STEELCHAIR Wrestling Magazine #16 by SteelChair Wrestling

// WHO’S NEXT FOR BROCK LESNAR? // TIGER MASK //

WRESTLING BULLET CLUB HANGMAN PAGE

X-DIVISION CHAMPION LOW KI

WWE UK

SteelChairMag.com

TAKE OVER!

PETE DUNNE TYLER BATE WOLFGANG BRIAN KENDRICK

May 2017

// ISSUE 16

£3.50

LOOK BACK: STONE COLD LEAVES THE WWE. TWICE

WELCOME

Visit VultureHound.com for regular wrestling updates from the SteelChair team

WELCOME FROM THE EDITOR WE UK is here and finally making its mark. The first post-tournament show took place in Norwich and we got the chance to chat to Tyler Bate, Wolfgang, Brian Kendrick and our cover star, new WWE UK Champion; Pete Dunne. We also look into a match at NXT TakeOver:Chicago.

Continuing with new champions, we caught up with IMPACT Wrestling’s Low Ki who returned and conquered the X-Division. In this issue you will also find a new column, a Bullet Club member, ICW’s Mark Dallas, a look at Tiger Mask and so much more.

EDITORIAL David Garlick Editor / Design david@vulturehound.com

Craig Hermit VultureHound Wrestling Editor craig.hermit@vulturehound.com

Lee Hazel Copy Editor lee@vulturehound.com

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HIGHLIGHTS

Copyright 2017 SteelChair Magazine. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the written consent of SteelChair Magazine. Requests for permission should be directed to: info@steelchairmag.com.

PAST MONTH MATCHES OF THE MONTH

PETE DUNNE VS TYLER BATE

WILL OSPREAY VS RICOCHET NJPW BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS (NIGHT TWO)

One year on, you would think it impossible for this Best of the Super Juniors rematch to live up to the original. Think again. Seamlessly combining their signature “flippy shit”, and the dramatic tension of two familiar, evenly matched foes, Ospreay and Ricochet are the storytellers of our generation.

WRESTLER

OF THE MONTH

NXT TAKEOVER: CHICAGO

‘The crowd is on their feet for the second time in this match,’ cried out Nigel McGuiness, emphasising the downright class of this Championship bout. A new WWE United Kingdom Champion was crowned in Dunne, and the world knew that the UK boys didn’t come to play games.

Visit VultureHound.com for regular wrestling updates from SteelChair Magazine

PETE DUNNE VS MARK HASKINS VS MARK ANDREWS PROGRESS

Progress’ hot streak continued as they returned to Manchester for Chapter 48: Bang the Drum. With a card full of delights including Travis Banks vs Trent Seven, the main event saw Pete Dunne retain his title against two of the biggest marks in prowrestling. A superbly paced encounter that used the ‘play the hits’ style but found ample room for invention & creativity.

DAILY UPDATES AT STEELCHAIRMAG. COM

PETE DUNNE ince the inaugural WWE UK Tournament, it has been written that Pete Dunne would become WWE UK Champion. He did it at NXT Takeover: Chicago by defeating Tyler Bate. Dunne earned his title chance at WWE UK Special in Norwich on May 7. He was also apart of WWE SmackDown UK Live Events in 6-Man Tag Team matches. The Bruiserweight was also present this month for British promotions like ATTACK ! Teenagers With Attitude, ICW and Lucha Forever. And defended successfully his PROGRESS World Title in a Three-Way match. As evilish as he may seem, Pete Dunne, at only 23, has become one of the most striking forces of UK wrestling. He’s eager for competition and it seems to pay off.

EVENT OF OF THE MONTH PROGRESS SSS16 MAY 2017 STEELCHAIR 05

WWE

WORDS: STEPH FRANCHOMME | PHOTO: WWE

WHO’S NEXT FOR

BROCK LESNAR? t WrestleMania 33, Brock Lesnar reached the top of the mountain for the fifth time in his career, defeating Goldberg for the Universal Title. Braun Strowman seemed to be the natural contender to The Beast Incarnate; strong, tall, fearless and mostly a fresh face in the championship landscape, but as he was on his way to a title shot, his elbow had other ideas and he fell victim to injury.

Lesnar is not supposed to defend his championship before July 9th at the RAW exclusive pay-per-view Great Balls of Fire, which leaves WWE enough time to build a serious and credible new contender for the Universal Championship. Obviously, Strowman will have his chance when he returns, but many RAW Superstars have the ability not only to defeat Lesnar, but become the face of the Red brand. Here are my weapons of choice.

06 STEELCHAIR MAY 2017

ROMAN REIGNS

SETH ROLLINS

It’s predictable, but Lesnar and Reigns have unfinished business. At WrestleMania 31, Lesnar dominated most of their gruelling match. However, just as Reigns was building momentum, Seth Rollins stripped them both of the opportunity to capture the coveted belt by cashing in his Money in The Bank contract. A year later, Reigns became the #1 contender for the WWE World Championship at Fastlane against both Lesnar and Dean Ambrose, heading straight to WrestleMania, where he defeated Triple H to become the new champ. To date, these two have never had an uninterrupted, one-on-one match. Considering the hostility Reigns is facing from the fans, beating Lesnar would give more credit to the “invincible” gimmick WWE is desperately trying to make us believe.

Rollins literally stole Brock Lesnar’s title at WrestleMania 31. At Battleground a few months later, The Undertaker cost Lesnar his chance at regaining the WWE World Championship. Ever since then, Lesnar and Rollins have never had an opportunity for a rematch, due to Rollins’ injury. Rollins’ experience in Suplex City is limited, but the Architect proved he learnt from his injuries, has improved his game and is smart enough to beat Lesnar. Rollins can absolutely do it - his speed is his best advantage, and his latest matches against Samoa Joe show that he can handle opponents physically larger than him. The WWE fans respect him and would easily appreciate seeing him with a belt around his waist again.

FINN BALOR The day after becoming the first-ever Universal Champion at SummerSlam, Bàlor was forced to relinquish the belt because of a complex shoulder injury. Finn made it clear he would reclaim his title when he eventually came back. Since his TV return on the RAW after WrestleMania, Bàlor slowly but surely is finding his way back into the big picture, recently falling short of the #1 contender spot for the Intercontinental Championship. Bàlor never lost the Universal Championship, which asserts him as not only a legitimate, but also logical, contender for the title. Lesnar vs. Bàlor would be completely fresh as the two have never squared off. Bàlor defeating Lesnar would be huge! The Demon King would instantaneously become a living legend by slaying the Beast

BRAY WYATT

SAMOA JOE

In the space of a year, Bray Wyatt became both a Tag Team and WWE Champion, a well-deserved reward for the Eater of the Worlds. At Roadblock 2016, Brock Lesnar defeated Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper in a “2-on-1” handicap match, so the two have never faced each other in a one-on-one situation. In terms of shape and size, Lesnar and Wyatt are very similar. But Wyatt would have to carefully choose his weapons to be sure to make the Beast bend.

Samoa Joe is synonymous with destruction. He made an impact straight away on his first night on RAW, by injuring Rollins and nearly costing him his second ‘Mania in a row. The Samoan destroyer since proved he deserves his nickname by showing his ruthlessness against Zayn. Teaming with Owens helped him establish himself in the main roster in the eyes of the fans. Joe is craving competition.

Wyatt is a master of mind games. Toying with Lesnar is probably the best way to infuriate the Beast and show his weaknesses. Wyatt doesn’t need to be surrounded by a family anymore to succeed. Not only he is able to defeat The Beast, but he would be a great and respected Universal Champion.

Joe would be the perfect opponent. Not only have they never faced each other, but their physicality holds the promise of a must-see match. Destruction would surely be on the menu in this rivalry. However, Joe is still new on the RAW roster and he may not have shoulders wide enough to become the Universal champion and be the leader of the Red brand.

THE HEEL TURN WORDS: LIAM O’ROURKE

ere’s a group of people that need to be beaten with heavy clubs and left bleeding in the moonlight - these club-footed knuckle-draggers that insist on saying “Sweeeeeet!” after a two count. It’s bad enough when every count out call made by a referee receives a loud “TEN!” from the fans, completely eliminating any drama or tension from the match no matter how hard the wrestlers are working.

Now, near falls are the next thing on the list for the supposedly “knowledgeable” and “passionate” wrestling fans to defecate all over, in their misguided efforts to aggrandize themselves. The single most used dramatic function featured in wrestling matches in 2017, and the wretched refuse find a way to make them unenjoyable for all. It was cringeworthy enough when the Bullet Club exposed themselves as marks doing it in Japan. Now we have to listen to the completely unaware neckbeard community advance with this insipid “innovation”. On a personal note, if you sit next to me at a show and do this, I will punch you in the throat. That’ll be pretty sweet. Same time next month?

MAY 2017 STEELCHAIR 07 23

LOW KI

INTERVIEW: LOW KI WORDS: CRAIG HERMIT

e has made a name all over the world as one of the most dynamic and clinical wrestlers in the ring, and he has returned to Impact Wrestling and on his return seizing the X-Division Championship. He is the five time X-Division Champion, he is the “One World Warrior”, he is Low Ki and here he talks to Craig Hermit.

Impact Wrestling is going through a resurgence at the moment, especially in UK, how does it feel to be a focal part of that, especially leading the X-Division as Champion? It’s important for me to be a focal part in the redevelopment of Impact, I’ve been a focal part since the beginning. I’ve been influential in its construction since the beginning. So now I have the opportunity at a different stage in my career, with more wisdom, more knowledge, more experience. It’s a fun position to be in because just coming from experience I understand the different generations of TNA , and now I can pinpoint certain things that we couldn’t in the past, of which to avoid, which to approach ultimately just improve so that the audience can enjoy it.

