FWA TV Volume 8

[Guest Last Warrior]

FWA TV: Volume 8

 

This is my first review of any FWA material and is actually my first review in general, so I will try to make everything as clear as I can to enable that everyone can enjoy it. All that I need now is a catchy name for my tape reviews, if anyone has one that they think I should use then e-mail me. In this my first review, I will be assuming that nobody has seen any FWA before and will be explaining everything. I have been to a lot of the shows in person but never seen any of the TV before and so this is a new experience for me as well.

 

For those of you unfamiliar with the FWA, they do one big show a month and move around all over Britain. They employ pretty much all the top British workers (politics gets in the way of hiring some people) and are widely regarded as putting on the highest quality British wrestling shows. They also bring over top American independent talent such as Eddie Guerrero, Christopher Daniels, Jerry Lynn, and AJ Styles etc. Their shows have storylines and this is what the TV shows are all about.

 

Volume 8 covers episodes 29, 30 and also the end of series 1 hour special.

 

Episode 29

 

- The show opens with a backstage promo featuring Drew McDonald and Flash Barker. They are the two main heels in the FWA at this time. Drew is a big, fat bald Scot who when in his wrestling attire looks like he is Tazz’s dad. Flash Barker is a big guy whose gimmick is that he is hard and beats people up for the fun of it. This is not just an angle as he has a black belt in karate and was on the British Olympic team. The sound quality is not great in this segment and what with Drew’s thick Scottish accent I can’t make out much of it. The gist of it is that they don’t like Chris Harvard (Nowinski) and that if he wasn’t good enough to make it through the Tough Enough series, then what makes him think he is good enough to hang with the British guys.

 

- They do a recap from 5 weeks ago where Alex Shane was attacked by the ‘Old School’ and his security guard, Flash Barker, turned on him to join up with the ‘Old School’. The main storyline at the moment is that the ‘New School’ are fighting the ‘Old school’. In other words, youngsters Vs old’ens.

 

- We get another recap from 3 weeks ago where Chris Harvard is introduced to the FWA fans. This is strange because this actually happened at the show where he wrestled. In fact it is clearly the same place where the matches are taking place. It is obvious it is the same show because the entire crowd are in the same place. Why try and make it seem like it happened 3 weeks ago when it would be obvious to a blind man that this all happened on the same night. Makes it seem amateurish.

 

- We finally get down to the reason people brought this tape, the wrestling. Tonight’s main event is Alex Shane & Chris Harvard Vs Drew McDonald and Flash Barker. I assume that everyone is familiar with Chris Harvard, this was in his pre-perm days. Alex Shane is the #1 babyface in the FWA. This is partly due to the fact that he is the most charismatic person and partly due to the fact that he hosts a wrestling radio show that airs nationally across Britain.

 

