Wrestling With Anxiety: Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

Hi there readers, now, I'm trying something new here on this blog of mine. Having turned another year older just a couple of weeks ago, I've had time to ponder what aims I have going ahead and how I want to achieve them. My main goal is to drown out as much negativity and ill-feeling I can from my life at the moment, and in doing so, I've felt the need to be more up front about my mental health.

Over the past couple years in particular, I have had an ongoing struggle with anxiety in various forms as well as some other similar afflictions. Whilst, at the minute, I don't wanna get too much into the details of why I feel like shit, its safe to say there have been quite severe lows and some rough patches, along with times of more smoother sailing. I've had a bit of a nasty spat with it quite recently, and I felt that the best way to combat this is to be more open and up-front with these issues. I am lucky enough to have some wonderful friends and family that have been an incredibly helpful and patient with me throughout this time; I cannot thank them enough for everything they've done. Without their continued support, I doubt I'd be able to write these very words.

But how does this relate to this blog? Well, if I'm talking about my personal experience with my struggles, pro wrestling has played a huge role in my ability to cope like I have. So, in this series I've entitled 'Wrestling With Anxiety', I hope to relay to you, dear readers, how big a help the graps have been for me. This is in no way meant to be preaching a cure, or saying that if you're experiencing similar things watch wrestling and it'll be grand, this is purely me telling my story, hopefully providing ideas that people could adapt and apply to their own problems using their passion. I cannot stress enough the importance of reaching out to people and seeking help. I have and it has done wonders, so if you're in a similar spot, I implore you to do so as well.

Kevin Owens here taking on the physical form of anxiety for the purposes of a nice visual metaphor

So, in regards to wrestling's impact on me, I plan on discussing different aspects in each post. For this first one, I want to focus on something that has helped immensely; regularity and perpetuity.

As a long time viewer, especially in this day and age, its sometimes easy to overlook the sheer volume of  new content there is on a weekly basis. WWE alone produces a minimum of around 7 hours of programming every week, as well as there being numerous other promotions that produce regular content like Impact and Ring of Honour. Although I follow the belief of quality over quantity in wrestling, I'd say on average WWE's weekly product is pretty good, at least in regards to the in-ring action. Over the past couple years, this frequency has certainly aided me.

Bad days throughout the week have been pushed through thanks to knowing that when I get home I've got ______ to watch. Whether it be out of habit or fuelled with legitimate excitement, I've found that these small glimmers of hope really help to put a positive twist on an otherwise shitty day. In the grand scheme of things, these sorts of overarching problems don't tend to be solved in a day, but I've found that instances of anxiety and worry about one relatively small thing in particular are eased by having something to look forward to. As menial as it is to preoccupy yourself on who Neville is gonna kill next or the prospect of a Young Bucks match on the next episode of ROH TV, in my experience, its a big help. The ever-present nature of wrestling means that there's always something I can put in my mind as the end goal for the day. 

On a broader scale, bigger shows like Pay-Per-Views also help in similar ways. When I've been going through a bit of a slump over the span of a few days/weeks/other extended measurements of time, it's stuff like the prospect of a killer card at an NXT: Takeover or a massively hyped match that do the job. When something like a Cena/Styles or an Okada/Omega gets announced, that shit keeps me buzzing for a good long while. Yes, sometimes these sorts of matches might not live up to expectations, but when they hit they mark, Lord does it feel great. For me, having a satisfying climax to these gets me in a good mood for a period after, as if refreshing my mind whilst I ride that high.

Despite AJ's stellar performance evaluation, John is still reluctant to give him that raise he's been asking for

I will say that I have recently have a rough go of it; I've had some recurring feelings of hopelessness, my sense of self-worth has been a bit thrown off and I feel like I'm at a stage where I have to reevaluate a few aspects of my life. As of late, NXT has been the weekly content that's given me something to look forward to. It's been consistently delivering, really feeling like it's gotten it's groove back from the golden age of the early-ish Takeover period. Every division is promising and exciting, plus at an hour every week, its not a massive task to watch. Plus, any chance to see my British boys in action is always a delight.

Top lads

Wrestling gives me something to push through for. Whether it be just a singular match, a developing story or an upcoming show, there always seems to be something to look forward to. In times where everything seems to be going really rather shit, I've found that having little things to get excited about go a long way. The regularity of this has been vital, consistently helping me battle my afflictions through dark time after dark time. I owe a lot to wrestling, and this is just the beginning of the story. 

So that just about does it for this first edition of 'Wrestling With Anxiety' and I hope its been a somewhat fun ride. Let me know your thoughts, feedback is always welcomed with open arms. With the shake-up this blog's received, I feel the need to reaffirm that I am still active, still thinking of ideas for things to write about, and still a big ol' fan of the graps. 

Pro Wrestling Case Studies #2: Nigel McGuinness

Hey there readers and welcome to this second instalment in the blog's newest series, 'Pro Wrestling Case Studies' where we look at a particular something or someone in depth. In this one, we are going to be discussing one of the best and biggest British talents in history, Nigel McGuinness.

In 1998, Nigel McGuinness left England in the pursuit of professional wrestling, travelling to Cincinnati, Ohio to train under Les Thatcher at Heartland Wrestling Association. Debuting in 1999, Nigel would wrestle for the company until 2000 when he would return to the UK due to running out of money to fuel his early career. After working tooth and nail to raise funds, McGuinness returned to the United States in 2001, and would shortly begin to wrestle in more places, such as IWA: Mid South as well as wrestling in his home country as well.

2003 saw McGuinness make his first appearance for the company he would become synonymous with; Ring of Honour. His debut match would be tied to his HWA base, facing Chet Jablonski in a No.1 Contender's Match for the HWA Heavyweight Title, available for viewing here (YouTube). Over the next couple of years, as well as expanding his domain and competing in more places in the US, McGuinness would become a more regular member of the ROH roster. His early time there were spent teaming, and then feuding with Colt Cabana until setting his sights on the ROH Pure Championship.