You made an instant impact on your return, seizing the X-Division Championship for 08 STEELCHAIR MAY 2017

the fifth time, what were your thoughts on holding the title again? Well, it’s important because I was champion since its inception. The X-Division was originally based off of me, AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn and also Psychosis. And to be on top again is hard, it doesn’t get any easier as you get older, this is quite a physical art. So matching up against these type of competitors and still being able to hold my own, these guys are getting better every generation because their conditioning and their health is improving early in their careers, so it’s not the case going into previous generations where you can see the development of the body and ultimately what they turn into, instead performers are actually coming in well conditioned which is a different approach than the past, so now you’re facing a higher calibre of athleticism and it’s very difficult to keep up with at times, you got guy like Dezmond Xavier who goes all over the place and kinda reminds me similarly of Amazing Red when he came to TNA in 2002 when the stuff he was doing then was blowing everybody away, and it’s fun, because it’s another generation of hungry competitors, they are going through what we went through. It’s now their time coming up, they are chomping at the bit to make a name for themselves and to make everyone know that they belong. It’s definitely an exciting time.

The X-Division has always been one of the incredible spectacles from Impact Wrestling, and one of the matches the Division created was The Ultimate X match, a dangerous and destructive match, and this Friday, in the UK, you encounter Trevor Lee and Andrew Everett, what can fans expect to see from this match? I said it straight and to the point of the very first day on April 20th, be ready, cause if you’re not prepared your gonna get beaten, the Ultimate X match is one of the hardest physical challenges that we have in TNA. I’ve done it several times, I’ve done it several times before it ended up in its current incarnation, it hadn’t always been that way, but it’s such a physically demanding match, it’s not easy, it is not easy. It’s hard enough wrestling in this Division facing one high level competitor, now you make it into three-way, it just compounds that situation, now involve the nature of the Ultimate X, it’s not just a battle in the ring, you have to battle up and over the ring, it’s a completely different atmosphere, it’s so much of a psychological challenge, it’s so much of a mental breakdown that you should really avoid, because you need that mental toughness that is required for that type of match up. What you should expect?

impact wrestling is now on spike uk fridays at 9pm Like what I’ve said, sparks are gonna fly, I’m bringing my A-game as I always do, if they can’t they’re gonna get eaten alive, I’m not coming here to play games with anybody, but Trevor Lee is a former Champion, he has had to earn his stripes to get there, don’t take anything away from him and Andrew’s has been chomping at the bit for a while, so you can’t take anything away from him either, so sit back relax and enjoy what you see on TV.

Fans in the UK specifically at 4FW witnessed you face Mark Haskins last weekend, what was it like being back in the UK? It was really, really fun, I hadn’t been in the UK since the last tour with Impact which wasn’t that favourable, but returning here and just being back in the mix, wrestling against another experienced wrestler, I didn’t know that much about Mark until I had arrived, after spending time with him in the ring, he’s good, he’s real good. I think the issue he had faced before, had been medical issues, but if he can clear that up, he has a real great future, if he can mention his health but what I felt in that ring, Mark Haskins is very good. My overall experience in the UK was so much fun, I had a seminar over in Essex and I sat, talked for several hours, everybody was involved, everybody was getting banged up and thrown around and beat up it was just a very positive experience not for me but for those I instructed. Then I was in Pride Wrestling, wrestling Ultimate Tiger, another young wrestler, he was good but he definitely needs some more in ring experience then hopefully he will be okay, he ended up suffering a knee injury at the end of the match, but overall a positive experience was really happy to see some old faces that I hadn’t seen, even Dann Read, he was the first promoter to book me in England back in 2000, I found time to catch up with him, as well as many other faces that

"To be on top again is hard, it doesn’t get any easier as you get older" MAY 2017 STEELCHAIR 09

LOW KI

I remember from the past. Overall, a really fun experience.

In recent months you have taken part in Wrestling seminars, what advice would you give to young or new wrestlers hoping to break into the business? I’ll ask them, “How many bodies do they have?” You only get one, so what you gonna do with it because when you start using that as a business, you have to understand that the business does not care about your emotional well being, it only cares about bottom line results. If you’re going to use that one body in a business you might want to take it into consideration that you will have to treat it well, your body is going to become your vehicle, so it’s no more different than a car, you provide it with the proper fuel it will go far, if you don’t you won’t go far. If you don’t take care of it, you won’t go anywhere, if you maintain it, take care of it, you will be able to

10 STEELCHAIR MAY 2017

use it when you need it. So you have to will have to care of your body and that is not one of the first things you get taught because in the majority of schools that I have seen are more interested in taking money than they are in instructing people on how to maintain their bodies and that’s an unfortunate position but it is in the nature of people wanting to make money. People will want to make money despite the responsibility of morality or ethics so you will have to protect yourself. This is an unforgiving art, there is no Pension, there is no Union, you would be lucky to get Health Insurance, so you have to think ahead, again these aren’t always things you are taught once your enter a school, you learn this over time after trial and error, they need a lot of information that needs to be brought to the front, they need a lot of information upfront so they can come from an informed position, a majority of people enter pro wrestling at the initial stages don’t come from an informed position they just want to try something which is cool, but

it makes you go back to the first question, “How many bodies do you have?”

Early on in your career, you were trained by Homicide and Jim Kettner. Who would you say has been influential throughout in your carrier ongoing? It would be Kettner, because when he didn’t train me from a Pro Wrestling mainframe he trained me for business, Homicide began the in-ring training and Kettner prepared me for outside the ring training. It was a business model that we developed and it was my effort that carried it through. I’ve always said my success was never mine, it was my mentors, my teachers, because they gave me the information and I used it and because of my effort I’m very hard to keep down, so my effort that guided me or projected me forward but it was their information that guided me towards my success. You can’t really fight work ethic

impact wrestling is now on spike uk fridays at 9pm you either got it or you don’t. I was able to take that information and run with it and maximise it, I was able to do things a guy in my position would rarely be able to do and I’ve earned respect from so many people. I’m someone who shouldn’t be alive right now due to my background and I’m still here and I still have a lot of influence and the ability to contribute so I’m in a real good position, but my success hasn’t been mine is been my mentors.

In House of Glory, you recently battled Alberto El Parton to a jam packed crowd, with both of you in Impact Wrestling, will we see get to see rematch? Oh I’d love that, it was the reason how the House go Glory match came about, they enquired about a potential match with Del Rio, I had informed them that my best match in WWE was with Del Rio, but not many people saw it because it was a dark match and when I found that out I walked up to Del Rio and I said lets make them pay for it tonight, in a dark match we had the crowd going crazy, and when we came to the back and Arn Anderson greets us and said, “That’s how you fucking do it!” In regards to Del Rio, you are only as good as your competition and I’ve always been challenging the best competition in the world and he’s been up there for a long long time. Hey, the guy is tough, he fought in Pride, and he has a long history of success and to match up with people of that calibre makes it that much more special.

In June you head to Tier 1

Wrestling, facing Pentagon El Zero M in a dream match, what can fans expect to see? Oh I wanna mix that up, I’ve seen a lot of him to know he is going to bring a lot of fun to me and this is gonna be real fun, but the beautiful part is not just Brooklyn but the section of Brooklyn I grew up in and to perform in my town is real special for me, now I get to do this with one of the top wrestlers in the world right now, he’s in demand not just because he’s in Lucha Underground or in Mexico he’s good, we are going to get busy in Brooklyn.

Recently you put up a post “Real eyes realise real lies”, what does that term mean to you? That’s an old Tupac term, you sit back and observe, you can see through the lies that your are being fed. I have developed a Communication and Conflict preparedness programme over the last few years that was I recruited by the Verbal Judo Institute which is the mediatory de-escalation curriculum for all Law Enforcement in the United states, so I help developed a programme based off that, for the general public and small business, but understanding when you observe you gather more understanding with your eyes and ears that you do with your mouth, with your mouth, information is going out not information going in. You know all about you, you don’t know all about the world, Real Eyes Realise Real lies, as long as the observe, it’s a simple statement but a very powerful one.

NXT: CIAMPA TURNS... WORDS: NICHOLAS GROOMS PHOTO: WWE

omasso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano are one of the most exciting tag teams of the last decade. At ‘NXT Takeover: Chicago’ they had a chance to cement their legacy; but fell short to the size and power advantage of the mammoth duo known as the Authors of Pain. Following a heartfelt moment of appreciation from the ‘Windy City’ audience, Ciampa lived up to his ‘Psycho Killer’ nickname as he viciously attacked his own partner, ending his assault with an impactful slam off of the stage and onto a pair of tables.

One could not help but think of another singles career that began in this way. When Shawn Michaels kicked his Rockers partner Marty Jannetty through a window, he began a career that earned him the moniker ‘Mr. WrestleMania’. To draw parallels between the Rockers and DIY is simple; they are two innovative teams unlike any other in the sport. The only difference between them is that DIY may be so athletically gifted that it is unfair to dub either one the ‘Marty Jannetty’. Regardless, we are in for some fireworks when these two friends turned bitter enemies finally square off in an NXT ring. Get ready, wrestling fans!

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SMACKDOWN LIVE

WORDS: LIAM O’ROURKE

SMACKDOWN LIVE: “FRAGILE - HANDLE WITH CARE” he expected seasonal post-WrestleMania lull looked to be that much more bleak for SmackDown after a Superstar Shakeup that left a lot of the biggest cupboards bare. Don’t get me wrong, picking up Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and Rusev was a good thing, as was the long overdue call-up of Shinsuke Nakamura. But it has become apparent on both sides of the Monday/Tuesday divide that the issues with the current WWE landscape sink a little deeper than a simple mix-up of bodies can remedy.