- Alex Shane & Chris Harvard Vs Drew McDonald & Flash Barker,

Sneak attack by the heels to start and it ends up with Harvard and McDonald starting off the match. All of a sudden before the match is even a minute old we have Flash and Shane brawling around the arena like they have been going for 15 minutes already. A pretty neat thing from the FWA TV is ‘fancam’. This is where when the match goes out of the ring it goes black and white like the fans are in control. Actually, it’s not that cool. They should really just hire another cameraman. Back to the ring where there is more brawling and Harvard is coming off worse. Hot tag to Shane and he dominates the 25 stone Drew. He then hits his patented ‘Shane-Sation’ to Flash on the outside. That move is so much better when he doesn’t telegraph it 5 minutes beforehand. All 4 brawl to the outside and it is your usual punch, kick, guardrail stuff. Suddenly Alex and Flash brawl to the back of the arena again and yes, we see ‘fancam’ again. Jees, did I just rewind the tape? Fancam follows them as they go up to the balcony, (Alex Shane is famous for jumping off balconies in his wrestling matches). As luck would have it there is a proper cameraman on the balcony and we can see what is happening with the ever-annoying fancam. He looks down where Harvard is telling him to jump. He is just about to when Flash stops him, (Alex said after this that he was going to do the jump but thought “it’s a meaningless show why waste it). We are back to the ring again where Harvard hits the “Harvard Driver” but only for 2 as Dean Ayass runs in to break up the count. Jonny Storm then runs in to beat up Dean Ayass. In the ring, Shane goes to hit his finisher but waits around five minutes for the run in to stop things. The entrance is about 10 metres from the ring and people are still alte for their run ins. Justin Richards eventually low blows Shane and Vixen runs in to do nothing apparently. The FWA’s other resident women then comes in to even the sides. We then have another run in as Scott Parker comes down to attack the old school. In the ring Flash hits his finisher (“Flash in the Pan” = Roll the dice) but only two as we have another run in to break up the count but this time it is the FWA Tag Team champions the New Breed. Another run in as “The Boyz” (how gay is that name) come in to take out the New Breed. We then focus again on the four people in the match and we have MORE brawling around the outside of the ring. Drew hits his ‘Celtic Crusher’ (Stunner) on Harvard but that only gets two as we have another run in, this time it is Jody Fleisch who breaks up the count. Drew promptly kills him with a vicious lariat. We haven’t seen a run in for two minutes and the crowd are getting restless. WE WANT OUR RUN IN FIX DAMNIT. Their needs are met as Dino Scarlo runs to down to even the sides by attacking Fleisch. They fight for a bit until Jody hits a picture perfect SSP to the outside that blows everyone away. He then follows this up on the outside by jumping up on the guardrail and hitting a moonsault, again to Dino Scarlo. That was the most exciting part of the match and it was from someone who wasn’t even in the match. ANOTHER RUN IN as this time Robbie Brookside comes down to hit Harvard with a snooker cue but misses and hits Drew instead. Doug Williams (who is the best worker in Europe, and in the top ten in the world in my opinion) RUNS IN to hit his revolution DDT on Flash and Alex Shane covers to pick up the win at 16:54. The victors celebrate as the credits roll.

 

- Overall: That was certainly eventful. Although it says something about a match where there are too many RUN INS for me to count on my fingers. The wrestling itself was not great and all of these men are capable of better, especially Flash who later in the tape puts in a great performance. I will give it 27% as it kept me entertained whilst never really engrossing me.

 

- That is it for episode 29. This may be a good introduction as you get to know who almost everyone in the promotion is, in just this match. The match was far from brilliant though and was particularly slow at times. Worth a look if you have never seen FWA before but if you have, you will know that they are capable of so much better.

 

Episode 30

 

- Things seem a lot better for this tape as it features some of the best workers in the FWA.

 

- We start off with a recap from “2 weeks ago”. It is obviously the same place and thoughts on it haven’t changed since the first tape. The main event is set for tonight and it is Jonny Storm Vs Justin Richards. But on to the first match,

 

Jack Xavier Vs Scottie Rock,

Nice matwork to start as they roll through some very crisp reversals and counters. Both men going for the others arm. Jack botches a hip toss that looks like it actually did injure his arm for real. Scottie Rock hits a top rope cross body for 2. Irish whip is then reversed into a wheelbarrow that is promptly turned into a release powerbomb. Both men are up and Xavier gets him up for the powerbomb again but Rock reverses that into a fujiwara armbar, very nice spot. Xavier whipped into the ropes and is back bodydropped straight to the outside that is a hard floor with no mats and lands straight on his back, OUCH. Rock follows this up with a somersault plancha to the outside. Jack Xavier goes for a chair but Scottie Rock connects with a brutally stiff baseball slide into the chair, into the face of Xavier. He is busted right open from that shot. There is a lot of blood now as Xavier distracts the referee to allow his valet Cami to hit the ‘Cami Crunch’, (kick to the balls). The two men go back to it and Xavier hits his Xaviator (styles clash) to pick up the win at 6:30. good little match that could have really done with 5 more minutes. They seemed to rush the match to fit in all the spots. I would look forward to a longer rematch between these two. Great selling of the arm as well by Xavier.

 

Overall: I will award it 39% due to it being too short but there was a lot of good work from the two guys here.

 

 

Main event: Jonny Storm Vs Justin Richards,

 

Match starts with Jonny whipping Justin with his own towel forcing him to flee to the outside. If you opponent is outside, what do you do? Let him get back in or hit a triple jump somersault plancha to the outside to flatten him like a pancake? Just in case you were wondering, Jonny went for the second option. Back in the ring and Justin has the advantage. A LONG headlock starts the match as the commentator tells us that Justin has won numerous amateur-wrestling titles in Britain. I guess that makes him our version of Brock Lesnar. Headlock is broken and Jonny hits two broncobusters in the corner. Beautiful moonsault from storm gets only 2. We get another headlock sequence that doesn’t really fit into the flow of the match. This is broken and the ref is knocked down. Jonny Storm hits his finisher (Super Re-Winder) but the ref is down and no cover is made. Someone should really sort that out in the FWA as that happened in the previous two matches as well, employ some tougher refs perhaps? Dean Ayass then runs in and gently touches Jonny storm with the chair. Storm promptly takes the chair off him and hits the hardest cruiserweight chairshot I have ever seen. The ref is back up in time to see Justin apply the cross face chicken wing on a distracted Storm to leave him no option but to tap out at 7:40. Had its moments but the two didn’t really click together. Both are good workers but this didn’t really gel.

