Atomic Lariat

IInterview with 'Party by Darren Rogers

atomiclariat@gmail.com (Mark Airey) — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:23:00 +0000

Here is our interview with 'Party' Marty Scurll! Follow him here

The man!

Q: Some people may know you from ITV’S ‘Take Me Out’; did you do this for some mainstream exposure or just for a date?

A: Take Me Out was a lot of fun and a great experience. My main motive of going on there was to gain mainstream exposure for myself, and put me in the spotlight to people who might care. I think I achieved that for sure.

Q: How long have you been involved in professional wrestling and how did you first get started in the business?

A: I started training in very late 2003. I was 14. I then had my first match in February 2005 when I was 16. So I've been wrestling over 7 years now, that's gone quick!

Q: Where and with whom did you train?

A: I trained at the Dropkixx Wrestling Academy, then ran by Tony Scarlo and Frank Rimar. They were the trainers. There were a lot of great wrestlers there, like Martin Stone and Terry Fraizer, then later Magnus and Wade Barratt. That school produced a lot of good guys.

Q: What do you remember about your first day of training – was it what you expected, how did you feel physically, what were the trainers like etc?

A: If I remember correctly, I actually think Doug Williams was the special guest trainer on my first week, so that was pretty cool as I had followed him on FWA tapes and a few live shows. I thought training was the greatest thing ever, and I couldn't bare to miss a week. I just wanted to become a wrestler so badly.

Q: When you were starting out, what were your ambitions in wrestling?

A: To get to the WWE. It still is.

Q: When did you have your first match, and how did it go?

A: I wrestled one of my best friends, Jimmy Starr, in a rounds match. It went pretty well I think. Jimmy doesn't really wrestle any more but we still see each other when I visit back home, he's a great guy and is currently running a wrestling school in Kings Lynn.

Q: What do family and friends think of your career choice?

A: My mum supports it, I guess. My friends think it’s really cool. They can't fathom that I get to travel to all these cool countries to do what I love, and all the other perks I get from being a wrestler. I'd say they were very supportive.

Q: Do you have another job outside of wrestling or is this what you consider your ‘main’ job?

A: In the week I study Media, but I’ve currently finished my second year of that so I've just gone back into club night promotion. Wrestling is my main job though.

Q: What are your feelings on the state of the wrestling business in the United Kingdom?

A: It's on its way up. With shows like IPW:UK Revolution and Brit-Wres Fest, British Wrestling is being taken more seriously as its seen in bigger venues, with better production values, and exceptional talent. This is the next step, out of the community halls and into the big-time venues. There's a great hand of talent here at the moment too.

Q: You became the British Cruiserweight champion by defeating Sami Callihan at IPW’s show at the Troxy, how do you feel this match went?

A: I loved it. I think Sami is one of the best in the world right now outside WWE, so wrestling him is always an honour. We both worked exceptionally hard, and it was one of my favourite matches this year, along with myself vs Zack (Progress) and LDRS vs Marvin/Sitoci from Germany.

Q: You are challenging for Progress Wrestling’s “Staff” at Chapter 2 on June 24th in a 2 out of 3 falls match against Nathan Cruz, are you looking forward to this?

A: Oh yeah. Progress Wrestling chapter 1 was a great show, defiantly unique. I hope they can continue to put on exciting bills with top notch talent. Nathan's a great talent, and I'm looking forward to getting in the ring with him again. I'll make sure he won't screw me out of victory this time!

Q: When you are not training, travelling or wrestling, what do you do to relax?

A: I'm fortunate enough to have a hot tub, so I'm usually in there, reading a book. Or playing my house mates dog, Rocky!

Q: Finally, where do you see yourself in 2 years time?

A: Hopefully living the America under a nice contract, doing what I love to do. That would be sweet!!

