Review of: “Best of British Wrestling 1978-1988”

OK, firstly I’d like to state my reason for watching this tape. I watched it so I could decide which side of the fence I sit on when it comes to British Wrestling. Do I consider it to be the greatest thing the wrestling industry has seen or the most overrated thing the wrestling industry has ever seen? My final analysis… a strong combination of both. Sorry to those who were expecting a decisive decision. Anyhow, read on to find out how I came to my conclusion.

Firstly, here are the listings for the tape in question:

Adrian Street vs. Dave Barry
Marc Rocco vs. Steve Viedor
Dynamite Kid vs. Peter Kaye
Kendo Nagasaki vs. Broncer Wells
John Quinn & Marc Rocco vs. Big Daddy & Ringo Rigby
Davey Boy Smith vs. Bernard Wright
Giant Haystacks vs. Marty Jones
Robbie Brookside & Steve Regal vs. Peter Collins & Danny Boy Collins

Now I’m going to split the review into positives and negatives. Let’s start with the positives…

Firstly, and mainly, I must comment on the rules set out by the wrestling promoters. The rules/stipulations presented are in my opinion the closest that wrestling has ever come to a sport. Little things such as the red and blue corner, the different round/minute pairings for different divisions and the addition of seconds are little things that really added to the atmosphere.

Now for the actual wrestling. British wrestling from this time period I feel can be fairly described as “exhibition wrestling.” It combines slick mat work with little in the way of deliberate crowd involvement (With some obvious exceptions). It doesn’t feature a lot of depth but that is a price paid for presenting it as a sport, not to show that the workers are working together. There is something I do think was wrong with the _style_ but I’ll get to that with the other negative points.

Some of the matches on the tape were impressive. The Rocco/Viedor match showed how to define the face/heel alignments without relying on taunting the crowd. The match between Dynamite Kid and Peter Kaye showed how incredible the Dynamite Kid was as a worker, even at 17. His groundbreaking stuff that is still unbeaten today (A head flip with his arms crossed behind his back!) is incredible. The match between Smith and Wright shows how a match between two rookies should be done. Both men counter each other at every opportunity and don’t go full out to show a weakness and in turn give their opponent an opening. The final match between Brookside/Regal and the Collins’ is also quite god with some slick mat stuff from Danny Boy in particular.

They are what I’d consider to be the two biggest positives. Enjoyable work on the under card with “sporting” rules making for an enjoyable product. Now for the negatives…

The biggest stars of the era are crap! I’m sorry if the bold statement takes you aback but it’s true (From this tape at least). Kendo Nagasaki? Shoddy work, which doesn’t get out the starting block… Giant Haystacks? The only positive is that he is fairly mobile in the ring. Big Daddy? Has the absolute worst splash in history and can’t be considered a pro wrestler.

Another major “flaw” is that the transitions between holds on the under card seem to be done with ease. It’s like the wrestlers say, “You get a wristlock but then let me get a full nelson.” It was evident in a lot of the matches and it took away a lot of the “sporting” aura that had been created.

To sum it up, I can see why the formula was successful. At the top of the bill you have the big names who draw the crowds. Conveniently (although I think accidentally), you also had younger, inexperienced workers teaming with the likes of Big Daddy so that they can adapt to working in front of a crowd without a lot of pressure. Adding to this, you have some really slick workers on the under card who manage to get good matches out of anyone. It’s no coincidence that Marc Rocco and The Dynamite Kid are still talked about today. Despite some obvious flaws, I enjoyed the tape and I’d like to see some more of the stuff, preferably some _title_ matches with the likes of Rocco and Kid involved.

Tom that is actully a very good review. I think at the time British wrestling was kinda like late WCW. On the undercard you have would have some truly quality wrestling but on the main event it would generally be old guys who cant work.

Iv only just started watching old british stuff again, been watching the best of jonny saint. Man that guy is just amazing. He could wrestle a broomstick and still have a good match. Also if you can watch the Marty Jones V Owen Hart match from Bradford do so. Truly superb

British Wrestling (old British wrestling) is fine if you can shut your brain off for long periods of time when you're watching it. There's plenty of fun to be had. Indeed, the Smith/Wright match on the tape is perhaps the most surrealistic I've ever seen. Hardly anything hits with great crispness and they repeat themselves 5-times over but I guess that's what makes it fun.

The point of exhibition wrestling is apt. It's weird in that the presentation of that of a "sport", but the work itself... well, it makes the funkiest of all llave seem like the most realistic of all RINGS. Well, maybe not, but there's like *zero* fighting over holds. It'd be like a football match where one team just lets the another have an attack and they knock it wide. Then they switch and the team who were originally on attack let the other team run down to their end of the pitch and knock it over. All shots wide and over are on purpose of course. Whenever a goal is booked to be scored is the first time there's a genuine shot on goal. Transfer that to old British Wrestling and it's incredibly similar.

Perhaps "moving with the times" for British Wrestling would've been trying to be more realistic. Granted it was WWF that hit the screens not the "realistic" (well, realism is relative to its time and I guess it was for 88) UWF II but maybe the crowd suddenly saw how contrived/fake-looking the vast majority of the stuff was in its "let me do this and I'll let you do yours" way of working. That they switched to the woof (or the "Wrestling's for 8 year olds; It's fake! Now, let me watch my Coronation Street" side) suggests "no".

Actually, what I remember of the final tag match was Regal trying more to win than to merely to "out-counter" ("It's not scored on points so suit you, sir" he says) his opponents so perhaps, in a very subtle way, some guys were trying for such a direction. Maybe in too subtle a way though; Danny Boy Collins didn't clock onto it, opting for his roll-back flip, head-flip, cartwheel, somersault, slide through legs coutner for the wristlock whilst leaving his poor opponent to just stand there holding his arm and looking like a total jackass. Oh, and someone should've told him and Robbie that if you're building from "a" to "b" to "c", you don't do "a" three times and never the other two since, y'know, you're actually not building then; merely repeating the same thing over again and making (in the case in this match) Robbie look like as big a jackass as whomever had to stand there, yawning, holding DBC's wrist.

So, um, old British Wrestling isn't to be taken (and looked at) all that seriously; unless you want to do your head in. In which case, why not just watch a Shawn Michaels or Kurt Angle comp?