We’ll come to the elephant taking a dump in the living room shortly, but before we do, let’s look at SmackDown beneath the top level. The SmackDown tag team division has been hideous since the start of the brand split, including the unforgivable bungling of American Alpha. Inconsistent use, emphasis in the wrong places at the wrong times, and just plain laziness castrated a potential top act. Here were two guys good enough and likeable enough to main event episodes of SmackDown Live, wrestle top acts as tag team specialists and believably win (case in point - the only time they got the type of response they should have all along was against Orton and Wyatt). But they never had a prayer. No personality profiles, no promos, no hot issues, nothing. A constant on PPV pre-shows, telling the world they don’t matter. Now they’re

12 STEELCHAIR MAY 2017

rarely even on television, and only visions of a heel turn and cocky jock personality seem enough to salvage what was once a sure-fire hit. The Usos have real room for growth in their heel incarnation, and could have a hot series with the New Day. The Fashion Police was a fun detour, and demonstrates what a waste the first eight months of the brand split has been for them up to this point. The truth is, the tag division in general took a hardcore backseat to the women’s division since the inception of the split. There is only so much time, I suppose, but the insistence on keeping the tag teams isolated and restricted to each other (a massive mistake) meant that either the tag teams or the women were going to get shortchanged. WWE opted to prioritise the females, putting multiple matches on each pay-perview to represent the division, and made an awful call in going with Heath Slater and Rhyno as tag champions out of the gate. The belts still haven’t truly recovered. And what of the women’s division they were so keen to prioritise? A top feud with a heel group that would generously be called moderately interesting, and an attempt to turn the biggest female heel (Charlotte) babyface without committing a real babyface act. Remember when babyface turns would build and simmer for

months, and you’d be dripping with anticipation for the climactic moment? No more. The women’s division is at least intriguing with the multiple possible directions, but Charlotte was born to be a heel. They brought her up as a babyface and it wasn’t nearly as good. There may be a time to make the move with her, but this wasn’t it. If anything, it’s stunted Naomi, who went from main female babyface to clearly the bridesmaid, overnight. And what of the incoming Lana? Is she destined for the role Eva Marie was looking to fill? Moving to the bulk of the roster, you see that the same delicate balance is present throughout. The main problem with the shakeup for SmackDown was the absolute dearth of top heels it left the blue brand. AJ Styles was turned babyface, and the other key antagonists, Bray Wyatt, Miz and Maryse, were shipped to Mondays. They want to take their time with Baron Corbin, so he’s treading water and gaining traction. By design, they left a gap wide open. Elsewhere, Shinsuke Nakamura was put in with an ice cold Dolph Ziggler in a feud we can only hope is now over. Kevin Owens and AJ Styles, who both won their feuds at WrestleMania, feel like less of a priority now than before. Sami Zayn is being booked as a nerd who will be used as a utility player to get other people where they want them. Randy Orton had to endure a God-

awful feud with Bray Wyatt and then took a left turn past the House of Horrors right into Jinder Junction. And so here it is, the current state of SmackDown summed up in one sentence - Jinder Mahal is your new WWE World Champion. You’ll have heard or read the arguments for and against by now. “It’s a play for the India market”. “They had to push somebody to fill the spot”. “It’s unpredictable and makes things interesting”. “It’s too rushed”. “Randy Orton sucked as champion anyway”. There’s validity to most of them. As always, the metrics say more about this than anything else. For all the talk of expanding their fan base in India, how about the rest of the world? Like America, who are tuning out SmackDown in droves since this push started. Ratings for RAW are awful too, but SmackDown’s are at their lowest point since the show went live on Tuesday. And don’t give me that bullshit about the NBA playoffs. I’m quite certain this National Basketball Association we’re hearing about have been playing scheduled basketball encounters on television every year that SmackDown has been on the air. There are also plenty of other things on other channels to watch too, you know. If the push was working, it would help, rather than have no effect or a negative one. How about the fact that Backlash didn’t sell out. A pay-per-view, in Chicago no less! One of the hottest markets for wrestling in the country, and they couldn’t pack the house. The fun fact that 9,500 tickets sold before they announced a match, and they only sold an extra three or four hundred with the television build and Jinder push speaks

volumes. I know the counterargument - “Of course he won’t make a difference yet, they’re just now pushing him.” Well, let me fix this little red wagon. The comparison many have made is the sudden rise of JBL in 2004, but even that analogy is missing the mark. Bradshaw wasn’t a job guy. He was a lifetime midcarder, and happened to be one of the best promo guys in the company. The character changed drastically along the way. It was a much better situation that this, and even then, JBL was the worst drawing WWE champion in history. People tend to forget that little detail. And yet, the unprepared Jinder push was something they put themselves in the position to do. JBL was hotshotted to the top due to Brock Lesnar leaving and Kurt Angle getting injured in 2004, things that weren’t known two weeks prior to happening. Their hand was forced. In 2017, they put the pieces on the chessboard that deliberately short changed SmackDown of top heels to create this scenario. Don’t be fooled by the internet fans who think this is cool. I’ve dispelled the myth of how valuable their opinion is at VultureHound.co.uk (in an article called “The Customer Isn’t Always Right”, check it out). Don’t be worked by the fact the match seemed to work in the building. Hulk Hogan got superstar reactions in WCW in the year 2000. Those buildings weren’t sold out either. Don’t be blinded by the novelty or absurdity, or the live reaction to the title change. That audience is not indicative of the general population of wrestling fans, and what appeals to them doesn’t work to everybody

else. Don’t ignore that this act is simply not that good yet. The promos are weak, the heat is superficial, and as a worker, he ranges from painfully average to bloody awful. If there is a silver lining, it’s that Jinder Mahal will have as good a chance to shine as possible with a fabulous array of opponents. Sami Zayn, AJ Styles, Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura are all very good working babyfaces that are over with the crowd. But Jinder needs to grow. Don’t forget a couple of time-tested lessons: a promotion is only as good as the character they build around, and the belt doesn’t make the man, the man makes the belt. Maybe this will catch fire. Clearly WWE is very serious about this experiment, and as we’ve seen with Braun Strowman, when they want to book somebody the right way and figure out the way to do it, they can pull it off. But what we have is a brand that is absolutely at a crossroads in every department. They’re treading on thin ice with the treatment of Nakamura. The tag team and women’s divisions are up in the air. Their big prospect, Baron Corbin, could still go either way. AJ Styles and Kevin Owens don’t appear to be positioned to make the real difference. Several midcarders don’t have a lick of heat but need to be used to fill spots. The World Champion is a joke we’re now supposed to take seriously. Can SmackDown take all of this uncertainty and produce greatness? I’d be cynical, but stranger things have already happened.

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PROGRESS

14 STEELCHAIR MAY 2017

EVENT OF OF THE MONTH

PROGRESS SUPER STRONG STYLE 16 WORDS: LEE HAZELL | PHOTOS: ROB BRAZIER f your name is Trent Seven, PROGRESS Wrestling owes you some serious Kudos. At the third and perhaps best Super Strong Style 16 tournament in PROGRESS history, this mammoth of British independent wrestling lost in six seconds in the first round to a triumphant Matt Riddle. Trent, if he ever choses to show his face in PROGRESS again, now has a nickname for life. This was merely one of the many highlights of what is now being recognised as the WrestleMania of the North-London promotion. Other highlights include, the bittersweet tragedy of Jack Sexsmith beating the odds and Zack Gibson, but tearing his bicep in the process; a barnstormer between Matt Riddle and Jeff Cobb, Toni Storm being crowned the first ever PROGESS Women’s champion and, of course, the electrifying SSS16 final between Tyler Bate and Travis Banks. Obviously, British Strong Style got involved to ensure Bate’s victory, prompting Banks’ own faction, #CCK to even the odds. It helps that BSS and #CCK are currently involved in a feud too. Huh, you’d almost think it was scripted this way. Nah.

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TYLER BATE

PHOTOS: WWE

WWE UK

TAKE OVER

FROM WWE UK CHAMPIONSHIP IN NORWICH INTERVIEW WITH TYLER BATE > WORDS: TIM BIRKBECK

16 STEELCHAIR MAY 2017

fter taking the wrestling world by storm by becoming the first ever WWE United Kingdom champion back in January, it has been a whirlwind five months for Tyler Bate.

Defending his title on NXT shows, and continuing to showcase his talents across the independent circuit, Bate is one of the hottest properties in wrestling right now. We had the opportunity to catch up with the man from Dudley before the historic tapings of WWE UK show, which is set to air on the WWE network in this Friday. For the 20-year-old this is the first time he has been on the

Watch the WWE UK shows exclusively on the wwe network road with the WWE and he said he is excited to see how far he and his fellow WWE UK competitors can push the envelope. “It has been a fantastic experience so far, I mean I grew up watching a lot of these guys that I am now on the road with,” Bate told us. “For example Randy Orton in particular, I was a huge Randy Orton fan so now getting to share a locker room with him is pretty cool. I am just really excited to see how far this whole thing with the WWE UK can go and where we can go as performers.” While winning the UK Championship at the start of the year may have open Bate up to a wider audience, it is his work on the indie circuit which has reaped the benefits of the WWE shows. Along with his fellow British Strong Style stable mates, Bate has taken the moment from those Blackpool shows and put that into helping him develop his character, in particular playing a Heel as part of the faction. He added: “I am quite new to doing the Heel work and it is something I am really enjoying as it is something new to sink my teeth into and try out.

and it was his incredible strength, which caught the eyes of many a wrestling fan back in January. But having trained as a gymnast from the age of 8, the resident of Moustache Mountain has a few tricks up his sleeve for any unsuspecting opponent foolish enough to step into the ring with him. “I do like to pride myself on being a diverse and adaptable performer,” Bate continues, “and with doing gymnastics at a very young age I have always been able to move my body around really well and do flips and things.

