THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: twosheds316@aol.com
Website: www.twoshedsreview.com

This edition is a very special edition of The Two Sheds Review. Having written a few successful columns for a few wrestling fanzines here in Britain, it was on July 28th, 2000, that The Two Sheds Review made it’s debut on the internet, in The Wrasslin’ Analysis newsletter, read by under two hundred people. Since then, The Two Sheds Review has appeared on over fifty websites and newsletters, and in that time, I’ve received feedback from countries as far a field as the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Pakistan!

So to commemorate the fifth birthday of the Two Sheds Review, I thought I’d take a look back at my life as a wrestling fan and journalist, and bring you, the reader, the ten most pivotal moments during that time, moments that have affected me a great deal, and some which may have affected you as well.

THE BEGINNING
It’s hard to actually determine when the beginning is, because I’ve been a wrestling fan for as long as I can remember. But I can tell you exactly what wrestling programming I was watching when I became a fan.

British wrestling was big when I first became a fan. Every Saturday afternoon at four in the afternoon, millions would tune in to the World of Sport show on ITV, to get their weekly fix of grappling action. If we wanted great technical action, we looked to the likes of Johnny Saint, Steve Grey, or Mal Sanders. If we wanted larger than life villains, we looked to the likes of Kendo Nagasaki, Giant Haystacks of Kendo Nagasaki, and if we wanted superheroes we could look up to, we had Big Daddy. We also had our fair share of visiting overseas stars as well, with the likes of several Hart brothers, a pre-Kamala Jim Harris, and the Mighty John Quinn coming to these shores. And let’s not forget the man regarded by many as one of the best professional wrestlers in history, the Dynamite Kid.

The fact that the old World of Sport shows are now one of the highest rated programmes on The Wrestling Channel here in Britain says a lot about the quality of the wrestling from that era. British wrestling was regarded as the best in the world back then.

THE RE-BIRTH
If truth be known, I had really lost interest when Greg Dyke kicked the ITV shows to the kerb in 1988, and when, a year later, my family were only the second family in my hometown of Cromer to get satellite television, I really wasn’t interested in seeing what the various channels had to offer as far as wrestling was concerned.

I had seen the WWF during it’s brief run on ITV, and frankly, I didn’t like what I saw. Compared to what we Brits were doing, it seemed so over-the-top, it was almost like a pantomime. But my views on the WWF would soon change.

Sky were about two months behind the Americans when they first showed Wrestlemania X in June 1989. Taking place at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, the whole event just seemed, well, special. Headlined by the “Macho Man” Randy Savage defending his WWF title against Hulk Hogan, the whole event just seemed to leap out at me, and after seeing wrestlers like Jake “The Snake” Roberts, the Ultimate Warrior, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, I was hooked, and there was absolutely no looking back.

“WE’RE TAKING OVER!”
I had never really been a big fan of World Championship Wrestling. Sure, I watched their show whenever it was on television, but the fact that WCW didn’t have a stable television contract here in Britain, and seemed to jump for channel to channel with great regularity meant that I didn’t really pay much attention to the company.

That was until May, 1996. While watching an edition of Nitro on the British version of TNT, I couldn’t believe my eyes when Scott Hall arrived on the scene. With the swagger of Razor Ramon, Hall grabbed the microphone and announced that WCW was being taken over. A short time later, Hall brought a buddy along with him, in the form of Kevin Nash.

The implication was that Vince McMahon had sent Hall and Nash to start a WWF invasion of WCW. Of course, legal matters meant that this part of the angle was soon dropped, as Hall and Nash announced at The Great American Bash that they weren’t employed by the WWF. Nash then power bombed Eric Bischoff through the stage.

A few weeks later, at Bash At The Beach, WCW representatives Sting, Lex Luger & Randy Savage were due to take on Hall, Nash and a mystery third partner in the main event. Luger was injured early on, leaving Sting & Savage to fight WCW’s cause. Towards the end of the bout, the crowd went wild when Hulk Hogan walked down the aisle, thinking that the Hulkster was there to save WCW from these invading forces.

They couldn’t have been more wrong. Hogan attacked Savage, joined forces with Hall & Nash, and the New World Order was born. The greatest angle in professional wrestling history was unfolding before our eyes. It would turn World Championship Wrestling into the biggest wrestling promotion in the world, but it would also ultimately lead to it’s downfall.

