|
Having read David's (I'm in no position to call him 'old' ) excellent review of LDNLegends, in particular his comments regarding Brian Maxine and Johnnie Kidd, it reminded me of a dvd review that I produced many months ago of the WAW Legends Show which I unfortunately was unable to attend. I thought you might be interested in the show, and I have to thank Ricky again for sending me a copy of the disc.
WAW LEGENDS
This is one show that I was particularly upset at missing, even more so when it was dedicated to WAW Head Referee Joe Williams, who died shortly after the show. This would have been a chance for me to reacquaint myself with some of the stars who appeared at the Norwich Corn Exchange from the 1960's onwards.
He show was staged at the Waveney Sports Centre in Lowestoft in front of a large and very vocal audience, and on the evidence of this DVD was a huge success, wrestling-wise. In most cases the veterans wrestling that night performed far better than I could have expected.
The opening contest pits the current WAW Champ The Kraft against the veteran campaigner Jason Cross in what proves to be a great old-school _style_ match-up with both wrestlers giving 100%. The Kraft proves here what a versatile wrestler he has become since graduating from the WAW Academy, wrestling the _style_ that suits Jason Cross without bringing out his arsenal of more bombastic moves. An incident packed bout and the second best match on the card.
Next on the programme is an interesting contest between two veterans that I have seen in the ring many, many times in the past. Johnny Kidd still looks in phenomenal shape and can still move around the ring at great speed when required. My first thoughts were " I wonder if Brian Maxine has kept himself in such good shape, he's been around a lot longer than Kidd". When 'Goldbelt' entered the ring I was pleased to see that the years had been kind to his barnet. In the late 1960's Brian was blessed with a Bobby Charlton scrapeover hair_style_ until he miraculously sprouted a great thatch of hair which was kept in place by a rugby skullcap during bouts. The cap disappeared some time after that and us regular wrestling fans always marveled at which make of superglue he used when wrestling. It was obviously good glue as he still has a head of hair that I envy. Maxine is a very nice chap but he was never one of my favourites, mainly due to the irritating inside moves he always used, and I'm pleased to say were still in use at Lowestoft. This contest is a treat for us old nostalgia freaks (or 'seniles' as we now seem to be labeled) with Maxine using all his old tricks( the blindside punch followed by the immediate forearm smash to confuse the ref., and the forearm 'seesaw' move against his prone opponents throat.) to slow the far more athletic Kidd. An excellent showing from both wrestlers, with Maxine proving that he still knows how to infuriate the fans.
It's tag action next with current stars The UK Pitbulls facing the veteran father and son team of Alan and Adam Kilby. Whilst not wishing to criticize Alan Kilby's illustrious career in the squared circle, I had always thought that the biggest mistake he made was to bring son Adam into the sport as his tag partner. The lad always looked petrified during his matches, showed(or was not given the chance to show) any real wrestling skill, and his selling was atrocious. I don't know whether he has done much wrestling over the past few years but at the 'Legends' show he certainly looked the part and proved to be more than competent against the UKP. Whereas in the old days a Kilbys tag match would closely resemble a Big Daddy tag match in it's structure (but with more class and skill on show) with the lad being saved from a beating by his heavier tag partner, at Lowestoft it was Adam, in my opinion, who put in the best work. Alan put in a rather lackluster performance which disappointed me after the antics of Kidd and Maxine, and no amount of hard work by the UKP seemed to be able to lift his game. An entertaining contest within the context of he show, but I was disappointed with the veteran's contribution. Perhaps if Alan is still working in the ring, it's time for him to call it a day and leave us 'seniles' with our rose-tinted memories.
The fourth match on the card is the main event Cruiserweight _title_ Match between the champ and local hero Steve Quintain and Steve Grey,who was one of my personal favourites in the lighter weight divisions. Grey was onto a loser from the start with he partisan crowd repeatedly chanting "Steve Grey sucks" throughout the match, which seemed to infuriate him somewhat and made for an exciting and very aggressive bout during which Grey (horror of horrors!!) actually collected a couple of public warning due to his tactics. This was an outstanding contest, telling a great storyline, and alone is worth the cost of the disc. Terrific stuff !!
It was appropriate to the legendary Johnnie Saint at hand to present the belt to the winner.
The closing match was another tag encounter, this time between Frankie Sloan and Zak Zodiac(as last minute replacement for the absent Robbie Brookside)against those old (?) campaigners Drew MacDonald and rowdy Ricky Knight. It has been rumoured elsewhere that Brookside had double-booked himself that night and chose to be elsewhere. If that is true then I think it's a pretty piss-poor attitude by him bearing in mind the reason for the show. If this isn't the case then I'm sure someone would like to set the record straight. A nice touch to the proceedings was instigated by young Zak during his ring entrance, when he went behind the barriers and brought Joe Williams out from the crowd and took him around the ringside area to greet the fans. Joe was visibly moved by this. After the fans had been wound up by Mr MacDonald on the mic the contest settled down to classic blue-eyes –v- heels tag match which was highly entertaining and obviously pleased the Lowestoft fans, who were highly vocal as usual. A solid finish to an outstanding evening of wrestling and entertainment. The programme finishes with Ricky Knight calling out all of the wrestlers from the dressing rooms to the ring to pay their respects and tributes to Joe Williams contribution to wrestling.
The atmosphere at Lowestoft on the Legends night was obviously great with the wrestlers drawing a great deal of heat from the fans. This DVD is great viewing for current fans of good wrestling and the nostalgia freaks alike.
Highly Recommended.
|
Forum 