"I'm quite new to doing the Heel work and it is something I am really enjoying as it is something new to sink my teeth into and try out."

“I’ve never really tested my potential as a Heel character until these last few months, but I wouldn’t say that I prefer one over the other. I think most fans understand that the world of the WWE is different to something like the world of PROGRESS so they are just happy to accept it and play along.” Despite his young age, Bate has been plying his trade in the ring since the age of 14, and has already faced off against some of the worlds top wrestlers in various promotions, but admitted he would love to have AJ Styles one-on-one.

“So it is nice to be able to have that ace if I ever need to bust something out. But it is all about perception really, as perception is reality, so it will make whenever I bust out that shooting star press, if I do, that bit more special. If I was doing them all over the place it wouldn’t make it as significant.” The challenge now for the current WWE UK Champion, and his fellow UK competitors is to make a name for himself within the WWE universe.

With a number of title defences on NXT shows against the likes of Trent Seven and Jack Gallagher, Bate says he is determined to let his wrestling do the talking and the fans will see what a talent he is. He added: “I think it would be really cool if people take the time to learn about people like myself, Pete and Trent and see what we’ve been doing before we got to WWE and during the times we aren’t there. “The matches I have been part of might start a bit quiet audience wise, because they are still getting to know us, but I want to let my wrestling do the talking and that seems to be winning the crowds over.”

At surface value, Bate is quite the physical specimen,

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WWE UK watch the wwe uk show from norwich on the wwe network now

INTERVIEW: PETE DUNNE, THE BRIAN KENDRICK & WOLFGANG WORDS/PHOTO: TIM BIRKBECK

s WWE took over Europe at the beginning of May with its latest overseas tour, this was a chance for some of the company’s talents to showcase what they could do in front of a UK audience for the first time.

Part of this tour was the historic tapings for the new WWE UK show, which is set to air later this month. We were fortunate enough to catch up with the Bruiserweight Pete Dunne, Wolfgang and 205 Live’s The Brian Kendrick ahead of the shows in Norwich’s Epic Studios.

If I start off with finding out what it has been like for you guys being on the road with WWE, for Brian I know this is a return for yourself so how have the days been so far? Kendrick: So far it has been really good, I love travelling and I met a lot of the UK guys from my time doing the indies so it is nice to be on the road with them and seeing some more friendly faces in the locker room and it is nice to be out on the road with the guys from

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205 Live as well, as it puts us in front of a new audience.

And for Pete and Wolfgang how has it been to be on the road with WWE and to be part of this environment? Wolfgang: Well the first show we did was Glasgow, which is my home town. So to go out in front of a crowd of almost 10,000 people to a venue I used to go a watch WWE shows. Like I went there to see people like the Undertaker, Stone Cold and Kurt Angle when I was growing up. Then to be on the same card as some of these people is crazy. Like they had the card on the wall so I kept that as a little keepsake. But to actually get the ball rolling on the UK product is very exciting. Pete: I’m just really proud to see that we’ve gone from having this two day tournament, where we didn’t really know what the expectations of it were, but my expectations were blown away from it, and that still goes on today as we get to tour with the SmackDown team which is incredible and you are still pinching yourself a little bit.

Because of the reaction that the WWE UK Tournament got, does that add an element of added pressure going into these shows here in Norwich over the weekend? Pete: I honestly don’t feel that pressure, we just want to kill it all over again. I have learnt to come in with no expectations for anything and just go with it and do my best. And I am approaching these shows in the exact same way as I just want to go out there and make the matches I’m involved in the best that I can. Wolfgang: Yeah it’s the exact same really, you just want to put on the best show possible.

And for yourself Brian you had a similar experience with the CWC becoming 205 Live, so have you been giving these guys any advice as to changing things up from a tournament to a weekly show? Kendrick: With the Cruiserweight thing it became its own entity and I would think it is going to be the

WWE UK

TAKE OVER

same with the UK thing. So I guess it is just a case of getting used to the WWE style where things like hitting times is very important. And I hope that having people like myself with them it will help and they can pick our brains. For example with the tournament it was very clear there is one objective, but now it is all about building those characters for a show.

Wolfgang when the original WWE UK Tournament aired you were the only ICW original on it, do you feel that you had to fly the flag for the company and Scotland? Wolfgang: Completely, I feel like

I have the weight of a nation on my shoulders. You can boil it down to we are all British, but to me it stands out that I am the only Scottish guy. So it is down to me that Scottish wrestlers can go as well as anyone else. There is pressure, but I also felt a huge support from everyone from Scotland.

the whole thing. So it was just incredible from that point anyway. One of the best things about that whole weekend was that I still got to do the indie stuff with PROGRESS and Evolve as well as being back stage for all the WWE stuff. I was just getting the best of both worlds. It kind of puts everything into perspective.

And mainly for yourself Wolfgang and Pete, this year was the first year you were at WrestleMania as part of WWE so how was that experience?

Guys thank you very much for your time and all the best with the rest of the tour.

Pete: I have never done WrestleMania in any capacity so it was my first experience of

Kendrick: All the best now

Pete: Not a problem Wolfgang: Cheers

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WWE UK

WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN ON THE WEEKLY WWE UK TV SHOW t’s going to happen sooner or later, right? Ever since Tyler Bate won the UK Championship all those months ago, the WWE have teased us with the possibility of a UK wrestling show that would likely feature on their streaming service. But sadly, after all this time, we still haven’t got the show that was dangled in front of us like a carrot on a string. However, this may change soon.

With UK specials being presented to us, this may be the opportunity for WWE to test the waters and judge if there is an interest. So, if we do eventually get a weekly show, here is what I think the WWE should do to help its popularity.

HIGHLIGHT UP-AND-COMING STARS If the UK tournament has proven

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anything, it’s that it can take a selection of wrestlers who were considerably popular within the UK and make them look like globally-renowned superstars. Pete Dunne, Trent Seven, Mark Andrews, Wolfgang and Tyler Bate’s careers have all been boosted from their association with the WWE. This has also been thanks to the opportunity to showcase their inring work in the tournament and multiple appearances on NXT. We are all now aware of how good independent UK performers can be when they are given a chance to perform on a bigger stage. So, if the WWE wants to make this set up even better, they would need to scout talent within the region and give them a chance to “wow” audiences. This doesn’t have to tie down wrestlers to a contract either - There was worry initially with guys being locked down to Vince’s domain. Thankfully, this has been sorted rather easily as the wrestlers involved in the tournament

could continue working for other promotions if they showed up for the dates that were crucial for the WWE shows.

BRING IN FEMALE TALENT WWE have the power to make anyone look like a megastar, so, why not use this opportunity to not just highlight UK male wrestling talent, but female wrestlers as well? With a Women’s Revolution currently in full swing on WWE programming, plus the recently announced Women’s wrestling tournament, why not keep the momentum going and present some of the best female UK talent that is out there today? We’ve already seen examples of British women do considerably well on their shows, like Paige’s rise to popularity, and Nikki Cross’s current run with the anarchistic group ‘Sanity’. Are

watch the wwe uk show from norwich on the wwe network now

WWE UK

TAKE OVER

you telling me that they wouldn’t want talent like Kay Lee Ray, Nixon Newell, Viper or Sammii Jayne? (Although they may want to use a different name for Sammii, because you know they’d think about pairing her up with Sami Zayn). You could even go as far as giving them their own UK title. The point here is that the show would be designed to present the best that the UK has to offer. It can work wonders for the men, so why stop there? Let’s show how good these women are!

MATCHES AT RAW/ SMACKDOWN PPVS Now hear me out. I know that we have already had a match set at NXT TakeOver Chicago (which made the crowd go absolutely nuts by the way), so we undoubtedly

could do with more of these matches. But why not aim higher, for a match at a main roster PPV on either the RAW or SmackDown brand? Believe me, the thought of a UK title match at this year’s WrestleMania is filling me with so much national pride, I might just stockpile Tea and Crumpets until it’s time for cricket. But setting up a match for a PPV with the UK Championship on the line is sure to help further legitimise how prestigious the belt could be. So far, it has been defended on episodes on NXT and the recent TakeOver event. While these were all entertaining matches, the bouts would benefit from a big fight feel after having the main shows acknowledge how important the belt is to whoever is competing for it. There are some issues that might arise from this. The length of a WWE PPV is already long enough - Adding another match onto the card could possibly exhaust audiences and lead to a dead

crowd. While that might be a possibility, if the PPV was paced right and gave each match a decent amount of time to perform well, then this may just be a very good option to consider. If we’re testing the waters now with a couple of TakeOver matches featuring the UK guys, then this may come sooner than you think. But above all else, the show should…

TAKE CHANCES All I’m hoping for from this UK show is that WWE take advantage of the opportunity right in front of them. Right now, UK wrestling is so entertaining and it would be a damn shame if WWE didn’t do all they could to realise the potential in the talent waiting for a chance to perform to the world. When we look back on these events in the years to come, let’s not regret any missed moments and make the best of what we have right now in the present.

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WWE UK

PHOTO: WWE

MATCH OF THE MONTH PETE DUNNE VS TYLER BATE - NXT TAKEOVER: CHICAGO WORDS: ERIN DICK he crowd is on their feet for the second time in this match,’ cried out Nigel McGuiness, emphasising the downright class of this Championship bout. A new WWE United Kingdom Champion was crowned in Dunne, and the world knew that the UK boys didn’t come to play games.