THE REAL DEATH OF KAYFABE
Deep down, we all knew that wrestling wasn’t “real”, that the guys in the ring had planned things out beforehand, that the outcome of the matches were already decided. The wrestling companies just weren’t prepared to admit it, until Vince McMahon appeared on worldwide television and basically told us what we already knew.

That moment may have signalled the death of kayfabe, and smartened up a lot of people, but we became a whole lot smarter, and a lot more cynical, after the events of November 9th, 1997.

WWF Champion Bret “Hitman” Hart was on his way out of the company when he was scheduled to defend his title against long-time rival, both in front of and behind the camera, Shawn Michaels at the Survivor Series in Montreal. Hart didn’t want to drop the title to Michaels in his homeland, but agreed to lost to Michaels by disqualification, and give up the title the following night on Raw. But Vince McMahon had other ideas.

As Shawn Michaels locked in the sharp-shooter towards the end of the match, McMahon, who had been at ringside throughout the entire match, ordered the time-keeper to ring the bell. Hart had been defeated, and Michaels was the new WWF Champion.

Watching the tape then, I couldn’t believe what I had seen. Something just didn’t seem right, especially when Michaels was ushered away from the ring, unable to celebrate his title victory.

Of course, we all know the story now. McMahon, with a little help for his loyal employees, had screwed Hart out of the title. Backstage, Hart clobbered McMahon when the boss tried to explain why he did what he did. Shortly afterwards, Hart signed with World Championship Wrestling. Just over two years later his career was over, courtesy of a stiff kick from Bill Goldberg.

Wrestling lost a little of it’s magic that night in Montreal.

THE LOSS OF INNOCENCE
On May 23rd, 1999, the greatest tragedy in the history of professional wrestling occurred.

I was a fan of Owen Hart. I had been ever since I saw him wrestle Marty Jones in a scorcher of a match in Britain in 1987. We all expected him to leave the WWF after what happened to his brother Bret, but he couldn’t get out of his contract, so he stayed with the company.

At the “Over The Edge” pay-per-view, Owen, having resurrected his Blue Blazer gimmick, was scheduled to face The Godfather for the Intercontinental title. With the WWF in the height of the so-called “Attitude” era, Owen’s Blue Blazer character now preached family values, much in the same way Hulk Hogan had a decade earlier.

Owen’s entrance that evening would have seen him descend from the rafters of the arena like a super-hero, but something went tragically wrong. But the mechanism went wrong, and Owen plunged over sixty feet, smashing his head on one of the turnbuckles as he fell into the ring.

Television fans knew something was wrong, was very wrong, by the way that Jim Ross was announcing things. It was a short time later that JR announced to a shocked worldwide television audience that Owen Hart had died.

The effect this tragic series of events had on the professional wrestling world cannot be understated. Owen Hart was one of the nice guys. He wasn’t one for playing political games, and hardly anyone had a harsh word to say against him.

A part of the wrestling business died that day.

DESERTING THE SINKING SHIP
Towards the end of 2000, WCW was in tatters. The New World Order had run it’s course, the company was losing millions while top stars stayed at home, and some of those that did appear on television and pay-per-view weren’t happy with the way things were going.

On January 16th, Chris Benoit defeated Sid Vicious for the vacant WCW World Heavyweight title. But it meant nothing to him. A day later, Benoit, along with Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn left WCW.

On January 31st, the four of them appeared in the front row during the opening moments of WWF Raw, interfering in the opening tag-team match. The WWF had pulled off a hell of a coup. Had WCW inserted a no-compete clause in when they released them from their contract, they wouldn’t have been able to work for the WWF. But WCW’s failure to do this meant that Vince McMahon had got his hands on four of the best wrestlers in the world. The Radicalz were born.

While Malenko won the Light-Heavyweight title before retiring, and Saturn more or less slipped off the wrestling map, both Benoit and Guerrero went on to achieve a great deal of success, and continue to do so to this day. But the company they left behind was faltering. Things were going wrong all over the place, and the departure of four of their top stars may have been the first nail in the proverbial coffin.

THE MONOPOLY BEGINS
Early 2001 wasn’t a good time to be a wrestling fan. Ever since I first became interested in the American wrestling scene, there was always a “big two”, and a times, a “big three”. As the twenty-first century began, those three were Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation.

But by March of that year, Vince McMahon would have a monopoly on the American wrestling market.

With their debts mounting, and failing to secure a new national television contract after being dropped by TNN, ECW closed down. Paul Heyman’s rebel promotion was credited with giving the wrestling business the proverbial kick in the pants that it needed. The number of stars they had created read like a who’s who, and they were applauded for their innovative style and storylines. But in the end, Heyman’s mercurial booking talents didn’t make up for his lack of business acumen.

