So there is always a big debate when intergender matches come up on how they should be played. Should they be purely tag teams when only the men can fight the men and the women the women or should men and women be able to fight each other?
Its a question that doesn’t really have a yes or no answer but the answer lies somewhere in between…..
We all know now, and if you don’t just don’t read, what happened at the end of the Women’s first ever MitB ladder match.
Whilst I was angry on Twitter at the time I’ve calmed down a little now to put my thoughts into words but I guess 140 characters just aren’t enough so I’ll do it here.
Just over a year ago, well last year in January, I went to Wellsprings in Taunton to see Kenny Omega fight Ultimo Tiger. This time I went to Wellsprings to see fellow Bullet Club member and absolute legend Cody Rhodes. To say this venue is becoming a very important one in my life is a understatement. This time out I was going to see UPW for the very first time too.
So in their third event in two weeks Pride returned to my hometown of Plymouth with their heavyweight champion Bram and James Storm ready to face each other for the title.
Another great evening for all involved was about to be had.
https://www.change.org/p/google-inc-youtube-remove-wrestling-from-offensive-content-list
If you don’t like WCPW fair enough but please listen to what the man has to say.
I know this doesn’t just effect wrestling but as you might notice from the reviews underneath this and the ones coming out in the next few days it hits hard when it comes to British wrestling.
Adam Blampied is right that wrestling brings people together. I’ve bored every person on this blog to death telling them that local British Wrestling in the West-Country saved my life. Going to a PWA show made me look forward to something at the lowest point in my life, religiously going to Pro Wrestling Pride shows gave me friends for the first time in my life and, just as a quick example, UPW gave me the opportunity to meet Cody Rhodes. If British wrestling died tomorrow I would never be able to afford to meet someone like Cody let alone the 101 amazingly imports Pride have brought over like RVD, Kenny Omega, Scott Hall and Raven. Those are memories my depression can’t take from me, no matter how bad it gets looking at photos of Raven chasing my 7 year old niece around the Meet & Greet tables or watching Kenny Omega vs Ultimo Tiger and realising just what it meant for someone like Tiger to start his year off with that match…. The feelings I get from that are real and its very hard with depression to feel like that when you are down.
For some reason people love reading what I have to write about the local shows, I know nothing about wrestling other then what I like and what I dislike but after years of being made to feel useless in a job I hated I’d found a purpose that meant a lot to me. Just these last 24 hours I’ve had people complimenting my reviews and messaging me about them and it touches me so much.
I was suicidal, I was being emotionally and psychologically bullied by people who are still trying to ruin my life. I didn’t want to be alive anymore and wrestling gave me a reason to want to live and a purpose.
YouTube’s decision is dangerous because what WCPW was doing was so good for British Wrestling. Love them or hate them having a free show like Loaded on a platform like YouTube that everyone worldwide could see was absolutely a good thing. Knowing I could sit down and watch live with Pete a Scotty Wainwright match was one of the most exciting things in my life because Scotty has been my favourite wrestler since nearly the first time I saw him and I could only do my best to describe how great he is to my friends in America so WCPW gave us a chance to sit together (via Skype) and watch him and many others. Regardless of your feelings WCPW used YouTube to highlight British talent, they brought in imports and used them perfectly so that people had the chance to fall in love with guys like El Ligero, Martin Kirby, Joe Hendry and Travis Banks. England is a small place out of the way, not many Brits go and make it big all over the world, sure more are getting out there now but with WCPW and shows like it that didn’t matter because the world was getting to see our wrestlers.
If the people at YouTube who made this decision just watched how people got behind Prospect in their attempt to get to Orlando or just the whole entirety of Gabriel Kidds losing streak and still believe that wrestling is a bad thing then I just don’t know.
PWA have it right. British Wrestling in general is a family. The fans don’t care about the behind the scenes squabbling of promoters and wrestlers, we come to support them because we love wrestling and we love the wrestlers and we love the fact that a group of people who are ridiculed for simply liking wrestling can get together and have so much fun without being judged.
Wrestling fans can be the best people in the world. We don’t judge each other, we might squabble over opinions but that’s half the fun of it. We need to come together now, sign the petition and try and let our, extremely loud, voices be heard.
Wrestling is not about hate its about bringing people together, making people smile and having a good time.
I wasn’t planning on going to this event but as it was a Saturday and you can get back to Plymouth from Falmouth on a Saturday we did venture down to see the show. A much smaller show for Pro Wrestling Pride but which boasted a re-match for the Pride title when Bram returned to take on Ultimo Tiger.
This is extremely late and I apologise for that as I have quite a lot over the last few weeks. PWA celebrated their 8th anniversary in April with a great show with appearances from T-Bone and the UK Hooligans.