‘T

Their rivalry began before the finals of the UK Championship Tournament back in January, where Dunne attacked the 19-year-old. Dunne would go on to capitalise on Bate’s missed dive over the top rope, landing a Bitter End in the centre of the ring, to mark the first title change for the young belt. What’s more, the match received critical acclaim on social media, from many of whom were calling for recognition of a match of the year candidate. It surely won’t be the last we see of these two in title contention. With talks of a United Kingdom Championship focused show on the horizon in WWE, excitement and intrigue are set to soar in the aftermath of this outstanding match. WWE are doing their best to shine a light on one of the hottest pockets of wrestling in the world in the UK, and up appears to be the only way from here.

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WORDS: CRAIG HERMIT | PHOTO: DAVID J WILSON

ICW

Q&A: ICW’S MARK DALLAS e had a quick chat with ICW founder and hardcore wrestling enthusiast, Mark Dallas, about the success of the promotion, the future of ICW and who he would book in a dream match.

When you first created ICW back in Maryhill, did you imagine the promotion becoming as popular as it is today? No, I had a vision of possibly selling out the venue in Maryhill, maybe 5 or 6 times a year. I certainly didn’t see it getting any bigger than that.

How do you manage to strike the balance between the amount of talent that comes into ICW as well as ensure that everyone gets the same amount of spotlight? Not everyone can get the same amount of spotlight. It’s up to the performer and how the fans take to them. And most importantly, if they sell tickets.

Will we ever see ICW travel around the world and do shows? Yes, it’s definitely a goal of ours to put on shows in different countries. So far, we’ve been as far as ROI, outside of the UK. The ICW Heavyweight Championship

continues to be defended across the world, and one day, we hope to run a show in America and Japan.

Do you think wrestling promotions should take the same adult-orientated approach to the production as ICW does and do you think that it brings in a bigger audience? All promotions use the same method, that’s what makes us unique. Everyone has different tastes. We have a good mainstream crossover that showcases the best talent from around the world in an environment you wouldn’t normally see them in.

Do you feel that there is a constant expectation every year that you need to try and do one better for Fear and Loathing than the previous year? Yes, that’s the way it always should be. It’s the biggest show on the calendar and every year the spectacle grows bigger and bigger. It’s an exciting time.

Why the golf club as weapon of choice to use in ICW? I thought it was a play on the fact that I’m meant to be Scottish

and wrestling back in the day focused on very character-driven circumstances. Now and then, it’s also likely you will see someone use it as a weapon on the city streets of Glasgow.

Who would he love to see in an ICW ring past or present to face any current ICW wrestler? Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock. Just kidding, Hogan vs. Grado.

ICW has hosted some incredible matches and feuds since its creation, which ones are your favourites and why? I was a big fan of the Gold Label/ ICW feud as it put us on the map in many ways. Since then, many classic feuds have taken place, such as Galloway/Jester, Renfrew/Grado and Wolfgang/Gunn.

What would you say sets ICW apart from those other promotions and why fans flock to ICW events? ICW is very character driven and everyone is from different backgrounds. Yes, you will see great wrestling but it’s the wide array of cast and characters that sets us apart.

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HANGMAN PAGE

INTERVIEW: HANGMAN PAGE WORDS: LEE HAZELL | PHOTO: PATTY MCCARTHY

t just 25 years old, Hangman Page is working for two of the most prestigious and respected wrestling companies in the world, and is a representative of our generation’s most influential stable, The Bullet Club. Here he talks to SteelChair about his influences, his time as part of The Bullet Club and his upcoming bout with Frankie Kazarian at Ring of Honor’s War of the Worlds.

Hangman is an interesting first name. How did you come by it? Well, it’s not the name my mom and daddy gave me, that’s for sure. I found out I was joining the Bullet Club and so was Adam Cole, around the same time, just a day apart. I knew we would be going to New Japan a lot to represent Bullet Club there. Me and Cole, I think, look kinda similar to a lot of people, and if you’re a Japanese fan who hasn’t seen a lot of us, we probably look really similar, and we have the same first name and a four letter last name. I wanted to switch something up, and as I’m pretty sure Adam Cole had the name Adam first, I adopted Luke Gallows’ gallows thing, put my own twist on it and said, “I’ll be the Hangman.”

What did Bullet Club see in you to make you one of their members? I’m a little bit different to the rest of Bullet Club. I’m a little more serious, maybe. A little more vicious, a little more nasty. A group of guys who are all too similar is not a> good thing, so I think I brought something different to the group. Also, I’m pretty young. At 25, I’ve got a lot of stuff ahead of me. I think that’s a lot of it.

What’s it like working for such prestigious wrestling companies at just MAY 2017 STEELCHAIR 25

PHOTO: JOEY DEFALCO

HANGMAN PAGE

that I’m pursuing wrestling. There wasn’t so much of a start as it just feels like something I’ve been doing my whole life.

What inspired you to get in the business?

25 years old? It’s always been that way for me. I started wrestling when I was 15, so I was, for the most part, always the youngest guy around. When I started working for Ring of Honor, three or so years ago, I’m pretty sure I was the youngest guy there. That’s pretty much always been the case and that’s good. When everybody has done more than you there that’s a good thing. You always want to surround yourself with people who have had more success than you because that’s how you learn and that’s how you grow.

What's the pressure like to live up to the people who made the Bullet Club name? It’s cool. It’s a killer opportunity. We’re the hottest thing going in wrestling. I don’t just mean in Ring of Honor or New Japan, I literally mean everywhere. I haven’t been to a wrestling show in the past three years where someone wasn’t wearing a Bullet Club t-shirt. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime that was somehow afforded to me. I’ve been trying to make the absolute most of it and it’s cool to know that something this big

26 STEELCHAIR MAY 2017

will be remembered as one of the hallmarks of wrestling and I get to be a part of that. It’s pretty surreal.

How did you get your start in wrestling? I don’t know. To be perfectly honest I couldn’t tell you how or when I got my start. When I was a little kid, I was the kind of kid where if I liked something, it wasn’t long before I was trying to do it. When I was a really young kid I got into magic shows and did stuff like that around the house. Wrestling came along when I was nine or ten or so, and within a couple of months of watching I was like, “Ok, now I know how to do this I’m going to do it.” I got the trampoline in the back yard and all that kind of stuff, and, you know, at nine or ten when you do all of that stuff you consider yourself a wrestler. There was never a point where that stopped. A little while of that eventually turned into a friend of mine getting me into a real ring and having proper training. Then we started having little shows in little armouries and high-school gyms and stuff like that and now here I am. Since I was nine years old there’s never really been a time when I wouldn’t say

No one person in particular, but if I look back to my childhood when I first started watching wrestling I’d probably say the Hardyz were my biggest influence. The first favourite wrestlers of mine. A lot of that was because of the way they wrestled and a lot of it was how cool they were. Also, another part of that was that they were from North Carolina, which is pretty close to home for me. Their dad was a tobacco farmer like my dad, so we had similar backgrounds and I could relate to that. When they wrote one of those biographies that WWE put out back in the day, I read it and there were so many parallels in the way we were raised and how we got into wrestling, even more so than in anyone else’s book I ever read. They were my first favourite wrestlers and, I would say, the first real inspiration I had.

While you were training to be a wrestler you were a high school teacher. How did you being a wrestler affect your teaching? Yeah, wrestling didn’t affect my teaching career too much, because they took place at separate times. During the week, I would just be Mr. Woltz, or I was what I needed to be on the weekdays and at the weekends I did my thing. I ended up taking a lot of sick days on Fridays and Mondays. I really loved teaching. I did. It’s something I even think one day I’ll go back to, but I was never 100% invested in it.

Watch ROH the fite app I think that was the way wrestling affected my teaching most. If I wasn’t wrestling, I would have had a much more successful teaching career because I would have been able to give more to it, but I never thought to myself that I wanted to give everything I had to teaching because there was something else that I wanted to do.

Have you had any memorable mentors in the business? What were they like and what did you learn from them. Yeah, a few here or there. When I was a kid, my cousin was dating a guy from the next town over. He was a pro wrestler, working indies and stuff, and he was a huge inspiration to me as a kid because he was doing what I wanted to do at a bigger level. His name was Justin Flash. Him and his friend Jason Blade were my two trainers when I was 15. They were, more than anybody really, my mentors and trainers. They’re not people who made it to the big national scene, but they were the people that I started the first couple of years in my career with on the road, learning how to wrestle. I would say they were my two biggest mentors and two of my best friends in this world. After my career took off a little bit more and I started doing bigger shows, maybe they weren’t even part of it anymore. I can’t say my mentor was one person over the other because a lot of my training came from working, consistently every week, with people who were better than me. Maybe one would be Jimmy Valiant. I never

really wrestled him but he had a training school where I was, near Virginia Tech, so I went up there and did some training. He was a really big mentor who I think taught me a lot.

What was the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?

HOW TO BE A PROFESSIONAL, OR SO I THINK

That’s a good question. The best piece of advice has almost nothing to do with wrestling. Someone namelessly told me, when I was doing WWE try-outs when I was 18 or 19 or so, he told me to use this business, to use wrestling, and to never let it use you. That’s something that’s stuck with me because we all know those stories about those guys who give their whole life to wrestling and at the end of the day that’s all they’ve got. I think that’s the best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten. To live wrestling, but to take from it, don’t let it take you.