Two months later, the once mighty World Championship Wrestling officially closed. The company had lost an estimated $60 million dollars in it’s final year of trading. After this fiasco, AOL/Time Warner wanted out of wrestling altogether. The cancellation of WCW’s television contract meant that an Eric Bischoff-led consortium couldn’t close their deal, and like a hovering vulture, Vince McMahon pounced, purchasing the rights to the company name, it’s entire video library, and the contracts of twenty undercard wrestlers for chump change. Vince had achieved his goal, he had defeated his competition, but sadly, he ended up defeating himself by botching what could have been the greatest wrestling angle of all time.

GETTING OUT OF THE ARM CHAIR
Much of life as a wrestling fan had been spent in my armchair, watching wrestling on television and on video, but with the death of WCW and ECW, all that would change.

An article in the Eastern Daily Press in March 2001 chronicled the efforts of one Ricky Knight, the owner of the World Association of Wrestling, my local promotion. Ricky told of his desire to put British wrestling back on the map, and of his attempt to do this with WAW’s Fightmare show, to be held at the Norwich Sport Village a few weeks later.

Ricky’s words and passion seemed to leap off the page at me. Up until that moment I hadn’t really paid much interest in WAW. I’d seen a couple of their videos, and up until the end of 2000 they held fortnightly shows in at the Corn Exchange in Norwich, but I always kept telling myself that I’d go to the next show. It got to the point though that there wasn’t a next show, as the Corn Exchange closed down.

But for some reason, I knew I had to be at Fightmare, along with the two thousand other fans who were there that night.

Fightmare restored my faith in British wrestling. It introduced me to talent like Ricky himself, Sweet Saraya, the Zebra Kid, Jody Fleisch, Jonny Storm, and many, many more, and eight months later, this writer would begin working for WAW, acting as their chief reporter, and running their official website.

WRESTLING SAVED MY LIFE
By the summer of 2002, I was at a pretty low point in my life. Personally and professionally, I was at a low ebb, and I suffered a severe nervous breakdown, which forced my to give up my job.

But there was one thing that was constant in my life, one thing that was always there for me, and for my family, as I battled through my illness, a battle that would take me nearly three years to win.

Ricky & Julia Knight, the founders of WAW, more than anyone else supported me and my family as I battled through this terrible illness. There were times when I truly doubted my friendship with them, and I literally put them through hell. But they stuck by me, kept faith in me, and helped me on the road to recovery. I really can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done for me and my family. I’ve become a part of their family, and they’ve become a part of mine.

Everyone in WAW played a part in my recovery. WAW became my second family, full of people I could turn to in my hour of need, and to each and every one of them, I would like to say thank you. You saved my life.

FINALLY, I HAD AN ALTERNATIVE!
In March 2004, a television company based in Ireland changed the face of wrestling broadcasting here in Britain. For the first time since WCW and ECW went under, the now-WWE had some broadcast competition.

Headed by Sean Herbert, The Wrestling Channel launched on the Sky Digital platform, finally offering those of us who wanted a viable alternative to our weekly wrestling dose from Titan Towers, bringing to us wrestling from the American indy circuit, Japan, Mexico, and from right here in Britain.

Finally, and without the aid of tape traders, British fans got to see just how great companies like TNA and Ring of Honor were, and how great wrestlers like Christopher Daniels, A.J. Styles, C.M. Punk, Colt Cabana, Low-Ki, American Dragon, Samoa Joe, and many more really were, having read a great deal about them on the internet and in magazines.

But sadly, TWC didn’t seem able to keep up the momentum. A second channel was re-launched, which folded a few months afterwards. The renegotiation of deals meant that some apparently popular promotions, such as CMLL, CZW, and New Japan were dropped, while others like GAEA & MLW closed down, and the FWA had problems of their own to sort out. But despite all of this, The Wrestling Channel continues to provide a viable alternative to the mighty World Wrestling Entertainment here in Britain. Given time, TWC should overcome it’s previous problems and continue to provide us with top notch entertainment.

Five years on, ten pivotal moments, and The Two Sheds Review is still going strongly, now appearing in various forms on twenty-plus websites and newsletters. To everyone who has supported me down the years, and who have taken the time out to send feedback on my work, a big thank-you to you all. Please continue to show your support by visiting my website at www.twoshedsreview.com, and by sending in more feedback.

Here’s to the next five years.

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