The ROH Pure Championship was defended under it's own unique set of rules, which were as follows;

• Each wrestler begins the match with 3 rope breaks, once used up, pins and submissions that would normally be broken up by a rope break are legal.
• Closed-fist punches to the face were not allowed (shots to other parts of the body were fine apart from low blows). The first instance of such a punch landing would result in a warning, a second in taking away one of the wrestlers rope breaks, and the third in disqualification.
• 20 counts administered when outside the ring
• The belt can change hands in the result of a disqualification or count-out.

After a pair of failed challenges for the belt, McGuinness would defeat Samoa Joe for the belt in August of 2005, and go on to become the longest reigning champion in the belt's history, holding it for 350 days. In his time as champion, Nigel would carve his niche in ROH, turning heel in the process. During his reign, he would defeat the likes of Roderick Strong, Homicide, Austin Aries, Christopher Daniels and Claudio Castagnoli (Cesaro) in a prolonged feud.

It was during his time as Pure Champion that would see the emergence of his famed rivalry with Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan). Their first encounter came at Weekend of Champions Night Two, with McGuinness receiving a shot at Danielson's ROH World Championship whilst simultaneously putting his own Pure Championship on the line in a title for title match that was contested under the pure wrestling rules. This match can be viewed here (YouTube). McGuinness won by count-out, meaning both men kept their respective belts. The victory led to a rematch where Danielson would scrape a victory, which then set the stage for their most notable clash of all.

ROH: Unified took place in August 2006, with McGuinness and Danielson facing off again, with both titles on the line again under pure wrestling rules in a unification match. This was a bloody bout, something Nigel had wanted, with the match including one of the most brutal spots I have ever seen in pro wrestling.



In his autobiography, Danielson writes how McGuinness wanted to bust himself open the hard way on the ring post. They'd agreed that if there was no blood after 3 times hitting the post, they would stop. However, after taking the 3 and being devoid of colour, McGuinness wanted one more shot which would prove to be the clincher. Danielson also writes about regretting this spot, deeming it unsafe and unnecessary in hindsight.

The match went on, with Danielson himself being busted open, making for an even bloodier affair. Adding the brutality of the match, it would conclude due to referee stoppage, with Danielson laying in elbow after elbow to the defenceless McGuinness.

After losing his Pure Championship, Nigel challenged Naomichi Marufuji for the GHC Heavyweight Championship, the champion of ROH's Japanese partner company, Pro Wrestling NOAH. Due to their current working relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling, this time period isn't referred to as much by the company any more. Like their work with NJPW, this brought about talent exchanges, allowing wrestlers to compete in places they never had before. In 2006, Nigel even had more matches for NOAH than he did ROH and in February of 2007 became a representative and spokesperson for NOAH.

This partnership also resulted in another of Nigel's acclaimed rivalries in his pursuit of the ROH World Championship against Takeshi Morishima. Once his tag team partner over in NOAH, McGuinness would unsuccessfully challenge Morishima twice before he finally managed to beat the giant at ROH: Undeniable in October 2007 to become the 10th ROH World Champion. Although McGuinness' reign would take a shaky start sustaining a bicep injury in late 2007, McGuinness would hold the title for 545 days, the second longest reigning ROH World Champion behind Samoa Joe, and is tied in first place for successful defences with Bryan Danielson, defending the belt 38 times. Amongst those 38 include defences against some of ROH's finest as well as international stars such as KENTA (Hideo Itami), a day after sustaining another arm injury despite reportedly needing surgery, which can be viewed here (YouTube). His run with the belt would come to a close in April 2009, being defeated by Jerry Lynn at Supercard of Honour IV.

In September of that year, Ring of Honour announced that McGuinness had "in principle" signed a contract with the WWE as well as his storied rival, Bryan Danielson. The pair would have their final match with the company facing each other at Glory By Honour VIII: The Final Countdown. Danielson would go on to sign with WWE as planned, however, McGuinness' deal with the company fell apart after he failed a pre-screening physical test, down to the various injuries sustained during his career.

Shortly after, McGuinness signed with TNA, debuting in October under the new name of Desmond Wolfe in a programme against Kurt Angle. He would defeat Angle in his first Pay-Per-View appearance for the company at Turning Point, earning a 4.25 star rating from Big Daddy Meltzer, and can be viewed here (YouTube). The two would face off one last time at Final Resolution in a 'Three Degrees of Pain' match - a two out of three falls with each fall being earned by pinfall, submission and escaping the cage respectively. Angle would come out victorious, ending the feud as the victor. This match gained a 4 star rating, and can be viewed here (YouTube).

From there, McGuinness/Wolfe feuded with the likes of D'Angelo Deniro, before aligning himself with Ric Flair, later taking part in Lethal Lockdown as part of Team Flair (along with Sting, Bobby Roode and James Storm), where they were defeated by Team Hogan (RVD, Jeff Hardy, Jeff Jarrett and Abyss) after McGuinness/Wolfe took the fall. 

He still had the support from the fans though. In April 2010, TNA introduced the 'Championship Ranking' where fans could vote for the No.1 Contender for the World Championship. From start to finish, McGuinness/Wolfe led the poll from beginning to end, ahead of an illustrious list of other contenders including AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy and Sting. McGuinness/Wolfe received his title shot against RVD on a May edition of Impact! He would lose in 3 minutes, never to challenge for the title again.

After that, McGuinness/Wolfe would have a feud with Abyss, comprised mainly of hardcore matches spanning a couple of Pay-Per-View. The whole while, he would look to gain the approval of Ric Flair to be put into Flair's new version of The Four Horsemen, Fourtune, later spelt properly as Fortune. The group would end up being comprised of Styles, Kazarian, Storm and Roode, with McGuinness/Wolfe being left out. 

