Very good post Ian. And of course Wrestling as we know is about opinion and your own point's of view on the _style_ you choose to watch. To me Wrestling is a pure art form with illusion being the finest point. Then of course Wrestling skill, Charecter acting gymnastics etc etc. A match such as this doe's nothing for the artist's of the past and the few of the present, who are out there. If this was advertised as a hardcore match then its fair enough you know what you will see. But if this was a surprise amounst a normal Wrestling show then it could only do harm as parents I'm sure will be horrified their children saw this. As many adult fans will have been too. Its nothing to do with modern times as all this was happening as far back as the 30's maybe before. I wrestle in front of a full house on most outings with LDN and that is with strict policy of not even Wrestling outside the ring. The point I think is keep the two separate so the paying customer knows exactly what he/she will see. Incidently I used to fight for real for money and earnt alot of money and rearly shead much blood and would hate to see someone like Jon Ryan who I've known many years ruin a possible great career for hard earned pop's and no where near what I got for a 3-4 minute bare knuckle .

I would just like to put an opinion of a wrestling veteran,i cant see for one minute why these so called wrestlers resort to such measures to get heat in a match.We managed to fill houses by wrestling in what would be considered very tame compared to some of todays workers that do it for a pittance.Their faces end up looking like a road map from self inflicted abuse.The main _object_ion is that children watch this extreme behaviour and then copy it.I watched a modern day match the other week and the wrestlers did at least twenty finishes that would bring the house down it removes almost any credibility to the the reality of the match,these are my personal opinions and i speak as you know with years of experiences.

Great topic as always, Ian. Some good replies. From what I have heard and seen on youtube, today's wrestling is more a series of stunts rather than fighting. Powerslam did an article some years back complaining about a British bout where a strimmer was used to cut open a wrestlers back.

Banger you are spot on, the old timers could put on a great show without stunts, sadly todays youngsters have been brought up on American _style_. One point, how do you know that the wrestlers were really injured Ian. It could've been faked.

I would not suggest you ever watch CZW or IWA Mid South then as both those promotions thrive on blood letting.

As I observed several years ago, it was silly for promotions like TWA to have a British Hardcore _title_ - after all, we managed perfectly well without a British Brass Knuckles _title_ in the 60s/70s/80s.

Great topic as always, Ian. Some good replies. From what I have heard and seen on youtube, today's wrestling is more a series of stunts rather than fighting. Powerslam did an article some years back complaining about a British bout where a strimmer was used to cut open a wrestlers back.
You seem to have been misinformed. The show that you mentioned happened in 2001, and to my knowledge, there has only been one other similar kind of show since then (2006's GoreFest in Colchester). The _style_ of wrestling you see depends on the company you go to - Premier still does wrestling in the _style_ of the "WOS" era, six rounds, two falls and all that malarky, and LDN feature alot of matches like this as well, mixing it up with young and veteran talents.

IPW-UK is heavily storyline _base_d, with some American influence in the matches, as that's what their punters want to see. I'm a big fan of LDN and Premier, Steve Grey is my favourite wrestler, and I'm an avid viewer of World of Sport on the Wrestling Channel when I get a chance to watch it. However, some people just DON'T like it. Try as we might to bang on about how great the good old days were (and they were, from what I've seen), some people won't care. They want to see moves off the top, they want to see blood, and IPW realises this, and gives it to them from time to time. And whilst Jon Ryan did in fact wrestle a violent ladder match on Saturday for IPW (I didn't see it as I was at LDN), the next night for the same company, he put on a perfectly fine wrestling match with Doug Williams.

I'm not saying that wrestlers in their prime should be nose-diving into barbed wire, but they also know the risks of such matches before they agree to them. It should also be noted, that IPW use the gimmicks logically - Sam and Jon had a regular, one fall _title_ match a while back that went to a double DQ, and so the next time, they had a No DQ match to ensure a winner. I had to miss the last few shows due to LDN I believe, but I would imagine that there's a logical reason behind the Ladder match as well.

I'm not a huge fan of "death matches" in front of 70 people with no reasoning or logic behind it, but that simply isn't happening here. For better or for worse, it's just one company going a different route to the one that many people on this board bay be used to or comfortable with.