Hello Wrestling fans my name is Billy Johnson. I'm 33 years old and have been a wrestling fan for well over 25 years of my life. I first fell in love with the Graps (as it's known today) during the original WWF boom in the UK in late 1990 early 1991.
The exact date escapes me but I remember the first time I watched wrestling it was with my two childhood friends who had the latest WWF coulsiuem home video release which was wrestlemania 6. I remember being mesmerised by these larger than life characters battling it out for supremacy with one another.
In 1995 I fell out of love with wrestling but a year or so later the in thing again on the playground was stone cold Steve Austin and the nWo and I was hooked once again after I borrowed the VHS tape of WWF Royal Rumble 1997. Since then my love for the Graps has only grown (there was a period in 2010 I began to hate the WWE and it's refusal to push new talent but that went again once one of my favourite ROH wrestlers CM Punk got that monster push in the summer of 2011).
Some of my favourite wrestlers growing up where Bret 'Hitman' Hart, 'Macho Man' Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior and Mr Perfect. Later on it would be guys like Stone Cold, The Rock, Chris Jericho, Mick Foley, Chris Benoit, Rob Van Dam and Eddie Guerrero who would have a special place in my heart during the Attitude Era. Some of my all time favourite wrestlers are guys like The 'Nature Boy' Ric Flair, Bret 'The Hitman' Hart, Mitsuhuru Misawa and 'Macho Man' Randy Savage those guys will always be at the top of my list due to some of my favourite matches coming from those guys like Bret Vs The British Bulldog at Summer Slam which was held in the old wembley Stadium and I was lucky enough to attend. My dad was lucky enough to score tickets for SummerSlam due to the fact he was working at wembley at the time and unfortunately he was the one who had to attend that show with me. I'll never forget the look on his face that night of the horror of a guy dressed as a canadian Mountie proclaiming he's the Mountie and the pure joy he had etched over his face when the Bulldog won the big one
I'm also a big fan of Bret's matches with his brother Owen at Mania 10. 11 year old me was in shock that afternoon that Owen could beat his older brother. My all time favourite Mania match is his match with Stone Cold at WM 13. It's still as good today as it was then and is a match I still love to watch back for the drama. Ric Flair was someone I hated as a child due to the fact he won the rumble in 92 and began hitting on Macho's wife, Liz, but grow to love in my later years after seeing his legendary matches with the likes of Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, Vader and Sting.
Macho will always remain my favourite from my childhood for his over the top crazy antics and wild promos and his matches with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and The Million Dollar Man. I was probably the only kid in my school after watching the WM 5 VHS with my buddies who sided with Savage over Hogan.
It wasn't until 2002 I discovered a magazine called Powerslam where I found out all about Misawa and his iconic battles with Kenta Kobashi, Kawada, Stan Hansen, Jumbo Tstura, Vader etc. Powerslam also helped me discover ECW, Pro Wrestling Noah, NJPW, FMW, CZW, ROH and a now defunct Brit Wres group called FWA. I remember the colourful poster promoting a show with Jerry Lynn on and to top it all off, it was only down the road from where I lived. I was sold and that Christmas week I attended my first of many FWA shows called Festive Beatings which had the likes of Brit Wres pioneers Jody Fliesch, Johnny Storm, Alex Shane and some punk called AJ Styles on the card. I regularly attended Brit Wres shows at the Broxbourne Civic Hall throughout 2002 to 2006. My favourite show I ever went was headlined by Alex Shane Vs Steve Corino (the two had been working an angle for months on the old UK fan forum). The emotion in that building that day was incredible and when the evil Shane was vanquished by the almighty American hero there was nothing quiet like it.
I like so many others that day lost my shit. You could say I got swept up in the power of the work because I like a lot of people in that building really did believe these two actually hated one another. In late 2005 I took in my first of 12 shows over the next 3 years up in Doncaster for a now defunct promotion called 1PW. They basically booked the TNA, ROH guys and Internet darlings almost every show and it was always something to behold. I remember after all the BS and politics that happened with 1PW really souring me on the Brit Wres scene and I eventually gave up on it in 2008 due to a lack of promises being fulfilled.
Then in 2015 I fell back in love with Brit Wres thanks to Shinsuke Nakamura coming over to these lands and working for the promotion I will be covering on here: Revolution Pro Wrestling or Rev Pro for short. I'm now a massive Will Ospreay, Trent Seven, Pete Dunne, Jimmy Havoc and Marty Scurll mark and have Been discovering some great wrestlers and promotions like progress and another group I'll be covering on here called Fight Club Pro in this country thanks to streaming services like Pivotshare and Vimeo on demand accounts. So that's me I know I rambled on too much but I hope you enjoy reading my reviews of Rev Pro and Fight Club Pro as much as I will writing them and as Bill Apter always says I'll see you at the matches!