McGuinness/Wolfe would find some success in forming a tag team with Magnus, later coined London Brawling, beginning a winning streak on Xplosion before earning a shot at the TNA Tag Team Championships for No Surrender in late 2010. However, this match would never happen due to more medical issues with McGuinness/Wolfe, revealed in 2014 to be down to him testing positive for Hepatitis B (and has since recovered). He would make his on screen return in May 2011, starting a brief run as commissioner of Xplosion, before being released from the company in June.

McGuinness would return to the independents in late 2011, in a retirement tour that would see him compete in the United States and the UK, wrestling the likes of Eddie Edwards, Trent Seven and Jack Gallagher as well as returning to the place it all began, Heartland Wrestling Association. He wrestled his last match in December 2011.

2011 did see McGuinness return to Ring of Honour in a non-wrestling capacity as on-screen commissioner, as well as being a member of the commentary team. During this time, as well as becoming an advocate for hepatitis B vaccination and for stopping intentional bloodletting in wrestling, McGuinness made a documentary, a career retrospective as well as capturing his retirement tour following his TNA departure. Personally, I found 'The Last of McGuinness' quite a hard and saddening watch, with McGuinness airing his frustration over the breakdown of his WWE deal due to his bicep injury, as well as discussing how he thought his career was a failure to do not reaching WWE.

But, this story ends on a happy note. In December 2016, it was announced that Nigel McGuinness had signed to WWE as a commentator for the United Kingdom Championship Tournament, and now a permanent fixture on the NXT announce team.

Nigel's career is one punctuated with phenomenal matches and legendary feuds, but plagued and shortened by injury. Despite being booked much worse than he deserved in TNA, Nigel should be remembered as one of the greatest British, or otherwise, wrestlers to have ever competed. His feud with Bryan Danielson is one of the industry's best and most celebrated, featuring arguably the best in-ring work of both men's careers and in ROH history. Plus, he had a fucking awesome lariat

That's gonna do it from me for this Pro Wrestling Case Study. Once again, big ups to How2Wrestling for being the main inspiration between this series, I really recommend checking them out. If you have any requests of who I should cover next, please let me know, but until next time, enjoy your graps. 

Further Viewing

NOTE: Links in bold are matches from the McGuinness/Danielson feud

Nigel McGuinness vs Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan) - ROH: Epic Encounter II, 25/08/2006 (YouTube)

Nigel McGuinness vs Kotaro Suzuki - Pro Wrestling NOAH: Summer Navigation 2007 Day 2, 1/7/2007 (Dailymotion)

Nigel McGuinness vs Takeshi Morishima - ROH: Fighting Spirit, 14/4/2007 (Vimeo) 

Nigel McGuinness vs PAC (Neville) - King of Europe Cup Quarter Final (Dailymotion)

Nigel McGuinness vs Davey Richards - King of Europe Cup Semi Final (Dailymotion)

Nigel McGuinness vs Doug Williams - King of Europe Cup Finals (YouTube)

Nigel McGuinness vs Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan) - ROH: Domination, 09/06/2007 (YouTube)

Nigel McGuinness vs Austin Aries - ROH: Rising Above, 29/12/2007 (Vimeo) - WARNING: McGuinness goes head first from a suicide dive into the guard rail and sustains a concussion, broken nose and cut above eye needing 14 stitches. 

Nigel McGuinness vs Go Shiozaki @ Pro Wrestling NOAH: The First Navigation Day 9, 1/20/2008 (YouTube) - Part One - Part Two

Nigel McGuinness - vs Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan) - ROH 6th Anniversary, 23/2/2008 (YouTube)

Nigel McGuinness vs KENTA (Hideo Itami) vs BJ Whitmer - Pro Wrestling NOAH Northern Navigation 2008 Day 1, 15/5/2008 (Dailymotion)

Nigel McGuinness vs Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan) - ROH: Battle of the Best, 13/9/2008 (YouTube)

Nigel McGuinness vs Eddie Edwards - 2CW 11th Hour, 11/11/2011 (Vimeo)

BWOTW: 15/5/17 - 20/5/17

Hey howdy hey there readers and why not take your shoes off as I welcome you to this newest edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'The Hardest Choice Ever'

I am somewhere in this picture

But before we get neckdeep in the goodies, let's have a quick look at the past week's news;

1. It is being reported that Io Shirai has accepted a deal with WWE to join NXT (I guess). I would imagine she's going to be apart of this Women's Tournament and will probably reach some of the final brackets.
2. After joining the Bullet Club in one of the hottest ROH angles in a long time, Marty Scurll dropped his Ring of Honour World Television Championship to KUSHIDA at the recent tapings. I was debating whether to include this as it could be considered a spoiler, but KUSHIDA walked out in NJPW with the belt so fuck it.
3. Also in ROH news, Chuck Taylor appeared at the latest tapings to aid his 'Best Friends' partner, Trent Barreta. Hopefully this is the start of something wonderful.
4. Cyoar ROH has a lot this week. Remember Flip Gordon from the other week who I spooged over because of his 'Kinder Surprise' move? He has signed an exclusive offer with ROH. Nice to see them looking to bring more talent in seeing as they've lost some stellar prospects. Let's hope they don't fuck this one up too.
5. Braun Strowman is injured, with a reported shattered elbow. Whilst WWE have said he'll be out up to 6 months, Meltzer's saying that's inflated so that we might get a surprise sometime. 

And now for the caffeine in this wrestling blog cup of coffee, it's the matches!

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (15/5/17): Finn Balor vs Roman Reigns

Get things started this time around it is two of the competitors in the No.1 Contender's Match for the Universal Championship at Extreme Rules, it's Finn Balor taking on Roman Reigns.

