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Last week was the much-ballyhooed Revival show, it was this show that was set to revolutionise British wrestling. But lets stop for one minute and think about last
weeks show, what do you remember about the show the most? And do the words FWA come to mind? Today I speak out about the FWA and what it stands for. Today I will also give you a run down on
the life of one Vince McMahon.
Today I welcome you to another action packed edition of Aaron Undercover.
Last week was revival, a show that was created by Tommy Boyd. It was Tommy Boyd who for over a year was the front-runner of a wrestling radio show on Talk Sport.
Tommy Boyd doesn’t know a lot about wrestling in general, and I would dare to say he knows even less about British Wrestling. So along with his over the top and over hyped partner in
crime Alex Shane they produce a live 2-hour wrestling show aired in the UK on Talk Sport Radio. I heard a while ago that Boyd was interested in promoting a wrestling show. So the stage was
set and on February 9th Revival would take place at the Crystal Palace Arena, London.
But lets take a closer look at a few things here, first who had heard of Alex Shane before he was a co-host On Talk Sport? (Not many I would predict) even more so
how many had seen him wrestle? (Even less I presume) So who was Alex Shane before he was on Talk Sport? The answer is Alex Shane was an average wrestler who competed mainly in the FWA.
Since becoming a regular on Talk Sport Alex Shane’s popularity has grown by ten-fold. In fact an unheard of, has now become known as one of the best UK wrestlers around. Is someone having a
laugh? Am I in a dream here? Sadly I am not dreaming, in fact how can someone who was very little known all of a sudden become thought as a great wrestler?
Let me tell you about Alex Shane. This guy is a 6ft 7 wrestler, he’s around 17stone with very little ring talent, and he is no better than your average wrestler.
The promo’s he does make him look like a cheap version of The Rock. So why all of a sudden is Alex Shane appearing in the UK wrestling magazines of PowerSlam and POW and getting all this
Superstar status? Well let me tell you…
Mo Chatra works for PowerSlam magazine as a writer, Mo also goes to the FWA a lot, in fact I think the FWA guys kiss Mo Chatra’s ass. If you look at the
PowerSlam top 50 wrestlers you will see that Alex Shane is in at number 43, placing him higher than Lance Storm, X-Pac, E.Z. money and more. If you have a copy of that magazine and the Top
50, you will see who compiled it, look a little closer and you will see the name of Mo Chatra. Mo is a man that spends more time reviewing the FWA shows than any other promotions in the UK,
in fact Mo only seems to be interested in the FWA, and if you look at the list of Top 50 you will see a lot of British wrestlers made it to that list. The British wrestlers that made it to
the list mostly wrestle for the FWA, but they do deserve to be there on that list, Alex Shane has no rights what so ever to be placed on there.
If you go to the POW magazine that is made for UK publication, you will see a lot more about the FWA and the wrestlers that it has on its roster in that magazine
also. The writers for POW magazine include Jon Farrer and Adam South who again work for the FWA. So a lot of the mentions from the British wrestling scene go to the FWA, although to be fair
POW have let a few other non FWA wrestlers and promotions to appear in a few of there publications.
The FWA seem to have their hands in the pot whereever you turn these days, Mark Sloan who owns the FWA doesn’t like criticism, he reminds me of another promoter
who the FWA did business with once. If I remember right that promoter doesn’t like criticism either. The FWA are over rated and seem to be getting a lot of exposure unnecessarily. There are
far more better promotions knocking around the UK, including Hammerlock & TWA and these promotions actually put on a lot more shows and most of the time a better performance. FWA run a
show once maybe twice a month, they bring over the odd star from America but then again so do a lot of other promotions.
Basically put Alex Shane, Mo Chatra, Adam South and Jon Farrer use their positions to give the FWA as much hype as possible, and sadly this is brain washing fans
to believing the FWA are number 1. One person their brain washing is working on and that me!!!!
Revival sounded a good show, although I have heard it wasn’t as good as it sounded on radio, and March 3rd, on Bravo will be the time I get to see it.
But Revival had to have the FWA wrestlers and the promoters of the FWA on board, again the FWA convince another person they are number 1, that person is Tommy Boyd. Sadly Mr Sloan and the
rest of the FWA your brain washing doesn’t work on me, and it sure doesn’t work on a number of wrestlers and promoters in this country.
Its time the fans woke up and went to shows from The TWA and Hammerlock and got a real look at what other quality is offered.
There are many promotions in this country that offer great entertainment, and sadly the FWA try to convince us it’s just them that offer the best product. It’s
time for you all to take a closure look at the FWA for what it really is worth, it’s time for the fans to see Alex Shane for what he is worth, and its time you all woke up to the wrestling
magazines that go on sale in this country and realise it’s the FWA talking about themselves again!!!!!