WORDS: DASHER HATFIELD

Thank you very much Adam. Anything you want to say to your fans? Yeah, totally. This Friday, 12th of May, 9 PM Eastern Time we have Ring of Honor live on PPV, War of the Worlds, from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. I take on Frankie Kazarian, someone who I very briefly thought was going to be a member of Bullet Club, but after what happened I’m looking forward to beating the hell out of him and teaching him a lesson. The following Sunday, in Philadelphia, we have another TV Taping, War of the Worlds on tour, which will be just as awesome.

elfish- Life is full of second chances, mulligans, and doovers. However we only get one body and it needs to last us our entire existence on this planet. By making the choice to become a professional wrestler we have already made a decision based on the desires and needs of our heart, and in turn have placed the safety of our bodies on the back burner. We embark on this journey knowing that despite our best efforts, our bodies are going to be run through the grinder on a constant basis. Being selfish with your body is a necessity if you plan on having a wrestling career that lasts over a 5 year period. Over and over again you will walk into a match, having just met your opponent for the first time. This is usually the point in time in which he will tell you about his new head-droppy, crazy neck bump type move that he just invented over the week at practice. At this point, I always like to take a moment, examine my opponent from head to toe, calculate how many pushups he can do and try to figure out the nicest way to suggest a good old fashion bodyslam or a nice snapmare. Am I being selfish, Darn Right! In the words of the great Eddie Kingston, “I do me, bruh!”

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WORDS: MAT LINDSAY | PHOTOS: KAY MYS

TIGER MASK restle Kingdom 11 took place at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th this year, a sprawling card that improved on the year before and cemented the event as an essential date in the wrestling calendar. But in the opening singles bout, a masked wrestler introduced as “Tiger Mask W” took on a similarly hooded opponent known as “Tiger The Dark”. Clearly the babyface, Tiger Mask W won with a variant of the Last Ride powerbomb, and only a month later, IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Kazuchika Okada, was heavily hinting that the masked man would be his next opponent.

Tiger Mask W teamed with his namesake Tiger Mask on March 1st, defeating Okada and his manager (and NJPW booker) Gedo, setting the stage for a confrontation between the IWGP Champion and the masked upstart; and so, only five days later, at the show to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the founding of NJPW, Tiger Mask W faced Okada in a non-title match main event, and even though Okada was victorious, the meeting was timelier and more appropriate an encounter than may seem obvious to the casual observer.

TIGER MASK SPANNING GENRES & GENERATIONS

CREATING A CROSSOVER If there was one thing that NJPW founder Antonio Inoki understood better than most of those involved in the early years of Japanese professional wrestling, it was the sensational added value of having crossover appeal from other forms of entertainment more mainstream than wrestling itself. From having Tiger Jeet Singh attack him whilst out shopping in public, to his match against Mohammed Ali, and even as far as his ultimately ruinous obsession with MMA, Inoki constantly sought the opportunity to grab the attention of those who might not otherwise have bought a ticket or tuned into NJPW’s TV show. Aware of the popularity of Sendai television shows (such as Ultraman, Kamen Rider and the later shows that became Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the West) that blended live action with puppets and special effects, Inoki first came up with the idea for a character known as “Azteckaiser” in 1976. A masked Aztec superhero pitted against the devil himself, Azteckaiser had his own TV show (complete, of course, with

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TIGER MASK cameos from Inoki), in which he rode a futuristic tricycle into battle against evil. Unsurprisingly, the series bombed with audiences, and plans to bring Azteckaiser to an NJPW ring were quietly shelved. But if he could not create his own wrestling superhero, Inoki was smart enough to swallow his pride and instead purchase the rights to Tiger Mask, a manga and anime series which had been hugely popular in the late 1960s. Written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Naoki Tsuji, Tiger mask borrowed from pioneering Japanese wrestler Rikidozan, having been a heel in the USA and subsequently returning to his homeland, where he turned babyface and fought for the sake of the children living in the orphanage where he himself grew up.

TIGER MASK I – SATORU SAYAMA Inoki chose to bestow the honour of becoming NJPW’s first Tiger Mask upon Satoru Sayama, a former kick-boxer who had proven his worth as a wrestler on foreign tours intended to season him as a performer. Sayama performed in the UK as Sammy Lee, predictably for the time portraying a martial artist gimmick heavily borrowing from the persona of the deceased Bruce Lee. Under the mask, Sayama made his debut in 1981, accompanied by a rebooted version of the Tiger Mask anime (once more, with a guest spot for Inoki). Sayama’s exceptional skills made Tiger Mask a success, showcasing

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such innovative moves as the Tiger Feint kick between the top and middle ropes (later adapted by Rey Mysterio Jnr into the 619) and the Tiger Suplex. But he was greatly helped by the invention of Black Tiger, a masked nemesis created solely to oppose Tiger Mask and portrayed, at first, by the equally talented and innovative Mark “Rollerball” Rocco. Tiger Mask I feuded memorably with such greats as Bret Hart, Chris Adams, Steve Wright and “The Dynamite Kid” Tom Billington, but it was the shared experience of having worked together in the UK that made the first Black Tiger his signature opponent, the pair virtually defining the New Japan Junior Heavyweight division at the time.

TIGER MASK II – A DIFFERENT NAME IN A DIFFERENT PLACE As prodigious a talent as Sayama was, his background in legitimate combat sports meant that the theatrics of professional wrestling grated badly on him, and in addition, the constant political jockeying backstage left him frustrated. Less than two years into his run as Tiger Mask, Sayama made an unsuccessful attempt to wrest control of NJPW from Inoki, and later in 1983, under the cloud the failed coup created, he left along with the likes of Rusher Kimura and Akira Maeda to join the more shoot-styled UWF. Inoki sold the rights to the character to the rival AJPW in 1984 (though he kept the rights to the

Black Tiger character, possibly as it was wholly the creation of NJPW and not a part of the original manga), who named the upcoming prospect Mitsuharu Misawa as Tiger Mask II. Though the character was not an obvious fit for Giant Baba’s notoriously more conservative company, Misawa nevertheless made the mask his own, renewing Tiger Mask’s iconic feud with the Dynamite Kid and tackling new opponents such as Chavo Guerrero Snr and future garbage wrestling pioneer Atushi Onita. One thing that Misawa achieved as Tiger Mask, which Sayama never did, was to transition successfully from Junior Heavyweight to Heavyweight, tangling with top stars of the time in the form of Genichiro Tenryu and Jumbo Tsuruta. But by May 1990, despite a reign as Triple Crown Champion, Tenryu walked out on All Japan to found SWS (Super World of Sports), and Baba ordained Misawa, not Tiger Mask II, as the man to take his spot. In the middle of a match, Misawa discarded the mask, signalling that he was also shedding the character, and so with no further need of them, the rights

were allowed to revert to NJPW.

TIGER MASK III – THE DIFFICULT THIRD INCARNATION

before, the new Tiger Mask failed to gain traction. In a piece of booking that rather cruelly mirrored the reality of Kanemoto’s predicament, he would go on to lose a mask versus mask encounter with Liger in January of 1994, officially ending the second incarnation of Tiger Mask in New Japan.

While the rights to the Tiger Mask character had rather quietly reverted to NJPW that did not mean that the interim period had been mask-free. Indeed, New Japan had recaptured some of the success of the Tiger Mask formula by repackaging Keiichi Yamada as a wrestling version of Go Nagai’s Jushin Liger in 1987. Such was the success of this newer character that Liger totally eclipsed Tiger Mask for a time, and it was not until 1992 that anyone in New Japan even thought to make use of the character again.

Ultimately, both Kanemoto and the Tiger Mask gimmick would recover and go on to greater things, with the former prospering under his own name and the latter retreating from the dizzying heights of NJPW for another seven years. This second sabbatical for the gimmick allowed the memories of the disappointing Tiger Mask III to fade from fans memories and also for a new wrestler to have the time to truly get to grips with the persona, rather than being rushed into playing a role that would ultimately prove too big for him to handle.

In March of that year, Koji Kanemoto donned the mask to become Tiger Mask III, but the popularity of Liger seemed to be too much for the young wrestler to battle against, and without the bonus of the TV series that boosted Sayama more than nine years

TIGER MASK IV – MICHINOKU PRO TO NEW JAPAN

Unlike his predecessors, Yoshihiro Yamazaki was not contracted to NJPW when he was chosen to become Tiger Mask IV in 1995, but instead was a part of the roster for Michinoku Pro Wrestling. Founded by The Great Sasuke and based in the city of Morioka in the northern Iwate Prefecture (whereas most other notable mainland Japanese promotions are based in and around Tokyo), Michinoku Pro dealt primarily in a Lucha Libreinfluenced style, rather than the more conventional Strong Style for which Japanese wrestling is best known. With the bitterness of his departure from New Japan in the eighties having faded, Sayama himself became involved in the training of the new Tiger Mask, and in a less pressured environment where the influences of the Lucha Libre style heavily permeated his training, all of these elements combined to allow Yamazaki to grow into the role of Tiger Mask IV without being pushed too quickly into the limelight, as had happened with his predecessor. He would not debut in NJPW until 2002, having already portrayed the character for an astonishing seven years in the relative backwater of Michinoku Pro. Unlike Kanemoto, Yamazaki arrived in NJPW as Tiger Mask IV with momentum, winning multiple IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championships (the first from Kanemoto himself) and the Best of Super Juniors Tournament in 2004 and 2005, still being the only wrestler ever to have won in consecutive years. He became a double champion for a short while also, by defeating his contemporary Black Tiger

MAY 2017 STEELCHAIR 31

TIGER MASK (played by Rocky Romero) for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. The arrival of Tiger Mask IV was not accompanied by a revamped anime series, but rather NJPW made much of the fact the original Tiger Mask had approved of the new one. Likewise, Romero was touted as having been trained by Rollerball Rocco, suggesting that the new Black Tiger was a handpicked student of the original as well. This reflected the fashion for reality-based storylines in New Japan at the time, although thankfully, this version of Tiger Mask managed to avoid being damaged by the accompanying obsession with MMA that marred career of Jushin Liger and others. Still active and competing at a high level, Yamazaki remains the official bearer of the Tiger Mask persona in NJPW to this day.