 

Overall: I will give it 35% because there was some great bits to it, but they were few are far between.

 

- Episode 30 is in the bag. A much better tape with two good matches that is entertaining. These two shows however don’t really give a true indication of what the FWA is all about. Based on these two shows I wouldn’t buy the tape. However we have the end of series special next that contains the two real reasons I brought the tape in the first place, Doug Williams against Christopher Daniels.

 

- I will be back tomorrow with my opinions on the one hour special.

 

What do you think of this as a first effort?

[Guest Andy]

I've only seen FWA volume 8 if I was there for it live. (Don't think so, but I lose track sometimes.)

 

I think it's always best to review with star ratings (from DUD to *****, with ** being an average match.) That way it's easier to get relative comparisons of match qualities.

 

Anyway, it looks good - hope you keep it coming.

 

Cheers,

 

Andy

[Guest Last Warrior]

I just thought that with a percentage rating if you have two matches that are very similar you can give the nod slightly to one match over another rather than adding on 1/2*.

 

But thanks for your thoughts and keep them coming. I would be interested to see what someone who had never been to an FWA show before thought of it.

[Guest Andy]

I just thought that with a percentage rating if you have two matches that are very similar you can give the nod slightly to one match over another rather than adding on 1/2*.

I don't really agree. If they're very close, I'd just give them the same rating and say that it's slightly better in brackets afterwards.

 

Nothing wrong with 1/4* by the way.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Best wishes,

 

Andy

[Guest BAR]

Good review but I definately prefer *ratings.

[Chunk 0]

I read the review, great work! I really liked it because i am new to the fwa, and it kind of helped me out as far as getting to know characters and gimmicks is concerned

 

I would have to agree that a * Rating would be better, im just more used to that method.

 

Also, how about "Curry's Coverage" as in....

 

Curry's Coverage .... of FWA: Volume 8

Curry's Coverage .... of FWA: British Uprising

Curry's Coverage .... of WWE: No Mercy

 

etc?

 

ChUnK!

[Guest Last Warrior]

Thanks for the feedback.

[Chunk 0]

LOL

 

Are you going to posta review of Last nights London Calling? How did it go down?

[Guest Last Warrior]

The show was good. My report will be up on The Sun Online very soon but until that is ready, here are the quick results and some brief thoughts.

 

In a packed Walthamstow Assembly Halls (approx 650) the FWA presented London Calling, their follow up show to Uprising two weeks earlier.

 

1. James Tighe defeated Raj Ghosh to keep his claim to the number one contendership to the All-England title

 

2. Dean Ayass and Mark Sloan came to the ring. Ayass claimed he had a restraining order on Alex Shane that prevented him touching the Old School. Alex Shane promised to dismantle the Old School. Sloan then took out Shane with another chair shot.

 

3. The Family (Messiah Brandon Thomas, Scottie Rock and Righteous Paul Travell) with Ian Da Cyple at their side defeated the team of Nikita, Solid Gold Scott Parker and Chris Justice. Da Cyple's interference lead to Nikita chasing him backstage, Justice was then assaulted by Scott Parker who revealed he had joined The Family.

 

4. Ulf Herman, the scheduled opponent of Flash Barker, had not arrived so Hade Vansen challenged the former FWA Champion. After a hard hitting contest Barker took the win.

 

5. Zebra Kid retained his All-England title defeating Wonderkid Jonny Storm. Zebra has been revealing a more nastier side with each appearance since winning the title.

 

6. In a match in which the loser would be suspended from the FWA for a period of six months, the Duke of Danger (with his butler Simmons) defeated Jack Xavier (with Cami). Defeated is probably the wrong word as after Duke tasted the Cami Crunch, Cami, the Duke and Jack were dismantled by Paul Burchill. Simmons quick thinking meant the Duke won when he put Duke's arm over Jack.