RAW took things up a notch this week, because this match was actually pretty damn good. I was on a bit of a Finn high, having watched his WWE 24 episode beforehand, so this is the perfect thing to follow it with. Roman was selling a shoulder injury throughout this match, with it giving Finn something to work on and something to keep Roman down a bit. I don't know whether he intended to do it as hard as he did, but Reigns freakin' nailed himself on the ring post when he missed Finn in the corner. Also, this was followed by a pretty damn sweet double foot stomp;

Finn seemed to be a bit of a hotstreak here, being on the upper hand for quite some time if memory serves me right, and with it looking very much like we'd see Balor pin Reigns once again. However, the power of the OOOAAAAHHH was too much, with things winding down to a spear ending the match.

Overall, this was real good. Finn has an ever exciting moveset that keeps things moving along nicely, and it felt like these guys were afforded more variation and leeway than a typical Monday Night RAW match would. Good stuff.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (16/5/17): AJ Styles vs Jinder Mahal

It's the Backlash go-home show this week, and we have the two singles titles contenders going head to head, with 'The Phenomenal One' AJ Styles taking on Jinder Mahal.

I felt that it was very much AJ's presence and participation on this match that kept me invested. His offence is such that is always fun to watch, and his selling is so good that it's also great to see him get his ass kicked. In regards to Jinder, I think he did fine, but I can't really think of much more to add to that. I have to say, Jinder's moveset is quite basic and unexciting. Like, the highest points of his time in charge was maybe a Triple H like knee lift, and a sort of shitty superkick. If anything, it's made me a bit more worried about his match with Orton, with neither of them being massively entertaining in-ring for me.

The end saw Kevin Owens get involved and cost Styles the match, allowing Jinder to hit his Cobra Clutch Slam finisher. In all, this was a perfectly fine match. If it wasn't for AJ I probably wouldn't have bothered watching, but there wasn't too much else going on on the card - Baron Corbin versus Randy Orton? Ugghgh

205 Live

Best Match on 205 (16/5/17): Noam Dar vs Gran Metalik

Change those ropes and ring skirt because it's 205 Live time, featuring this cool match between Noam Dar and 'El Rey de las Cuerdas', Gran Metalik. 

Fuck me, where has Metalik been? Main Event? Cryin' shame. I get that the language barrier is a bit of a blockade in getting the man over with the audience, but bloody hell just let him wrestle like he does and hit those ropes like he does and he'll get the crowd going. This sequence alone got the temperature rising, he messed up the headscissors a little, but other than that, amazing athleticism;

That top rope Asai moonsault is insane.

I would like to add that this was the best match I've seen Noam have in quite a while. He went along with all of the lucha libre antics, and his working of Metalik's leg was very well done. In a time where we had Rollins knee worked on ad infinitum and Aries' knee worked on later in the show (which was quite good anyway), the simplicity and restraint here was great. Like, things would get going, Metalik would be building speed and Dar would kick out the shin or something, snapping back the memory of the injury and taking control. He took out the leg when the luchador was balanced on the middle rope and it was great, giving him quite the tumble.

In the end, Dar wins with his big running knee, kick....thing. This match was great, better than RAW and SmackDown! I'd say. Please WWE, use Metalik more. I cans stand to see a slip here and there, and I am fine not hearing him speak English, he can do cool flips'n'shit.

NXT

Best Match on NXT (17/5/17): Kassius Ohno vs Andrade 'Cien' Almas

Not only was it a go home for Backlash, but also NXT is gearing up for TakeOver: Chicago, and decided to put on this proper nice match between Kassius Ohno and Andrade 'Cien' Almas.

It looks like these two wont be on the Takeover card, so its's nice to get another dose of them beforehand, can't remember the last time we saw Ohno and I am on a Almas high right now and can't get enough. 

We started off a bit technical, but with all of Andrade's antagonising 'tranquilo' actions, this did devolve into a slugfest pretty snappily. Now, whatever the weather, it is bad to get into a striking contest with Ohno, so I'm sure you can figure out who got the best of that one. Ohno's chops were much more of the thudding, axe on a tree style in this one, with Almas looking like he'd been shot with a bean-bag gun after each one. 

Y'know how you make Ohno's hits even cooler? Throw a flip in;

Kicked him so hard he had to readjust his hair. 

So, I know that Ohno is an agile cat, I've seen him do that handstand thing before, not that it takes away from its awesomeness by any means. However, that wasn't all the limber movements we'd see from the big man. I love moonsaults, I love big lads doing moonsaults, this match made me happy.

He did do a Kurt Angle Special in missing it, but it was still pretty damn cool. Well, to me at least.

I thought this match was very good, the sort of thing I want more of from NXT. They've got this fantastic roster, and it feels like some of their TVs rely too much on squashes and mismatched line-ups and we don't get to see these match-ups that often. I get that we don't want to burn through the roster and potential match ups on TV, but it'd be nice if we could have a few more of these competitive contests.

United Kingdom Championship Special

Best Match on UKCS: Tyler Bate vs Mark Andrews - WWE United Kingdom Championship Match
Honourable Mention(s): Pete Dunne vs Trent Seven - No.1 Contender's Match

Here's a heads up on how I felt about this match, coming from my 'Noah Goes To' write up on seeing it live;

"I had an amazing time and you can darn tootin' believe that when this gets put on the Network it's gonna be hard for anything to beat Bate/Andrews for match of the week, whenever it may be shown."

So yeah, I loved this match. It had it all; the mesmerising British technicalities, high spots, a striking game, false finishes and wonderful sequences. In regards of how to set a tone for a match, it doesn't get too much better than this sort of thing;

Marvellous. 

Like I mentioned, there were some incredible high spots in this match that put some exclamation points amidst this poetry; the frankensteiners, the dives, the big counters, they all made me lose my shit sitting in attendance, and hearing everyone around me reacting in the same manner just heightened it all. 