TIGER MASK W AND OTHERS… It may come as a surprise to some, but Tiger Mask W is not Tiger Mask V, but rather a distinct character with a story all of his own. There was an unofficial Tiger Mask V, portrayed by MMA fighter Ikuhisa Minowa, who appeared briefly alongside Sayama in 2010 for the Maki Dojo promotion, but officially the mantle has never passed on from Yamazaki as Tiger Mask IV. There was an attempt to reboot the Tiger Mask manga and anime in 2013, but for some, it flopped, and it was another three years before Tiger Mask W was unleashed on the world. 2016 was a very different year

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for NJPW than 2013, whereas the years leading up to it had been consistently good, the form of the in-ring product and their popularity in both Japanese and foreign markets exploded. Tiger Mask W capitalised on this greatly, packing the cast of the anime with top New Japan stars such as Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito, virtually demanding that its titular character make the same transition and join the roster himself. Learning from past mistakes once more, NJPW chose the young, but experienced Kota Ibushi to wear the new mask, firmly establishing Tiger Mask W as being portrayed by a wrestler who’s style represents the cutting edge of Japanese wrestling. US indie talent ACH was chosen to become Tiger The Dark, maintaining the tradition of opposing a Japanese Tiger Mask with a more than capable gaijin, the in-ring style of whom would be sure to bring out the best in the masked hero.

THE LEGACY OF THE TIGER MASK While it can be argued that Jushin Liger is the most recognisable and iconic masked star ever to emerge in Japanese wrestling, his legend has neither endured as long or been able to touch so many and make great names even greater in doing so. Every wrestler to have worn the mantle of Tiger Mask has either been made great by his efforts whilst doing so or gone on to achieve even more afterwards.

Even the moniker of the Black Tiger, intended solely as a nemesis for the hero of the piece has become a legend in its own right, being portrayed by greats the likes of Silver King, Tomohiro Ishii and the late Eddie Guerrero, as well as Rollerball Rocco. Whilst Rocco wore the mask, he took the gimmick with him to Mexico, and Guerrero expanded the range of the babyfaces that the Black Tiger terrorised in the mid 90’s, as he feuded with Liger and Chris Benoit as Wild Pegasus. Sayama himself remains spry and active, promoting his own company with Real Japan Professional Wrestling, and working under the name of either “King Tiger” or “Original Tiger Mask” as the mood takes him, alongside his protégés the heroic “Super Tiger” and nefarious “Tiger Shark”. There was even briefly a female member of the dynasty, as Sayama and Yamazaki teamed up to train joshi wrestler Candy Okutsu as “Tiger Dream” in the 1990s. Spanning four decades in Japanese professional wrestling and embracing many different styles along the way, there is a Tiger Mask to suit almost any taste and a myriad of matches with the greatest opponents of the day just waiting to be discovered. Whether you are a long-time fan of Japanese wrestling or a total newcomer, you could not pick a better or more enduring character to follow than the legendary Tiger Mask.

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NJPW

NJPW G1 GOING TO USA PRESS CONFERENCE WORDS: COURTNEY ROSE

n preparation for the upcoming United States New Japan Pro Wrestling shows in Long Beach, California, New Japan recently held a press conference to inform fans what they can expect from these G1 special shows. The highlights of this press conference include airtimes for the events as well as the roster that will be attending, and what titles will be on the line.

It seems as though New Japan is going all out for these American specials, bringing the best of their talent and promising to make the shows unforgettable. They have announced there will be a tournament taking place over the course of two days in order to crown the first ever IWGP United States Champion. The first official entrants for the tournament are Hangman Page, representing Bullet Club and Jay Lethal, representing Ring of Honor. Also announced during the press conference was that over the course of the two events, four of the New Japan Pro Wrestling titles will be on the line. These titles include the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, IWGP Intercontinental Championship, and the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships. The first night of the G1 Special

will air on AXS TV beginning at 8pm EST/5pm PST. Those who live in the US and have the New Japan World streaming service will be able to watch On Demand the next day, whereas those outside of the US will be able to stream it live. The second show will air live only on New Japan World. On hand for the press conference were representatives of the Bullet Club; The Young Bucks, Cody, and Kenny Omega. The Young Bucks and Omega vowed to walk into the G1 specials as champions, as the New Japan Dominion show will take place in June before the specials. Cody spoke about his Dominion match against Michael Elgin, and how he plans to make an impact during the G1 shows. Additionally, the full roster was announced. Excitingly, there are representatives of every stable, as well as New Japan partner organizations CMLL and Ring of Honor. The wrestlers appearing are as follows: Bullet Club “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega The Young Bucks “The American Nightmare” Cody “The Villian” Marty Scurll Bad Luck Fale Hangman Page Guerrillas of Destiny Yujiro Takahashi

New Japan Pro-Wrestling Hiroshi Tanahashi Michael Elgin KUSHIDA Jushin Thunder Liger Juice Robinson David Finlay Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu Jay White Billy Gunn Yoshitatsu CHAOS Kazuchika Okada Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Barreta) Will Ospreay Tomohiro Ishii Los Ingobernables de Japon Tetsuya Naito Hiromu Takahashi SANADA EVIL BUSHI Representing Suzuki Gun Zack Sabre Jr Representing of Ring of Honor Champions War Machine The Briscoes Jay Lethal Representing CMLL Dragon Lee Volador Jr. Titán

The shows will take place at 5pm PST in Long Beach, California, July 1st and 2nd.

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WORDS: LEE HAZELL

LOOK BACK

LOOK BACK: STONE COLD LEAVES THE WWE. TWICE Stone Cold Steve Austin was perhaps the single biggest star in this industry’s history. The company’s top guy in one of their most creatively and financially affluent eras. With him as the most successful draw in the company, WWE became the biggest promotion in the world and got the monopoly on televised sportsentertainment events. The wrestling world we live in now has been sculpted by the influence of that man. However, the departure from the company whose fortunes he helped to build proved once and for all that no one man is bigger than WWE. Stone Cold’s final in-ring run in WWE had been a troubling one. Austin, although still retaining his immense popularity was being used in a diminished capacity by WWE creative. The once three-time Royal Rumble winner came up short in the 2002 match, being ousted by Kurt Angle, and despite headlining No Way Out, he was robbed of victory by the nWo, the faction he would have his penultimate WrestleMania program against. Much would be made of Austin’s distain for the idea of them feuding together, especially during WrestleMania. Reports indicated that Austin was against them returning to the company in the first place and had problems with their backstage politicking, their personal problems affecting the quality of their on-screen performances, and their lack of professionalism.

He was booked into a match with

Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8 but refused to slow himself down to accommodate the returning legend’s age. The match was rebooked with The Rock in his place, and they had an all-time Mania classic. Stone Cold instead faced Scott Hall for less than 10 minutes in an angle that felt forced and clumsy. Despite going over, Austin felt insulted by both the time it was given and the attention paid to the storytelling. Austin would remain a part of the title picture for months after Mania, but by constantly coming up short Austin felt his character was being made to appear weaker. He made these feeling public in an interview with the WWE web series Byte This! He said that the direction of the company and their vison for his character were ‘piss poor’. This turned out to be a prelude to his unscripted departure from the show in June. Part of the reason for his disappearance was that he was to be sacrificed to the rising star of Brock Lesnar, cementing his feeling that the company was dismantling the image of Stone Cold he had been building for six years. The reaction to Austin walking out unannounced was swift. Jim Ross buried him on commentary. The Rock, despite exclusively being a SmackDown wrestler at this point, was the company man, bailing the show out, giving the fans what they paid money for and letting the locker room know that no one treats the WWE like that, no matter how much they made for the business. The immortal words were, “If you don’t

want to be with the company, you do as the slogan says and you get the ‘F’ out,” citing WWF’s recent name change to WWE. Vince McMahon broke kayfabe in a rare display of candour telling his version of events and that Austin owed an apology to not only the paying fans but also the boys and girls in the back. Ironically, he was the fairest to Austin though, and the most understanding, telling the crowd that he honestly wants to see Austin back in WWE one day, even toasting him a beer for all the money and memories. And return he would. After expressing deep regret at the distress he caused fans and insisting that beef with his fellow wrestlers was either greatly exaggerated (Hall, Hogan, Nash) or resolved (Triple H, The Rock) he started to mend bridges. Looking for a shot at redemption, he geared himself up for one more program with his greatest in-ring opponent, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. The match is a fine farewell to the Texas Rattlesnake. An exciting start, Austin fights for his life, The Rock has to beat him into the ground to finish him and neither man looked like they had lost a step from their younger years. Austin, as is fitting for his love of the business, put the younger guy over. He had the initials ‘OMR’ stitched onto his jacket in place of ‘BMF’. It stood for One Last Round. He gave us and WWE that. Most importantly, he gave the fans for that. Thank you Steve Austin. Thank you.

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SMACKDOWN

WORDS: BRADLEY TIERNAN

read weekly reviews at steelchairmag.com

SMACKDOWN W

elcome to the most must-see SteelChair Magazine review in history; welcome to… The SmackDown

Review. You could be forgiven for thinking this is a preamble to the monthly SmackDown review. When, in reality, it’s just added nonsense to fill the word count. But as I continue to type more words into cyberspace it has quickly dawned on me that this actually IS a preamble and I’ve wasted your time just like the WWE does every week. The biggest story of the month has undoubtedly been the rise of the Maharaja. No, that isn’t something I threw up after a meal at my local takeaway. It’s Jinder Mahal’s nickname that actually means, ‘Indian prince’. Unfortunately for Mahal he has been treated like anything but a prince by members of the WWE Universe at live shows. When Mahal presented the SmackDown crowd with his Punjabi celebration of his title it should have been a positive thing; one man representing an entire nation of people has achieved an unlikely dream. Instead, a large section of fans have chosen to vilify Mahal. This is largely down to the WWE once again portraying an ethnic wrestler as an “evil foreigner”. At the start of the month, you’d have locked me up in the Ambrose Asylum (eww)

36 STEELCHAIR MAY 2017

if I told you Mahal would be WWE Champion in the space of three weeks. Yet, here we are and I’m the one laughing at the smarks with hindsight and reality. Yet, I can’t see this lasting too long with Orton’s rematch happening at Money in the Bank.

at the time of writing this).