 

7. The Pitbulls came to the ring pronouncing that they had defeated each and every team in the country, whether in FWA, TWA, WAW or BRAWL. They laid out an open challenge which was answered by the Showstealer himself, Alex Shane. Shane's partner.... Ulf Herman. A succession of chairshots, a table destroyed and Shane and Herman ganged up on the Bulk for a quick win. Shane and Herman, new FWA Tag Team Champions.

 

8. Jody Fleisch then defended his FWA title against The Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels and Doug Williams in a three way. Some excellent action followed but disaster struck for the new champion, Jody Fleisch, when a shooting star press ended with Jody hurting his knee. Jody was taken backstage despite his protests by other wrestlers. Williams and Daniels carried on with the match. Jody returned despite FWA officials trying to stop him and Daniels took full advantage of Jody's injury to pin him with the Angel Wings finisher. Christopher Daniels, your new FWA Heavyweight Champion.

Courtesy of frontierwrestling.com

 

A good show. The first half wrestling was good but for some reason I couldn't get into it like I usually do. I was much more into the second half though.

 

James Tighe continues to get better and better and we finally saw his standing SSP.

 

Paul Birchall is going to be huge for the FWA. I have yet to see him wrestle a full match but he has a great look, some exciting moves, seems extremely agile and the fans go crazy for him.

 

it is a shame we won't see Jack Xavier for 6 months. He is one of my favourites in the FWA and I eagerly await his return.

 

The Main event was excellent. All three men put in a great performance and to see Chris Daniels with the FWA title was a huge mark out moment for me, and seemingly most of the people there.

 

One surreal note, me and my friend were hungry before the show and popped into a local bagel bar. We saw five of the FWA wrestlers in there eating and they were very friendly. However once that action started, our "You Eat Bagels" chant failed to get going.

[Chunk 0]

Bagels! The food of wrestlers

 

Sounds like a great show, i wish i could have been there. It seems a little strange that the title was taken offf Jody so quickly. Is Chris Daniels going to be working regularly for the FWA then?

 

Do you know the reason behind Xavier leaving?

 

What was the drowd like comapared to Uprising? They were electric there.

 

ChUnK!

[Guest Last Warrior]

I am not sure to all of the answers to these questions yet but the answers will be revealed in my report for the sun which will be up soon.

[Chunk 0]

Ok, i'll check it out.

[Guest Andy]

Bagels! The food of wrestlers

 

Sounds like a great show, i wish i could have been there. It seems a little strange that the title was taken offf Jody so quickly. Is Chris Daniels going to be working regularly for the FWA then?

 

Do you know the reason behind Xavier leaving?

 

What was the drowd like comapared to Uprising? They were electric there.

 

ChUnK!

Just a few quick notes:

 

I had a chat with the UK Pitbulls after the show who said they had no idea whether Fleisch's injury was worked or not ("If that was a work, he was selling it backstage.")

 

I talked to Chris Daniels also, who said he would not be back till the February show (also at Walthamstow.) As such, I would imagine they will sort out the #1 contendership at the next shows.

 

Xavier is still booked for the trainee shows at the time being. I found it strange that he lost this match too. Maybe they'll work a TWA match or something on an FWA card.

 

Crowd was entertaining. Another enjoyable show.

 

Best wishes,

 

Andy

[Chunk 0]

Bagels! The food of wrestlers  

 

Sounds like a great show, i wish i could have been there. It seems a little strange that the title was taken offf Jody so quickly. Is Chris Daniels going to be working regularly for the FWA then?

 

Do you know the reason behind Xavier leaving?

 

What was the drowd like comapared to Uprising? They were electric there.

 

ChUnK!

Just a few quick notes:

 

I had a chat with the UK Pitbulls after the show who said they had no idea whether Fleisch's injury was worked or not ("If that was a work, he was selling it backstage.")

 

I talked to Chris Daniels also, who said he would not be back till the February show (also at Walthamstow.) As such, I would imagine they will sort out the #1 contendership at the next shows.

 

Xavier is still booked for the trainee shows at the time being. I found it strange that he lost this match too. Maybe they'll work a TWA match or something on an FWA card.

 

Crowd was entertaining. Another enjoyable show.

 

Best wishes,

 

Andy

thanks for the info, im looking forward to the broxborne show in a big way now. I hear my man AJ Styles is back