IInterview with 'Party by Darren Rogers

atomiclariat@gmail.com (Mark Airey) — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:40:00 +0000

Chris Masters (Photo by Darren Rogers)

Let me start by saying that I hate to badmouth another wrestling promotion. As someone that has worked behind the scenes for FPW I know how much hard work goes into running a show, how much time and money has to be invested for little reward, and how things happen that aren’t your fault but you still have to find a solution – often out of your own pocket.

With all that being said, IPW should not have booked ‘The Troxy’ as the location for this show.

I was sat with a promoter, a wrestler and a trainee and despite the good in-ring action, we were left cold by the whole event. At one stage, during the women’s match, the wrestler turned to me and said “I want to fart but I’m worried that everyone will hear it” – he wasn’t joking, during the Masters vs Stixx match there were times when you could hear the general hubbab of conversations around the venue. Now, this could be due to the general stand offish-ness of IPW crowds. I’ve been to 2 of their shows and they don’t seem to do a lot of chanting and there’s not a single sign in the crowd. I asked a guy sitting next to me, at the Young Bucks show in Sittingbourne, why there were no signs and he said “We don’t do signs in IPW” – like it was somehow beneath them. Isn’t wrestling supposed to be fun?

Now, it was publicized before the event that ticket sales weren’t great. We were lucky enough to have VIP seats but the seats were awful so we waited till Andy Quildan came out and managed to grab 4 seats in the 2^nd row. After chatting to various people over the weekend about the problems, I think that the cost of tickets and the venue lost IPW their regular fans – while the overseas contingent of Carlito, Masters and M Dogg 20 weren’t well known enough to draw the casual fan in. Apparently, Kevin Nash would have been as I spoke to a few people who were gutted he pulled out (I was relieved...)

The first match was a ‘money in the bank’ style ladder match. Note to IPW – INVEST IN STRONGER LADDERS! It was a mess. Travis and Kirby kept throwing the ladder out rendering it useless pretty quickly. Just climbing it looked ridiculous as it went sideways the higher the wrestlers climbed. At one point it collapsed and we were worried for the health of Travis as he took a horrible bump. Leon Brittannico impressed (but more on Lucha in a moment), Noam Dar will be a major star soon – the kid oozes charisma, Matt cCoss didn’t get a chance to do much but did get the crowd to chant “Yes, yes, yes” which was the loudest chant of the whole night (sadly), and Lion Kid did some good flips. Sadly, no one was given enough time to shine – and with the ladder gone they were very limited. Eventually, Kirby found another ladder but he had to hold it for Travis to climb. He looked really angry at the end, not the sort of expression you’d expect bearing in mind he won, so I suspect that the ladder collapsing screwed up a lot of spots.

Now, I said that “yes, yes, yes” was the loudest chant. The 2^nd loudest? “Lucha”. Yes, there were a lot of Lucha fans in attendance – I saw quite a few shirts and Leon got a good pop. Someone started an “IP Dub” chant in the first match, it didn’t go anywhere, which is pretty sad really.

Haskins vs Redman was next – strange positioning to put it 2^nd on the card for what was a big grudge match. They put on a good match though, we thought Haskins would win as Redman is FCW bound, but the crowd were split between cheering for each of them – Redman didn’t really do anything to get the crowd behind him so Haskins winning was kind of popular. This set the trend for heels being cheered in every match except for the 6 man tag. One thing that annoyed me about this match, if Redman is angry at Haskins for turning on him, low blowing him and spitting in his face, why did he start with a conventional lock-up?

Match 3 was the women’s tag – Perfect Storm had good heel personas but the crowd died for this – the Blossom twins were very generic and didn’t really interact with the crowd. Women’s wrestling is a bit of an enigma to me. I like watching Sara Del Ray but if it’s not her I really can’t invest anytime to watch it. The Blossom Twins won. Yeh.