I must state these comments are mine and mine solely; they are not the comments of TalkWrestlingOnline, but are the comments
of Aaron Spencer.
Now on to the last part of my column
Today I give you a look at the life, of one Vince McMahon.
Vince McMahon was born in Pinehurst, North Carolina in 1945. As a young child Vince didn’t know his father and lived in a trailer with his mother. He says he was
beaten and sexually abused by one of his five stepfathers. When he was 12 years old he finally met his real father and they had an instant bond.
Vince’s father, Vincent James McMahon was a wrestling promoter who ran the Capitol Wrestling Federation. He was a moderately successful man who loved the
wrestling business. Vince had wanted to go into the sport in some way, but his father wanted him to become a lawyer or accountant and live better than he did. So Vince was sent to military
school. Even then he was against authority, as he was the first cadet in the history of the school to be court marshalled. Vince Jr. stepped in and had his first job as an announcer. He knew
from that point on that wrestling was what he wanted to do.
Picking up tips from his father as he went along, Vince quickly learned what it took to be successful as a wrestling promoter. He and his father created the WWWF
(World Wide Wrestling Federation) and became one of the top organizations in the US. In 1982, Vince Sr. decided to retire and sold the business to his son. Changing the name to the WWF, Vince
started an empire. He created stars such as Hulk Hogan and Randy “Macho Man” Savage.
Vince made up his mind to do something that nobody else had done. He risked the entire company with wrestling’s biggest event ever, Wrestlemania. Since
Pay-Per-View wasn’t around in 1985 so this super event was shown on closed circuit television. Vince had spent his entire fortune renting out over 100 arenas. The idea was crazy, to have
people pay to enter an arena and watch wrestling on a giant screen. But it worked and Wrestlemania made Vince McMahon a millionaire.
 Wrestling gained popularity throughout the 80’s.
Wrestlemainia became an annual event and at Wrestlemania III, having over 93,000 people jam the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan set a new indoor attendance
record. Vince formed Titan Sports, the new parent company of the WWF. He also celebrated the birth of 2 healthy children. Everything was going great for Vince and the
World Wrestling Federation, until 1992.
A doctor had admitted to a federal jury that he had supplied wrestlers with steroids. Vince was brought to trial and testifies that he had used steroids
when they were legal and had never distributed or promoted the use of steroids to his wrestlers. With the support of several wrestlers, including the
biggest name in the sport, Hulk Hogan, Vince was cleared of all charges. The trial was over, but it took Vince away from wrestling for two years. When he
returned, he found his company in financial trouble and a new monster organization was dominating, WCW.
The Ted Turner owned WCW had quickly gained the top talent by spending insane prices to acquire them. It had worked though, and WCW had become
the leading wrestling organization by the mid-90’s. This period is sometimes referred to as the dark ages for the WWF. The matches and storylines were
getting stale and every huge new star WWF got, WCW convinced them to jump ship. There was only one way to get out of this slump, and that was to change the rules.
 How could Vince change the rules of wrestling? I don’t
mean the rules of matches; I mean the rules of the business. Well he let wrestlers do more than they ever could before. During the 80’s, wrestling was geared
toward children and family. That meant no cussing and no sex appeal. Well Vince started to use cuss words, sex appeal, and anything else he could come up with to bring the WWF on top.
While they lost a lot of their fanbase, they found a whole new market. Instead of kids watching the shows, the WWF’s viewers changed into males between
the age of 13-25. This was a much larger market, and the new WWF fit their tastes perfectly.
With stars such as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Triple H, and The Rock, Vince brought the WWF back to the top, and better than ever. One
reason may be that Vince put himself in the ring. For years we had known Vince as just an announcer, but it was told that he was the owner of the WWF.
He started an angle with Steve Austin where the no-nonsense tough guy fought the rich boss; This turned out to be one of the most profitable feuds in wrestling history.
Today Titan sports sells more merchandise than anyone else in North America, and is the top Pay-Per-View producer in the world with over 70% of the PPV
market in the US. The WWF went public in 1999, selling shares of the company to stock investors. The WWF went on to buy their biggest Rivals WCW in 2001.
Being a billionaire hasn’t changed Vince much. He still works with the creative team for every TV show and even wrestles on occasion. And with his
children, Shane and Stephanie, being in the top storylines and working behind the scenes, it looks like wrestling will be dominated by a McMahon for a long time.
Till Next week this is Aaron Spencer Wishing you all a safe week.
Aaron Spencer
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