Speaking of MITB, the competitors have been announced and it comes to no surprise that Styles, Nakamura, Corbin, Owens and Zayn are all included. “Only 5 names?” I hear you ask so quizzically. Well, that’s because the sixth and final participant is Dolph “this is my last shot” Ziggler. It comes as a surprise when you have someone like Rusev waiting to make his debut. The Bulgarian is a main event player and certainly deserves his chance to shine in the Money in the Bank Ladder match amongst the other household names. Just a reminder though, that Dolph is the only one amongst those men to have won the MITB briefcase previously. Which is obvious, seeing as he has been around the block more times than your mum.

The best thing about SmackDown this month has been Breezango. Since their success as Chett Chetterfield and Mr Mackelroy on WWE’s YouTube phenomenon, Southpaw Regional Wrestling, Fandango and Tyler Breeze have seemingly been given some creative freedom with their characters. The duo have stepped up their game as the Fashion Police and have since been featured on weekly skits where they use their “detective” skills to aid them ahead of their matches. Since this push, they have gone on to beat The Ascension and The Colons (nèe Shining Stars). This culminated in the pair challenging for the tag team titles at Backlash where they unfortunately lost but only after a fantastic match that featured Breeze in multiple “disguises”. Some may say they aren’t serious enough to be genuine champions but right now they are what wrestling should be about. They’re not taking themselves too seriously and are having fun at the same time. Here’s hoping they play the long game over the coming months and get the huge pop they deserve when they finally claim Tag Team gold.

Stuff I have little room to expand on: - New Day, Rusev and Lana are all still yet to make their SmackDown debuts (correct at the time of writing). - New Day, Rusev and Lana all made their SmackDown debuts and it was incredible! (hypothetically speaking

- Tye Dillinger hasn’t done much. - The Women’s division has once again resorted to teaming each other up. See Team B.A.D, Team Bella and Team P.C.B for details.

WORDS: ELLIOT DYSON

RAW t’s a tumultuous time to be a WWE fan. We live in a world where last month’s jobbers are this month’s world champions and future Money in the Bank winners (Jinder Mahal and Sami Zayn, respectively). Perhaps, being the mouthpiece for RAW support in SteelChair Magazine, I should find a twisted enjoyment in the red show’s outcasts easy success on SmackDown, but alas, these sights just make me long for what could have been ...

Would The Maharaja not make the perfect usurper to Brock Lesnar’s throne? Would we not have enjoyed seeing Sami Zayn give his illustrious rub to a few hundred more up and comers? Anyway, I’m Elliot and I recap Monday Night RAW so you can get on with the important things in life, like paying money for wrestling magazines. It’s been a long time since WrestleMania 33 – probably at least 4 weeks – yet we still have seen nary a glimpse of Brock Lesnar, the brand’s top fucking champion. In an attempt to fill that void, the Intercontinental title saw mild resurgence, only to be shunted immediately back down the card to make room for ambulances and blood capsules. Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman have spent the last couple of months perched atop the card, battling over nothing but... well... nothing. After a surprisingly great battle between the pair at Payback(lash?), Strowman

RAW

The battle between raw and SmackDown, and bradley and elliot continues

has unfortunately succumbed to injury, as if you needed another reason to hate ‘The Big Dog.” In his place, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt are currently set to fight at Extreme Rules for the chance to lose to Brock Lesnar. The Miz and Dean Ambrose have finally restarted their Intercontinental Title feud, reaffirming my belief that the strap should be renamed “The Miztercontinental Title.” The pair will face off at Extreme Rules. I suppose you’re probably done reading this on your toilet break now – maybe you’ve developed those red elbow marks on your thighs already - so I’ll wrap this up pronto. Here’s some of the other, mildly noteworthy stuff from the past month of RAW: - Kevin Owens lost the US title to Chris Jericho at Payback, making them both SmackDown’s problem now. - GoldDust turned on R Truth, bringing an end to a gift of a storyline that birthed one of the greatest teams of the modern era – Breezango. - Cesaro & Sheamus are heels now. - The Hardy Boyz nostalgia is kind of boring already? - Titus O’Neil and Apollo Crews look set to take the Kick Off division by storm in a pairing that makes Slater & Rhyno look like 3MB! Oh and Emma is injured again, however “Emmabelle” is set to debut soon.

WORDS: JAMES TOAL

NXT

NXT o we just finished TakeOver and now we’re back with another episode of NXT, how does it hold up, let’s just take a look. Throughout the show we got mostly throw away matches and recaps. While it was fun to see Aleister Black in action, was it really worth him taking out Curt Hawkins?

While we did get some interviews and recaps to move along storylines, it all just felt like filler. The main event was the unlikely match up of Drew McIntyre vs Wesley Blake. I’m glad to see Wesley Blake getting some action in on NXT. It’s just the fact of this with Drew McIntyre, he feels above this. Blake even managed to damage McIntyre’s left arm, making him seem a bit more human and not just a behemoth of destruction. Once the match started heading towards its end, I did enjoy some parts, McIntyre’s reverse Alabama Slam was quite good and even some back and forth with Blake on the corner was fun. But it all came to an end once Drew hit his single leg drop kick. There goes Wesley Blake back to obscurity, when will he come back? No one knows.

MAY 2017 STEELCHAIR 37

GO-HOME

WORDS: ALAN BOON

GO-HOME SHOW WORKING-A-RESTHOLD M/ .CO UD LO DC UN SO AT T AS DC LISTEN TO ALAN’S PO o you like women’s wrestling? Anyone say no? You’re an f’n liar, mate. Because unless you have some very weird ideas of spending your free time – or are reading this in a dentist’s waiting room (if so, good luck!) – then you are a wrestling fan. And wrestling is done by human beings. And women are human beings. Yes, rumour has it that they may have different sexual parts to men – I hope one day to find out if that’s true – but they’re basically the same. Just (mostly) smaller.

I kid. A little. There are probably some acceptable reasons for writing off the version of our beautiful sport as performed by half the population, and some of those are most likely rooted in the way it is presented by the major leagues. Although it is slowly getting better, and they’d point out that they’re not called Divas any more (although Impact, for what it’s worth, still has Knockouts, FFS), the women of RAW and SmackDown and NXT are still treated as an add-on, a token, and are wholly ghettoised, away from the men’s action (except when one of those women happens to be dating one of those men, right?). The whole concept of a women’s division in 2017 is ridiculous. Even if you don’t accept that women should fight men – and we can fight about that, okay? – then they should at least be treated as equals, which never happens, with even the ironically (in this case, at least) named PROGRESS limiting themselves to one match a show at best, meaning fans go months without seeing their female favourites because it’s not their ”turn” to fill that one slot. What they have done with match placement on cards – the final of the Natural Progression series to find their first Women’s champion is to main-event the second day of Super Strong Style 16 – is admirable but it doesn’t hide that, for every women wrestler on the card, there are eight or nine men. Luckily there are places where women can be the focus of the action, on both sides of the Atlantic and especially in Japan. While there are promotions in Japan that have mixed cards, and even intergender matches, the real serious stuff is the all-woman groups like Stardom, Sendai Girls, and Ice Ribbon. They are presenting top quality, fullon, seriously-presented (for the most part) professional wrestling, that just happens to be done by women. There are occasionally those who will argue that New Japan

38 STEELCHAIR MAY 2017

should have a women’s division, and these people are wrong: what benefit would it serve? Other than (perhaps the wrong kind of) exposure, what could these women gain from becoming a token on an otherwise all-male show? The UK, where I presume most of your watch your graps, is strongly represented, at least in certain geographical areas. London is well-served by Pro-Wrestling EVE and British Empire Wrestling (who, although not wholly a women’s promotion do usually have more women than men on their shows), and Norwich has Bellatrix, run by Paige’s mum, Saraya Knight. Up in Scotland there is Fierce Females, although that has gone quiet of late. There is definitely room for expansion, and some promotions are including more and more women’s matches on their cards, moving the “division” out of a ghetto and into a neighbourhood, and some – like Southside, PCW and IPW:UK are even running women’s shows. What may help, although it’s hard to know without seeing it first and it may equally do as much damage as good, is the release of the Netflix original TV series, G.L.O.W. Loosely based on the women’s promotion that ran in the US in the 1980s, and largely recruited actresses to wrestle (as well as some actual wrestlers to keep the action watchable), it will hopefully present the realities of women’s wrestling a little more accurately that Total Divas. Yes, it’s set in a different era and, yes, it’s a fictional entertainment show, but the producers have a good track record, having been behind Orange Is The New Black – and it stars Kate Nash (who featured on the cover of the second issue of our sister mag, VultureHound, fact fans), who I managed to grab a few words with at the latest Pro-Wrestling EVE show and spoke very highly of the way Chavo Guerrero Jr trained them in all aspects of the business. While all this may go some way towards putting women’s wrestling where it deserves – and needs - to be, only you can make that happen. No, not you, the one behind you. Yes, you. It’s down to all of us to treat women as we’d treat men. Don’t describe them as “beautiful” if you wouldn’t call the male equivalent “handsome” as a go-to. Don’t put them on your poster to sell tickets purely on the fact they have boobs (I looked it up). Don’t talk about “women’s matches” on shows when you wouldn’t talk about the men’s matches in that way. Just be better. Because if we’re better, we might catch up to where they are already.

Read the latest issue at vulturehound.com