Last match before the interval was Carlito vs Kincaide. The crowd popped huge for Carlito who showed more charisma in this match, both before and after the bout, then he did in his entire WWE run! I think he was supposed to be the heel, but everyone cheered him, there were a few guys next to me (who brought apples for Carlito) who went nuts for him the entire time he was out there – Carlito kept looking over at us with a puzzled look on his face as if to say “you know I’m the heel, right” because these guys would not stop cheering for him. After the match, which Kincaide won, Carlito carried on with some comedy aimed at UK women but we still loved him.

Interval time – managed to say hi to Danny Garnell, Rhia O’Reilly and Teb – manager of The Bhangra Knights...

Chris Masters vs Stixx was up next, and the drunk Carlito fan next to us also had a man crush on Chris Masters as he spent the whole match shouting “we want Masters” despite him being right there infront of him. This gave Stixx someone to play to – although I think our drunken friend decided to call Stixx “a pussy” as that point! Then he lost the ability to speak and started chanting “we want mustard” – why no one from the security at the venue or IPW team didn’t ask him to keep quiet I don’t know. As for the match, it didn’t do anything for me. Masters is huge. Not just big. Absolutely enormous. Like a wrestling figure on steroids. Which I’m sure he isn’t. He was, like Carlito, super over with the crowd but at least Stixx played heel (unlike Kincaide) – Masters won, then celebrated with the fans at ringside and seemed really happy.

6 man action next. The feud between Spud and Dave mastiff has been a highlight of IPW for me recently, so I was looking forward to the payoff. Martin Stone was eliminated quickly after a belt shot. For me, the jury is still out on Stone. I don’t think he is back to anywhere close to 100% as he seemed to be protected here. We guessed that they had to get rid of people quickly, so Sha Samuels and Terry Frazier got counted out, leaving Mastiff with Spud and T-Bone. These 3 worked really well together, Spuds facials and overly dramatic acting were great (though he’s not for everyone) but I really like him. Mastiff eliminated T-Bone which gave the crowd what the wanted, Mastiff killing Spud. And he very nearly succeeded as he sent him up for a backdrop and Spud either didn’t rotate enough or didn’t get the push he wanted, as he only just managed to avoid landing head first. It was a scary spot. Mastiff got the win, and looked really good.

Main event time – Marty Scurll vs Sami Callihan. Both men got big pops and put on the best match of the night. Callihan, who seems to want to become Raven, has really impressed me over the past 12 months – I’m not sure he would fit into the WWE or TNA but as long as he avoids doing anything too silly he could be a top indie star for years to come. Scurll should be in a major fed. He is only 23 and is solid, over with the crowd and could play face or hell with the right opponent. I’m hoping that TNA gives him a call and he joins their British contingent real soon. I don’t think Zack Sabre Jnr has any aspirations of going to the US, he prefers Japan, so a LDRS vs Machine Gunns feud might never happen – but Marty could definitely be a good addition to their X-Division ranks. As for the match, it went back and forth but Marty prevailed and became the British Cruiserweight champion.

So, good action in the ring, dead crowd for half the show, annoying drunken fans, poor seating – some of these elements IPW could control, a lot they couldn’t. I know why Andy Quildan booked this arena, he thought it would be a chance to show IPW was a major player, the footage could be touted to TV companies, and British wrestling might get be back on UK TV screens. As it was, the core of their audience didn’t travel from Kent to north London and NWE pulled out leaving them high and dry. IPW need to have a long hard look at what they want to achieve in the future, set reasonable goals and perhaps choose their business partners more wisely!

Darren Rogers

We'd like to thank Darren for writing this review for us. Darren Rogers also writes for Wrestling's Last Hope (Check them out :) )

Follow Darren on his Twitter

Extreme Rules

atomiclariat@gmail.com (Mark Airey) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:47:00 +0000

Extreme Rules Match:

Brock Lesnar vs John Cena

Brock Lesnar

On April 2nd, after an 8 year abstence from the WWE, Brock Lesner returned. In his time away, Brock dominated the UFC and became their Heavy Weight champion. Brock signed in late 2007 with UFC and made his debut on Febuary 2nd 2008 at UFC 81. After retiring in December 2011 Brock’s UFC record stands at 5-3-0. He returns to a land he once called his play ground. 5 months after his debut on March 18th, 2002, Brock defeated The Rock to become the youngest WWE Champion of all time. He’d go on to defeat; Rob Van Dam, Mark Henery, Jeff Hardy, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Big Show, Kurt Angle, Randy Orton and his oppent on Sunday, John Cena.

