the most part), of the WCW Power Plant training facility in Atlanta. The Natural Born Thrillaz were a group of young, hungry, up-and-coming stars who had the world at their feet. Unfortunately, this world came crashing down around them as WCW's high-spending in years gone by finally caught up with them. As they were being pushed to the moon and back, Vince McMahon snapped up his rival in exchange for the proverbial bag of peanuts.

But it didn't look that bad for this group of athletes. As well as buying the WCW brand name and it's vast video back catalogue, McMahon acquired the contracts of more than twenty wrestlers as well. However, even though they were relatively successful in WCW, this didn't mean that this success would transplant itself to the WWF, especially given the fact that the WWF creative team seemed intent on slaughtering anything to do with their former rivals.

So now, three years on, just what has happened to this group?

With the news that both Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg could be departing the WWE after Wrestlemania XX this Sunday, one name has kind of disappeared from the scene, even though he could also be on his way from Titan Towers very soon.

Farewell Wrestle-Zone!

Today is truly a sad day as far as the Internet wrestling community goes, as it was just a few moments ago that I learned that one of the biggest wrestling websites in Europe is closing it's doors, perhaps for good.

Wrestle-Zone (www.wrestle-zone.co.uk) is perhaps one of the best websites this column has appeared on. In it's prime, the site was getting over 400,000 hits a week. With a great team of writers who provided news and commentary from around the world, the site's owner, Gary Graham, established a site that ranked alongside Smash Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Daily, 1 Wrestling, and many, many more.

The Life & Times of Steven Richards

When one thinks back to the glory days of Extreme Championship Wrestling, one also thinks of the many great stars that graced Paul Heyman's renegade company - Raven, Rhyno, Tazz, the Sandman, the Dudleys, and many more. But one man who, more often than not, tends to get overlooked is Steven Richards.

For most of his time in ECW, Richards served many in the role of sidekick, often being teamed with the likes of Raven, or the Blue Meanie in the legendary Blue World Order, one of the best wrestling parodies of the nineties. But the fact that he was very often another guy's stool pigeon meant he never really had the chance to shine.

It was pretty much the same when he first arrived in the WWE a few years back. After a brief stint in WCW, and a knee injury that nearly ended his career, Richards turned up in McMahon land, and looked totally lost. For most of the time, he would be seen in the background when other things happened, or, as he did in ECW, he would parody other stars, as well as reuniting with the Blue Meanie. But the fact that he was hardly being used was a great shame.

Goldberg's Year in the WWE

Almost a year ago, Safeco Field and World Wrestling Entertainment were abuzz with the news that Bill Goldberg, possibly the last superstar WCW ever created, was finally coming to McMahon-land. Having heavily criticised the product over the past few months, and cancelled many meetings with the powers-that-be, both sides finally reached an agreement. Finally, the man that wrestling fans had wanted to see in a WWE ring since the beginning of the Invasion in June 2001 was here.

It's Rumble Time Again!

It's that time of year again, folks, when thirty of the (supposedly) top wrestlers in the wrestling business compete in one of the toughest (supposedly) matches in the history of the game, the Royal Rumble.

The Rumble is probably my second favourite pay-per-view of the year, behind Wrestlemania. As many of you probably know, I've been watching the WWE since 1989, and the Rumble match itself always held a special place in my heart, probably because unlike most other gimmick matches, it only comes around once a year, and it isn't done to death.

The first Rumble I saw back in 1990 featured a moment that will remain as one of my favourites in WWE history, and I'm not including the moment where the Warlord entered and was promptly dispatched from the ring seconds later. I'm talking about that moment.

Wrestlecrap - Book Review

In the age of the Internet, the wrestling business is more open than it's ever been. These days whenever you log onto a web site or fan forum you always read about the things that are bad about this business. However, you seldom hear such things with a great big dose of salt.

The Stone Cold Truth - Book Review

Since Mrs. Foley's baby boy put pen to paper four years ago and penned the now classic Have A Nice Day, we've seen literally dozens and dozens of biographies from wrestlers past and present, with the latest edition being Steve Austin's The Stone Cold Truth, penned with the help of Jim Ross and Dennis Brent.

It's Rumble Time Again!