RE-POST: Random Ramblings September 2002

First things first, a little apology. In my last column, I hyped the World Association of Wrestling website, www.waw-uk.com. Days later, due to a problem with the website provider, the site crashed, and a year's worth of work went up in smoke. I am in the process of rebuilding the site as we speak. We now have a new address, which is www.wawwrestling.cjb.net

There are a few things I'd like to discuss this time, so let's get on with it.

The Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA) is one of the most publicised wrestling promotions in Britain today. Many Internet wrestling journalists criticise them for the apparent way they manipulate the media, their argument being that no other company gets the hype that they do. In my opinion, the FWA are just making the best of the contacts they have, and personally, I see no problem with that. But I'm going off into a slightly different area here, something I'd rather discuss at another time.

On Saturday, October 13th, at the York Hall in Bethnal Green, London, the FWA will be hosting their "British Uprising" event, said to be the biggest show in Britain this year. There are many intriguing matches already lined up for the show, such as Flash Barker v Jodie Fleisch, Doug Williams, who is fast gaining a good reputation Stateside, against former ECW and WWF Light-Heavyweight Champion Jerry Lynn, and Ulf Hermann, who wrestled Brian Lawler at the "Revival" show a few months ago, going up against the chair-swinging freak Balls Mahoney. Rumour has it that Sean "X-Pac" Waltman is also going to make an appearance, but at the moment, these are just rumours.

One match that got me thinking was Paul Travell going up against the FWA's number one babe, Nikita. It got me thinking about several things, but the main point I thought about was this.

It's a known fact that in Britain right now, male wrestlers far outnumber their female counterparts. But surely, instead of pitting Nikita against a man, a credible female opponent could have been found?

Women's wrestling, thanks to the WWE/F, is suffering somewhat. Current WWE Women's champion Molly Holly is, in my opinion, an excellent wrestler. Her top contender, Trish Stratus, has made great strides in her career in the past year or so.

In this country, women's wrestling is as strong as ever, with none other than WAW's Sweet Saraya leading the way, closely followed by the likes of Angel, Kharisma, Nikki Best, Klondyke Kate, and of course, Nikita.

Nikita's match at the aforementioned "Revival" show did, quite honestly, leave a lot to be desired, but in the past few months, she has shown a great improvement. Her work rate has improved considerably, and her moves now seem more crisp than ever. This is probably due to the fact that she has recently gone up against Saraya, probably one of the best female grapplers in the world right now, and regarded as one of the best wrestling trainers in Britain today.

So why is it at one of the biggest shows in Britain this year, Nikita must wrestle a man? I've got nothing against Paul Travell. I've seen him a couple of times, and he shows a lot of promise. But "British Uprising" would have been the perfect showcase for women's wrestling in Britain today, and a Nikita v Sweet Saraya contest would have been the perfect match for such a show. The two have had some good matches on other shows, both in singles and mixed tag matches, so why not here?

I guess for a good dose of women's wrestling, I'll have to wait until the following Saturday, when Saraya defends her WAW British title in a fatal four way against Angel, Kharisma and Nikki Best.

Now onto our American cousins. Firstly, a little thing I observed while watching Smackdown a few weeks ago. But before I set up that little allegory, I'll tell you a little story.

A few weeks ago, I was observing one of the WAW training schools in Norwich. Saraya, who'll I'll now refer to as Julia, my old pal, sent her eight trainees away in pairs to set up practice matches. Yours truly got to referee the first two matches.

The trainees did well. Their moves were well thought out, well executed But one thing was wrong with each and every match, and afterwards, Julia gave them a right dressing down.

The problem was that each and every match was exactly the same. Each match began in the same way. Julia told her students about this, saying that if she was a punter, and she attended a wrestling show where each and every match was exactly the same, she'd ask for her money back.

A couple of weeks later, I'm sitting in front of my television one Saturday morning, watching Smackdown, when I noticed something, something that reminded me of that day at the training school.

Three matches, sadly I can't remember who the wrestlers were, three matches, all in a row, had, for the first few minutes, the same beginning - collar and elbow lockup, wrestler A gets wrestler B in an arm-wringer, pulls about on the arm for a couple of minutes, before wrestler B manages to escape the hold and gets wrestler A in an arm-wringer of his own, and so on, and so on.