This match would not have looked out of place on a pay-per-view, on a PROGRESS show, a PWG show, or even WrestleMania, it was that good. Whilst I am sure that Bate/Dunne II is bound to be awesome at TakeOver: Chicago, I'd encourage any and everyone to watch this as well. A truly incredible match, ranking up there in what has been done under the WWE banner so far this year.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 295): Bobby Fish vs Silas Young

Ring of Honour picks up with another real good match this time around, with this growing feud between 'Professional Wrestling's Last Real Man' Silas Young, and Bobby Fish.

We started off hot with the two men going straight at each other, which just serves to heat this rivalry up. One thing I picked up in this one, whilst overall I think Silas Young is criminally underrated, his dropkick is a thing of beauty. I thought Silas and Bobby played of each other greatly, with snappy sequences - like the apron/corner spot that was really great - plus, their battles with words is a slick pairing too. In all, though I can't think of much else to say other than that this was a real solid match that is the sort of thing that makes ROH fun to watch.

As always, you can watch ROH TV for FREE on www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current, on the Fite TV app and it turns out that you can actually watch Fite on browser, which I have to say is much higher quality than ROH's website.

So, remember how I said it'd be hard for anything to beat Bate/Andrews whenever it would be, there was something on the calendar I hadn't anticipated a clash for....

NJPW: Best of the Super Juniors

Day 1

Best Match on BOSJ D1: Marty Scurll vs Will Ospreay
Honourable Mention(s): Dragon Lee vs Hiromu Takahashi

Fuckin' Jesus we've got some class action here. First night we had the New Japan Pro Wrestling debut of the Bullet Club's newest acquisition, Marty Scurll taking on his oldest and most storied rival, Will Ospreay.

Good lord above this was great. These guys worked an amazing match, and you as with all their matches, you can clearly see how well these guys know each other and how to put on an awesome match with one another. The Japanese crowd were big into Scurll's whole digit manipulation and finger snapping routine, and we saw that played up a fair bit in the match. Like I said in his recent battle with Jay White, Ospreay really has developed as a wrestler, with his all round in ring game really picking up.

I was very happy to see how well received Marty was, with lots of 'Woop-woop!'s even when they were just reading out the card at the start of the show. The hard camera position doesn't do much justice in showing how big Karouken Hall is, and getting the whip around shot of Scurll's entrance when he took his mask off let us see the size of the place.

I want to make a promise to you, readers, that I, Noah, will never ever get tired of seeing Scurll catch Ospreay off of the springboard into a chickenwing. Out of every time I've seen it happen, this may have been the best one.

Amazing match here, and a great introduction of Marty to the Japanese crowd. Pair him up with his classic rival, and let them go at it. I also want to say that Dragon Lee/Hiromu Takahashi, another continuation of a storied feud, was also awesome and you should check it out too.

Day 2

Best Match on BOSJ D2: Will Ospreay vs Ricochet
Honourable Mention(s): Marty Scurll vs Dragon Lee, Jushin 'Thunder' Liger vs Hiromu Takahashi

Will is back and he is against another of his long standing rivals, arguably one more significant in his career that Scurll, 'The Future of Flight', Ricochet.

This time last year, we were all buzzing about these two causing an industry wide wave over debate on the nature and form of pro wrestling. I thought that that match was very, very good, and agree with the stance that wrestling is an art form, as preached by both Ospreay and Ricochet. So, when I saw this in the listings, I figured we might have something similar.

Again, Will's development is visible here, with his more basic striking and grappling game more prevalent and in essence, better. Ricochet is also much more than flip-dee-doos, so he could lovingly compliment that.

Now, don't get me wrong, there was a fucking fuck load of bejeezusing spots and high flying that was a spectacle. The sequences that had the likes of Vader pissing and moaning last year were back with more flair and working parts. There were just some nasty looking spots, with Ricochet landing a freakin' brainbuster on the apron. 

For me, dragonrana's have been a fabled move in my wrestling watching time, it was like the only place you'd see them were either old Rey Mysterio Jr. matches in WCW with his purple body suit or Create-A-Wrestlers in WWE games. But, good lord above would you get a look at this;



Utter wizardry. 

What a way to close out the start of the BOSJ tournament. How did it compare to last year? I thought that there was definitely more to this one. There was more variety, with the aforementioned grappling and striking stuff coming into play. I've seen that Meltzer has said that although these two are doing stuff no-one else can, they're doing too much of it. I think I'd agree with that, but only in retrospect. Sat there watching it, I loved every moment of it, no worries of complaints, no detraction from my enjoyment at all. 

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: Tyler Bate vs Mark Andrews - WWE United Kingdom Championship Match

Holy motherfucking god this was the tightest of decision between Bate/Andrews, Ospreay/Scurll and Ospreay/Ricochet. Hell, I am typing this sentence yet to decide it, and I'm gonna have to think some more an fill in the answer in a sec. Watch them all, you won't regret it. Also, props to Dar/Metalik, what a great match that was. 

Fuck it, Bate/Andrews wins. Those three matches are just incredible, and I may have some slight leniency towards it due to being there live, but fuck it all, I think it was the best. Sorted.

After that splitting of hairs, here is what the leaderboard looks like now.

And now for the final thing, 'The Best Promo of the Week', and it was a bit of a toss up between the winner, Fashion Files III and Ospreay's Day 2 post match promo, but in the end, I picked the one that impressed me the most, and that was this hella creepy promo done by Erick Rowan on Talking Smack;

That's gonna do it from me for this week folks. Thank you for joining me, and in a week packed with quality all round, I'd love to hear what you thought this week's best was. Until next week, I hope you all have a lovely time in your corner of the world, wherever it may be, and if you ever feel like discussing wrestling in any capacity, hit me up. I'll catch your ass down the road.

Noah Goes To: Epic Studios, Norwich (UK Championship Live Tapings)

Hey there friends and welcome to this second edition of 'Noah Goes To', where I, the titular the Noah, venture out into the world in my goal to see as much live wrestling as possible. This time around, on Sunday 7th May, I headed up to Norwich to have a look-see at the second day of tapings for WWE's United Kingdom Championship show.