Follow Billy on Twitter - @Billy_Jay83
The exact date escapes me but I remember the first time I watched wrestling it was with my two childhood friends who had the latest WWF coulsiuem home video release which was wrestlemania 6. I remember being mesmerised by these larger than life characters battling it out for supremacy with one another.
In 1995 I fell out of love with wrestling but a year or so later the in thing again on the playground was stone cold Steve Austin and the nWo and I was hooked once again after I borrowed the VHS tape of WWF Royal Rumble 1997. Since then my love for the Graps has only grown (there was a period in 2010 I began to hate the WWE and it's refusal to push new talent but that went again once one of my favourite ROH wrestlers CM Punk got that monster push in the summer of 2011).
Some of my favourite wrestlers growing up where Bret 'Hitman' Hart, 'Macho Man' Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior and Mr Perfect. Later on it would be guys like Stone Cold, The Rock, Chris Jericho, Mick Foley, Chris Benoit, Rob Van Dam and Eddie Guerrero who would have a special place in my heart during the Attitude Era. Some of my all time favourite wrestlers are guys like The 'Nature Boy' Ric Flair, Bret 'The Hitman' Hart, Mitsuhuru Misawa and 'Macho Man' Randy Savage those guys will always be at the top of my list due to some of my favourite matches coming from those guys like Bret Vs The British Bulldog at Summer Slam which was held in the old wembley Stadium and I was lucky enough to attend. My dad was lucky enough to score tickets for SummerSlam due to the fact he was working at wembley at the time and unfortunately he was the one who had to attend that show with me. I'll never forget the look on his face that night of the horror of a guy dressed as a canadian Mountie proclaiming he's the Mountie and the pure joy he had etched over his face when the Bulldog won the big one
I'm also a big fan of Bret's matches with his brother Owen at Mania 10. 11 year old me was in shock that afternoon that Owen could beat his older brother. My all time favourite Mania match is his match with Stone Cold at WM 13. It's still as good today as it was then and is a match I still love to watch back for the drama. Ric Flair was someone I hated as a child due to the fact he won the rumble in 92 and began hitting on Macho's wife, Liz, but grow to love in my later years after seeing his legendary matches with the likes of Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, Vader and Sting.
Macho will always remain my favourite from my childhood for his over the top crazy antics and wild promos and his matches with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and The Million Dollar Man. I was probably the only kid in my school after watching the WM 5 VHS with my buddies who sided with Savage over Hogan.
It wasn't until 2002 I discovered a magazine called Powerslam where I found out all about Misawa and his iconic battles with Kenta Kobashi, Kawada, Stan Hansen, Jumbo Tstura, Vader etc. Powerslam also helped me discover ECW, Pro Wrestling Noah, NJPW, FMW, CZW, ROH and a now defunct Brit Wres group called FWA. I remember the colourful poster promoting a show with Jerry Lynn on and to top it all off, it was only down the road from where I lived. I was sold and that Christmas week I attended my first of many FWA shows called Festive Beatings which had the likes of Brit Wres pioneers Jody Fliesch, Johnny Storm, Alex Shane and some punk called AJ Styles on the card. I regularly attended Brit Wres shows at the Broxbourne Civic Hall throughout 2002 to 2006. My favourite show I ever went was headlined by Alex Shane Vs Steve Corino (the two had been working an angle for months on the old UK fan forum). The emotion in that building that day was incredible and when the evil Shane was vanquished by the almighty American hero there was nothing quiet like it.
I like so many others that day lost my shit. You could say I got swept up in the power of the work because I like a lot of people in that building really did believe these two actually hated one another. In late 2005 I took in my first of 12 shows over the next 3 years up in Doncaster for a now defunct promotion called 1PW. They basically booked the TNA, ROH guys and Internet darlings almost every show and it was always something to behold. I remember after all the BS and politics that happened with 1PW really souring me on the Brit Wres scene and I eventually gave up on it in 2008 due to a lack of promises being fulfilled.
Then in 2015 I fell back in love with Brit Wres thanks to Shinsuke Nakamura coming over to these lands and working for the promotion I will be covering on here: Revolution Pro Wrestling or Rev Pro for short. I'm now a massive Will Ospreay, Trent Seven, Pete Dunne, Jimmy Havoc and Marty Scurll mark and have Been discovering some great wrestlers and promotions like progress and another group I'll be covering on here called Fight Club Pro in this country thanks to streaming services like Pivotshare and Vimeo on demand accounts. So that's me I know I rambled on too much but I hope you enjoy reading my reviews of Rev Pro and Fight Club Pro as much as I will writing them and as Bill Apter always says I'll see you at the matches!
Follow Billy on Twitter - @Billy_Jay83