I began to think about this a lot. The WWE is meant to be the best wrestling promotion in the world. It's meant to be the most professional wrestling promotion in the world as well. If this is so, then how come three matches, on one of their main television programmes, had the same first five minutes? I had always thought that the likes of Pat Patterson, Johnny Ace, Sgt. Slaughter and Fit Finlay were excellent at setting out the matches. Yet how come something like this was allowed to happen?

While still on the subject of the WWE, I must say that in recent weeks, the Raw v Smackdown storyline has made for some compelling viewing. After a somewhat shaky period for the writing team, it seems like Miss McMahon and her co-horts have finally found a winning formula, and in this writer's opinion, it's about time.

However, with the reintroduction of the old WCW title, now known only as the World Title, I couldn't help but think what the WCW Invasion storyline would have been like if the Raw v Smackdown angle had been thought of last year.

You may recall that when Uncle Vince first purchased WCW, it was rumoured that WCW would be given the Raw show, but after the tepid response the Booker T v Buff Bagwell match received, these plans were shelved.

But imagine, if you will, if WCW had been given Raw, and the WWF had been given Smackdown. The entire WCW roster would have been given a chance to shine on their own. Sure, they would have been overshadowed by their Smackdown counterparts, but imagine, if you will, if parts of the storyline had played out like this;

A short time after becoming WCW Raw, Shane McMahon recruits Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer.

On the next Smackdown, rumour is strife that some of the WWF stars are thinking of defecting to WCW. Then, at the end of the show, Paul Heyman leaves his commentary position, and announces that he, as well as Taz, Raven, Rhyno and The Dudleys are defecting to WCW.

At the ensuing Invasion pay-per-view, WCW capture their ultimate prize when Steve Austin defects to Raw.

I'm sure many of you, now I have planted the seed in your imagination, can come up with some other hindsight-inspired ideas, so I'll leave this one with you.

My final subject concerns the world of print journalism. This coming Friday, September 20th is perhaps the biggest day of my life. At 2pm, I will be taking an aptitude test with the Archant media group in Norwich. Archant own many newspapers, most notably the Eastern Daily Press and the Eastern Evening News.

If I pass this test, which is a combination of English and general knowledge tests, I will be accepted into Archant's trainee journalism program, which starts early next year.

To be honest with you all, I am as nervous as hell about this. This is a big test for me. Writing is in my blood, it is a part of me. I've been writing for most of my life, long before I knew the WWE/F even existed, and I've always said that someday I would like to earn a living doing something I really enjoy.

But while thinking about this upcoming test, I began to think of the world of print journalism, most notably, wrestling print journalism, and wrestling magazines which are printed here in Britain.

You see, not long ago, I began to explore the idea of approaching a couple of magazines, which for obvious reasons I won't name, about the possibility of writing for them. I saw that a couple of writers who contribute to wrestling websites on a regular basis also had jobs writing columns for these magazines. I thought that, as I have written about wrestling on the Internet for over two years, I would see if anyone in the print media world was interested in my talents.

So, with a couple of e-mail addresses to hand, I made my first approach, to a writer who was helping to promote a show in a nearby city. I asked him if perhaps he could provide me with a contact e-mail address or telephone number for someone in charge of the magazine he wrote for. The response - there wasn't one.

Undeterred by this, a few weeks later, I approached another Internet-cum-magazine writer. This writer had himself mentioned in his debut column that he used to write on the Internet, and that he couldn't believe he was writing for a wrestling magazine. I began to think that if this guy could do it, then so could I. So I got his e-mail address from the magazine, and dropped him a line. The response - there wasn't one.

I began to wonder if perhaps I had done anything wrong in approaching them in this way. All I had wanted was a chance to show what I could do. After all, this is what I had basically done on the Internet for two years. Is there a difference to writing on the Internet, and writing for a print publication? Is the gap between wrestling website and wrestling magazine so wide that only a select few can make the jump? Surely not!

So as Friday approaches, I begin to think of my upcoming test, what it could do for me, and what I would have to leave behind should I be successful. But that's enough pondering from me. I'm going to leave you for now. I think I've given you plenty to think about this time around!