So ya know, most probably gonna be S-P-O-I-L-E-R-S going on in this, I'll try keep it to a minimum, but its just a warning for those of the faint of heart.

I constitute this as my first proper British wrestling show, with the other shows I've been to being, in all fairness, a bit shit. No offence to the promoters, but Magnus versus some fat fuck in bin bag trousers foe the Global Force Wrestling Championship isn't that much of a spectacle. This had everything I wanted from a British show; a focus on domestic talent, a loud and hot crowd, weird chants and though I hadn't anticipated the sheer volume of it, I suppose the influence of alcohol in the building added to the atmosphere. The guys in front of me literally must have had like 5 or 6 pints during the show. Inevitably, that led to a couple cuntish acts here and there, but the show was too good to let that be much of a negative.

Epic Studios was quite alright. We queued up along the street and through a window that had like an obscuring mural type thing across it, I could see William Regal having a sit down with Tony Nese, Mark Andrews and Roy Johnson. I was so in awe of Regal I walked into the guy in front of me. He understood. Got patted down on the way in, gentle human contact is always nice I suppose so I can't really complain. Then, it was just up some stairs and then you were there. We were one of the later people entering, so it was already nearly full when getting in, and it is a sight to see. A really cosy wrestling show, but I was next to an aisle with no one in front of me either, so I had some breathing room.

I was sat on the first row of the tiered seats, no garden furniture for me. Depending on whether you think it's lucky or not, I was directly opposite the hard camera, so, if you see a guy with his arm in a cast with glasses, long hair and a Cesaro shirt, have a guess at who it is. I was about eye-level with the ring, so I comfortably watched all the matches, and the entrance way was high enough that even with all of us standing, I got to see the entrances in all their glory. The ramp was a little obscured, only really seeing their heads bob along, but that was okay with me.

Though a little thing, I was so glad they kept the theme from the tournament to presumably be used for the new weekly show. I love the song and other songs by the Astroid Boys, so hearing it blaring was nice for me.

We had the usual pumping the crowd up for the opening shots, the announcer man doing the typical 'not loud enough guys!' thing. Then, we had the owner of PROGRESS Wrestling, Jim Smallman come say hello. I really like Jim, and his background in stand-up comedy showed when he was picking a few people out to chat to. When he asked a guy up front why he wasn't at the previous night's show too, and he replied saying he was working, he got 'YOU SOLD OUT!' chats that made me giggle. You can tell the man loves wrestling and must be happy with the position of his company in relation to WWE.

First match we had was Wolfgang against Joseph Conners which was alright. A good mood setting match to get us into the active crowd feel. It wasn't until we started to we got some cruiserweights from 205 Live that I started to feel really into it. TJ Perkins teamed with Brian Kendrick to face Dan (DAN!) Maloney and Rich Swann. Got to chant 'TJ is a wanker' which was fun, caused mostly from him dabbing, but this match is mainly in my memory from shouting 'DAN!' over and over whenever Maloney moved a muscle. For context to this, there is a British comedy character from Norwich called Alan Partridge who is a bit of an icon (at least I think so), and the shouting comes from this skit;

Lotta fun. 

Can't really remember match order, but I think it was Tyson T-Bone against Saxon Huxley afterwards. Lotta people went for food/merch/a piss during this match. It was okay, and surprisingly despite Huxley being the most Jesus-looking person, he received the least amount of Jesus related chants, that award would go to James Drake later on.

If my schedule recollection is correct, next was Akira Tozawa versus Tony Nese that was rather good, getting to do Tozawa's "AH!" screams was cool too, though that might have been the biggest strain on my poor little vocal chords. Nese is proper big in person, a real adonis in person. Abs of a god. Also, a 'TO-ZA-WA' chant transitioned into a 'TOYS-R-US' one which was another highlight.

Intermission after this I think, which when we came back was punctuated by the appearance of Triple H! Hearing that opening riff on 'King of Kings' created possibly the largest holler from me the entire night, watching as he walked out onto the stage. Absolutely in awe of the man, hung on his every word. I did get to chant 'Alan Partridge' at him which was possibly the strangest things I have ever been apart of. He made it sound as if they'd be coming back to Norwich and I not be opposed to that in the slightest.

When we got back to the action we had James Drake taking on Sam Gradwell. Another fine match, made most memorable from all the chants if I'm honest. Due to Gradwell's lack of hair, we ended up just chanting the names of different bald people at him, as well as singing 'Dude Looks Like a Baby'. I know some people aren't a huge fan of chants like this, some outright hating such things, but personally I am fine with it. I think there is a bit of a difference being there in person and over a screen, but I like them either way. 

After that came most probably the two best matches I have seen live. Pete Dunne versus Trent Seven. Mark Andrews versus Tyler Bate.

Dunne and Trent had everything I wanted from both men, Dunne doing some devastating limb manipulation and some big lariats from Trent, plus some huge spots off the top and on the apron. Dunne definitely has a presence about him, couldn't take my eyes off the man. I found myself being very conflicted with my support in this match. I started off with shouts of 'Moustache Mountain' only to find myself changing to 'Bruiserweight' a little while after. Great match.

Seven and Dunne had got some new entrance themes made for them, which are pretty damn good. But y'know who kept his awesome theme?

Huge pop when that percussion intro hit, the level of Bate's support even causing Andrews to get booed a little. Title was on the line for this one and it was incredible. Sitting at home reacting to big moments is fun, being there and jumping to your feet when things go down is even better. This match was the first time that I did so in person with some awesome spots that looked like death. I was glad I finally got to take part in a 'Tyler Bate, Tyler Bate, Tyler, Tyler Bate' sing-song, love the guy.

Post match saw Dunne come out to confront Bate and confirming them to face each other at NXT TakeOver: Backlash. Some more Bate celebrating and that was the show.

