Billy Kirkwood previews ICW ‘100% Shenanigans’

Craig Wilson

(Image courtesy of http://www.mvfestival.com)

For my Scottish Sun column this week I caught up with Scottish comedian Billy Kirkwood who doubles as the commentator for hotter than hot Scottish wrestling promotion Insane Championship Wrestling. This Sunday the group will host their final event of the year at the Garage in Glasgow and look back on what has been an incredible year for the promotion.

2013 started brightly for them winning Fighting Spirit Magazine’s ‘UK Promotion of the Year’ award with 55% of the vote – twice what the second placed company received and they’ve gone from strength to strength since. A sold out show at the Edinburgh Picturehoue featured Colt Cabana and Sabu with Rhyno appearing for the group at one of their Glasgow dates. Here, Craig catches up with Billy and discuses ICW and the Scottish wrestling scene generally.

This Week in Wrestling

Jamie Lithgow

What Wrestling Taught Us This Week…

WE HEART REFERENCES!!!!
Dunn & Marcos aka The Ring Crew Express

• Goldberg might be competing at Wrestlemania XXX. That’ll be good, I mean his Wrestlemania XX appearance went down a treat…
• Maybe WWE’s ratings aren’t as high as they could be because people don’t like their main character? John Cena can’t even escape a mixed reaction in his own backyard, yet he is presented as the main protagonist to potential viewers. He sure sells loads of t-shirts though…
• Michael Strahan is hard to hip toss.
• The reason Divas matches suck – the humble dropkick is used as a finisher.

The Best Women’s Tag-Team You’ve Never Heard Of…

Russ Morgan

The Canadian NINJAs Nicole Matthews and Portia Perez (Image courtesy of triplemerc.wordpress.com)

Collectively known as “The Canadian NINJAs” (National International Nation of Jalapeño Awesomeness), a lot of you have probably never heard of these girls. Anyone who has ever watched Shimmer Womens Athletics out of Chicago can see that the now former tag champs should be destined for good things. Both girls at different times have been noted in PWI 50 Best Female Wrestlers category.

Perez has been wrestling since 2004 and Matthews since 2006, so rookies they ain’t (Perez even worked a dark match for TNA in 2008). The girls don’t just stick to wrestling other DIVAs, they have occasionally tagged with and taken on guys in singles matches (Nicole Matthews v Red DeNero is worth a watch). This is my case for them to get their moment in the limelight.

Top Five Wrestling Turkeys of 2013

Craig Wilson, Brian Damage and Jamie Lithgow

(Image courtesy of http://luchalucyblog.files.wordpress.com/)

2013 hasn’t been without its share of dud wrestling moments. We’ve had a run of poor WWE PPVs, TNA appears to be in perpetual free-fall and a series of story lines have been thrown at us that have left us scratching our heads. We can all agree there’s been some awful moments this year whether that’s been awful heel or face turns involving The Miz and Dolph Ziggler, dreadful authority figures or the WWE Battleground PPV.

With Thanksgiving not being complete without turkey we thought it’d only be apt if the team shares their Top Five Wrestling Turkeys of 2013 to mark the day. Happy Thanksgiving, American readers.

The Land Of The Setting Sun: The WWE’s Misuse of Japanese Talent

Brian Damage

(Image courtesy of http://www.wwe.com)

井の中の蛙大海を知らず Translation: A frog in a well does not know the great sea… Meaning: People are satisfied to judge things by their own narrow experience, never knowing of the wide world outside.

There is no question, some of the most talented and skilled workers in pro wrestling come from overseas in Japan. There is a laundry list of all time greats that have hailed from the “Land of the Rising Sun.” Starting with Rikidozan (The father of Puroresu) to Antonio Inoki, Giant Baba, Masahiro Chono, Keiji Mutoh (The Great Muta), Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, Tiger Mask, Jushin “Thunder” Liger, KENTA, Tatsumi Fujinami, Hiroshi Tanahashi and so on and so forth….

History of WWE: 50 Years of Sports Entertainment review

Craig Wilson

(Image courtesy of http://www.wwedvd.co.uk)

There are a number of fiftieth anniversaries taking place in 2013. It was fifty years ago last week that JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas while 1963 also saw the debut on our screens of Doctor Who. A significant moment also took place in the world of wrestling when a promoter named Vincent J. McMahon and his partner Joseph “Toots” Mondt broke away from the NWA and renamed their Capitol Wrestling promotion the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) and it is that anniversary, and what has happened since, that this set celebrates.

In the subsequent 50 years the second W was dropped – in 1979 – and after losing a battle with the animal folks the company became the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002. And just how are the WWE celebrating their fifty years? By doing what they do best and releasing a documentary.

Raw Rewind: 24 November 1997

Craig Wilson

In this #Rawrewind we review the show from 24 November 1997 featuring a main event of Shawn Michaels v Vader in a non title match. Elsewhere, DX bring out a midget dressed as Bret Hart, Billy Gunn and Jesse James get a tag title shot and the feud between The Rock and Stone Cold continues to heat up.

All the previous Raw Rewinds can be located here.

Champion Roll Call:

WWF Champion: Shawn Michaels
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Stone Cold Steve Austin
WWF Tag Team Champions: The Legion of Doom
WWF European Champion: Shawn Michaels

Survivor Series 2013 Preview and Predictions

Craig Wilson, Brian Damage, Russ Morgan and Jamie Lithgow

(Image courtesy of wikipedia.org)

Tonight the WWE host the final one of this year’s ”Big Four” PPVs as Survivor Series hits our screens. In the main event WWE Champion Randy Orton will defend the title against The Big Show whilst World Heavyweight Champion John Cena faces Alberto Del Rio, the man he won the belt from at Hell in a Cell last month.

On the undercard CM Punk and Daniel Bryan team to take on The Wyatt Family, new Intercontinental Champ Big E. Langston wrestles Curtis Axel and there are two traditional Survivor Series matches with Goldust, Cody Rhodes, The Usos and the returning Rey Mysterio Jnr facing The Shield and The Real Americans and in the other one virtually the entire divas division is in action in a 7 v 7 match. The pre-show will feature the recently returned heel The Miz taking on the man he turned against, Kofi Kingston. Here Craig, Brian, Russ and Jamie share their predictions and thoughts on tonight’s show.

This Week in Wrestling

Jamie Lithgow

Glory days
(Image courtesy of http://www.wwe.com)

Mysterio Rises
So this week former World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio made his in-ring television return. As cool as it was to see the masked man run down at the end of Raw and help his babyface amigos, I couldn’t help but feel a little underwhelmed. I mean, he’s Rey Mysterio, he’s one of the most recognisable and popular WWE performers of the last ten years. He’s a former World Heavyweight Champion and (sort of) former WWE Champion, surely he deserved a bigger reintroduction than interjecting himself in a mass brawl?