John Cena

John Cena has beaten them all in the WWE. Edge, Triple H, Shawn Micheals, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Big Show, Randy Orton, Batista and CM Punk. But John Cena has never beaten Brock Lesnar.

The Match

The match will contested under Extrme Rules; no-disqualification and no-countout. Brock says he’s back to destroy Cena but can Cena end his loosing streak of late and beat a man he’s never beaten before?

WWE Championship:

CM Punk (c) vs Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho

He proclaims himself as “The best in the world” and he returned to the WWE to take on a man who also claimed himself as, “The best in the world”, CM Punk. At Wrestlemania, the two met for the WWE Championship but Jericho came up short. Can Jericho go to CM Punk’s hometown of Chiago (where Extreme Rules is being held) and take his championship?

CM Punk

The Allstate Arena in Chiago is home to Extreme Rules and almost a year ago, it was the home to CM Punk’s WWE Championship win over John Cena. There, The crowd were solely behind their hometown hero and you have to wonder if this gave him added strength to win. Will lighten strick twice?

The Match

The match will be contested in a Chicago Street Fight; no-disqualification.

World Heavyweight Championship:

Sheamus (c) vs Daniel Bryan

Sheamus

He became the World Heavyweight Champion at Wrestlemania by defeating Daniel Bryan in 18 seconds.

Daniel Bryan

A submission specialist that feels robbed of his championship. Bryan chose the stipulation of this match with his strengths in mind.

The Match

The match will be contested in a 2 out of 3 Falls match; who ever gets the most pinfalls/submissions will be the winner. Can Sheamus win in 36 seconds or has Daniel Bryan chosen the perfect stipulation for himself?

Falls Count Anywhere:

Randy Orton vs Kane

Randy Orton

The youngest World Heavyweight Champion hasn’t been able to defeat Kane. He lost to Kane at Wrestlemania and has been seen Kane beat up his father.

Kane

He has played the mind games well with Orton and also has a win over him at the biggest event of the year, Wrestlemania.

The Match

The match will be contested in a Falls Count Anywhere Match; pinfall or submission can occur anywhere. Can Randy Orton put and end to Kane?

DON'T FORGET
Paddy Power takes bets on WWE PPV's and are doing so for Extreme Rules. For odds and to bet, visit the link below
Paddy Power

Interview with Jimmy Havoc

atomiclariat@gmail.com (Mark Airey) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:38:00 +0000

We have interviewed Jimmy Havoc and recorded it in TWO parts!!

He spoke about his early career & #BookHavoc. Jimmy also counted down his Top 10 Mick Foley matches. We will be uploading part 1 on saturday! In the meantime enjoy these:

Our interview with Phil "The Warden" Ward

atomiclariat@gmail.com (Mark Airey) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:55:00 +0000

We have our interview we did With The Warden!
It's up in our iTunes , please subscribe
or
On our libsyn
Enjoy :)

Subscribe to us in iTunes!!

atomiclariat@gmail.com (Mark Airey) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:40:00 +0000

We are now on iTunes. Subscribe here: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/atomic-lariat-fpws-matt-burden/id517432501?i=112819375

New podcast home

atomiclariat@gmail.com (Mark Airey) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:05:00 +0000

While we wait on iTunes, this is the hub (home) of our podcasts: http://atomiclariat.libsyn.com/
Changes still coming... Stay tuned!!

promo2

atomiclariat@gmail.com (Mark Airey) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:22:00 +0000

promo

atomiclariat@gmail.com (Mark Airey) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 13:58:00 +0000