I had an amazing time and you can darn tootin' believe that when this gets put on the Network it's gonna be hard for anything to beat Bate/Andrews for match of the week, whenever it may be shown.

A lovely time was had and I cannot wait for the next opportunity to attend a wrestling show. I would love to get to a show for either PROGRESS, RevPro or a something along those lines. Plus, if ROH comes back to the UK again this year I might have a look-see, I could even be driving by then. I missed the boat this time around, but every year my school offers funding to students for independent trips, like a grand, so maybe next year I might look into going to wXw's 16 Karat Tournament. 

I also encourage you, my lovely comprades, to seek out attending a quality wrestling show. There is a fair share of not great and 'trash' wrestling in the world, but if you can get chance to go somewhere reputable, it's always a blast. 

That just about does it for me this time around guys and gals, hope you enjoyed this little recount of mine, and I hope to bring you another one soon. Have a good day everyone, and remember, you are all lovely.

BWOTW: 16/1/17 - 21/1/17

'Ello guv'na and welcome to this shiny new edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'Coming From a British Angle' 

But before we get into it (and gee do I want to), let us first take a gander at the news from this past week;

1. Tyler Bate is your first ever WWE United Kingdom Champion, becoming the second youngest WWE champion history, only by a matter of months! Good lord what a tournament that was over the past weekend, and I loved every bit of it. We also had Tommy (Tommy, Tommy Fucking) End debut against Neville, using the End name, so whether he's using that for good who knows? It has been reported all the competitors were signed, and there has been a bit of controversy with WWE pulling people out of events and appearances, but that's contracts for ya, so you can't really blame anyone.
2. KURT FUCKING ANGLE IS IN THE HALL OF FAME! He's come back to the WWE and it feels so good. So amped to here that theme blare through the TV again and seeing that man make his way to the ring again. Expect a special li'l something out of me sometime soon, and remember, just because he's not contracted for any matches doesn't mean he can't slap an ankle lock on some motherfuckers.
3. Mickie James has returned too! After her match at TakeOver: Toronto, James is now on the SmackDown! brand, unveiling herself as La Luchadora and alligning with Alexa Bliss. Lets see where we go with this then.
4. Big Triple H can't get enough tournaments, seen with him confrming that there will be a WWE Women's Tournament in the future. Cruisers, Brits, Women, can we have a proper good King of the Ring please?
5. After debuting on 205 Live, Tajiri was injured at an NXT show. I'm sending all my love to the Japanese Buzzsaw, sending it to that lovely man.
6. Pentagon Jr. is done with AAA, now independent, though I'm not too sure of his dealing with Lucha Underground at the minute. He will now go by Penta Ciero Miedo or Penta 0M, which is still a pretty cool name.

And now for the gold in this Olympic medal of a wrestling blog, its the matches!

WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament

Night 1

Best Match on UKCT N1: Tyler Bate vs Tucker - First Round Match

Kicking us off is the final first round match of the tournament, pitting the eventual winner Tyler Bate against the man from Northern Ireland, Tucker.

Most of the other matches of the night were in'n'out fairly snappily, but this one had a good chunk of time dedicated to it. I was impressed by both men, with Tucker being relatively unknown to me and being a lot better than I would have thought, and Tyler showing off a lot more than I knew about him. This match made me root hard for Bate on the second night, and I love that his gimmick at this point really is just 'a lovely fella'.

We had some great, proper wrestling in this one, having a hefty dose of the British technical base as well as incorporating all the lovely things in the modern wrestling scene. We'd heard a bit about it in the promos and I was a bit tepid in my anticipation, but my word Tucker's superkick was goddamn awesome. He like leaped in the air, clocked Bate on the jaw like he was in a kung-fu movie so hard that he flew out the ring, nicely protecting the move.

Soon after, we had what was from my recollection, the only outside dive in the first day of the tournament. I thought that was a nice touch, seeing as the previous tournament, the Cruiserweight Classic, was inundated with high-spots of that ilk, so whilst it might not be massively noticeable, it was refreshing. It was real cool dive as well, a bit different than most things, a hurricanrana off the steps and onto the ramp. Tucker had a sore looking landing, the back of that neck/head coming down a bit awkwardly, but no worries, he looked to be fine afterwards.

The crowd was eating it all up, and by the end of it, the whole building was on their feet to witness the finish of the match.

Great match this to round of the first stage of the tournament, I went it sort of supporting Bate, came out loving him and eager to see more of both of the men. Check it out.

Night 2

Best Match on UKCT N2: Tyler Bate vs Pete Dunne - Grand Final

Tyler's popped up again, taking on Pete Dunne in the grand final and the deciding match to see who would be crowned the inaugural WWE United Kingdom Championship.

Going into this, we had Bate suffer some sort of shoulder/arm injury in his semi-final match against Wolfgang, which would be exacerbated in a post-match attack by Dunne. They did a great job of making sure Dunne was gonna be booed in this tournament, with him starting off the weekend receiving quite a cheered reception, and ending it being despised by all. Plus, it helped that Bate had won the hearts of essentially everyone watching.

So, with the K-Tape applied and being as useless as ever, there was a lot of working that arm. Dunne stretched and tweaked and wrecked that arm of Bate's, constantly abusing him. A slam into the turnbuckle was one of Dunne's damn nasty methods of brutalising Tyler, landing him pretty roughly on the mat.


Tyler had his fiery babyface flurries and retaliations, building back his momentum and landing some big money shots. I'm not sure whether he meant to do, or whether he didn't get quite enough rotation in the space for a splash, but he had a sweet looking 450 double footstomp.

Dunne was hammering Bate for what seemed the most part of the match, and even looked to end it after hitting his finisher, with it then becoming the only finisher that was kicked out of for the whole tournament. Then after a sequence of trying to put Tyler away, we came out with the sight of a Tyler Driver '97 and history being made. Just listen to that crowd;

That was an awesome match to cap off the weekend, bringing it all to a phenomenal close, with some lovely post match celebrations to follow. I loved that whole tournament, I may write a little retrospective piece on it if I feel I have enough to coherently say, but other than that, I recommend all of it all of you.

And as if I have to convince you any more that Tyler Bate is awesome, here's that sweet goodness of his theme;

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (16/1/17): Cesaro & Sheamus vs The Club (Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows) - RAW Tag Team Championship Match

We're back in the USA now, and we've got the tag team champs of Sheamus and Cesaro taking on Gallows and Anderson.

We're starting to get some nice sequences with Sheamus and Cesaro, rather than just a tag move and then one goes off for a bit. Anderson was on the receiving end of this little flurry;

The Club actually had quite a decent amount of domination in this match, working over both of their opponents at one time or another. We actually had a dusty finish with The Club getting the decision reversed on them, which certainly did get me going. Sheamus knocked the ref down, The Club gets him out then Magic Killer's Cesaro; took a while for a new ref to come running down so I figured Cesaro was gonna kick out. Nope. I let out a big Stone Cole-esque 'What?' as the bell rang. I mean, Gallows and Anderson have had a bit better booking as of late, but fuck me that was a dramatic increase, and still is all things considered. They laid the champs out and picked up a pinfall, even if the match should've ended just before.

So Cesaro and Sheamus retain via disqualification, but The Club come out of this looking like legit contenders. Good stuff.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (17/1/17): Alexa Bliss vs Becky Lynch - SmackDown! Women's Championship Steel Cage Match

SmackDown! LIVE now here on this blog of mine, and we're main eventing with a Steel Cage Match for the Women's Championship, Bliss versus Lynch. RAW, just come here, take a note about how our throats aren't having the fact that the women are the main event or that this is a cage match shoved down them, I can figure that shit out, okay? Cool.

As a have-r of long hair, I always feel a little uncomfortable watching people with long hair in cage matches, just the thought of it getting snagged in the chain link makes me wince. All that aside, this was a pretty good watch. Had quite your run of the mill cage match antics with the door and chasing people up the walls. However there was one spot I really liked, I don't think I had seen a top rope Exploder Suplex before, so this was a nice treat to see; 

Overall, it was a pretty solid match, nothing amazingly spectacular, but it was a nice watch. Plus we did get the Mickie James reveal at the end, which I thought deserved a bigger pop, though I suppose the crowd might not have had a great time seeing it in a cage and all. 

205 Live

Best Match on 205 Live (17/1/17): Jack Gallagher vs Ariya Daivari - 'I Forfeit' Match 

Stickin' around after SmackDown!, its 205 Live, this week featuring the what I would assume is the climax to the Gallagher vs Daivari feud, the 'I Forfeit' Match. 

It was pretty much what you can expect from a hardcore match on the weekly TV, brawling up to the ramp and around the ring with a bit of use of foreign objects. Not one, not two, but there were three different umbrellas used in this match, how much of a plan did Gallagher have going into this?

I can't really recall there being a whole lot of cool stuff in this match, though the finish was pretty nice, Gallagher locking in a crossface chickenwing assisted with an umbrella;

Not a whole lot to say about this one, it was an alright match, big on the gimmick side with a fair bit of mic time from both men essentially, 'I'm just gonna beat the shit outta ya, mate'. Decent.

NXT

Best Match on NXT (18/1/17): Roderick Strong vs Steve Cutler

Starting on the pre-taped side of things now, its NXT! Steve Cutler's back from being a thing for like two weeks a couple months ago and nothing afterwards, this time facing off against a man with a new theme that's a bit better; Roderick Strong. 

It was a fairly standard match in NXT, we've got a guy we want to make look good against one of the less relevant members of the roster. Not a lot to write home about in this one, Cutler did some things amidst Roddy hitting and throwing him quite a bit, but yeah, not much to say really. 

One thing that stuck out to me was that Percy Watson did have an inane comment in this one; 

'Deceptively strong there, Roderick Strong.'

It's in his fucking name, pal, what more do you want? 

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 277): The Rebellion (Caprice Coleman, Kenny King & Rhett Titus) vs Jay White, Lio Rush & Donovan Dijak

Six-Man tag action kicking off the hour this week, with The Rebellion taking on the team of Dijak, Rush and White. 

Just a real snappy, boom-boom-boom type of match this one. We had some regular tagging in and out, keeping things rolling smoothly, even when The Rebellion were pounding on Rush they kept switching it up as to not stagnate anything. 

Dijak was getting involved in all the high flying antics of Rush and White, with the trio pulling off 3 moonsaults all on different sides of the ring, the camerawork making look pretty awesome.

Overall, it was good. Lots of stuff going on to keep you engaged with both teams busting out some high-paced, high-risk manoeuvres to give it a pacy feel. As always, you can watch ROH TV for FREE on both www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or on the Fite TV app. Next episode should be proper good, with Marty Scurll facing Johnathon Gresham, and a three way between Will Ospreay, KUSHIDA and Dragon Lee!

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: Tyler Bate vs Pete Dunne - Grand Final - WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament

What else? This was a classic match with stellar storytelling and psychology plugged into it, flourishing it with a feel-good moment. I definitely recommend checking this out, the whole tournament too, to anyone interested in British wrestling in the slightest, and even if you aren't, I'm sure you'll come out of it pleasantly surprised.

And with that lot in the books, here's how the leaderboard looks nowadays. Finishing up this instalment, its time for 'The Best Wrestling Quote of the Week'.

'I was born to win an Olympic Gold medal, but I think my destiny was to come here in the WWE and entertain the fans' - Kurt Angle

That's all from me for this week readers, hope you enjoyed not only this post but also your past seven days, and I hope the next seven are equally as good, if not better! I'll catch your ass down the road...