GOSFORDMANIA III - Concrete and the Big Belt

 (all talent pics courtesy of Newy Pro website except Ugg, I made his...all the others I took meself 

apologies for my crap photography skills ;)}

One again those sterling folks at Newy Pro deemed it essential to make a return to Central Coast Leagues and once again put on a cracking good show....the big match on the card would be The Ultimate Coastie Concrete Davison taking on the Lime Lizard for the Newy Pro big belt...although recently crowned PWWA (sort of) champ Charli Evans was coming home to rumble with Harley Wonderland...anyway to the show...

The curtain jerker was a tad different ...

a prehistoric individual vs someone from Wollongong, some would argue there aint much difference (nudge nudge wink wink)but cudos to Michael Spencer for taking on the challenge of a bloke who made chimpanzees looked like noble prize winners...

and to be fair Spenny had a time of it , Ugg was boinging him around like no ones business...BUT...Mick Spencer manned up and walloped Ugg for the 3 count.

then came quite possibly , one of my favourite wrestlers on the planet, THE PUNISHER...Madison Eagles and the poor unfortunate on the other side of the squared circle tonight  was the offspring of El Generico and Dasher Hatfield...INSTAGRAHAM, who to be fair was over with the crowd this time, he was heeling it up last time he was in town...But this time he was on the arse end of a stretching like he never had before, Maddy had him in some kind of weird knot at one point and i was thinking "that aint gonna do sacroilliac any bloody good"....

mind he did pull off quite the amazing flip somersault plancha wotsit to the outside, whacked his leg a beauty on the railing at the same time....anywhoo, he wasnt gonna beat the Punisher on this occasion and Mrs Eagles took the 3 count for the win.

Then came the return of Gossie Girl to her stomping ground, the newly crowned PWWA champ (well jointly owned) Charli Evans made her entrance to what up till then was the "POP" of the night , her opponent on the other hand was about as popular as a warm schooner on a hot satdee arvo, yes Harley Wanderland was somewhat less than popular, but she didnt stand a chance to be fair....

Charli was getting bounce around by her larger opponent, but she kept digging in and fighting back, she even went to the top rope a time or two with vairied degrees of success...but it mattered not a jot, Charli got the 3 count over Harley and the crowd went WOOHOOO.

then came the match i was waiting for , the Newy Pro title match , with everyone favourite gold bicycle riding legendary strongman and all around sterling chap the might Concrete Davidson versus the leader of the Green Nation and Newy Pro champ, The Lime Lizard" Mick Moretti...

started out hot with Moretti sprogging on the gold bike, this led to him being bounced all over the auditorium with all and assundry revving up Concrete to basically KICK HIS ARSE...

which Davo attempted to do with much enthusiasm, they finally made it into the ring and the boys put on a clinic to be fair, they had the crowd going along for the ride, 2 counts, kick outs, top rope power moves, suplexes, and the world famous Moretti Sweaty Nads Elbow drop even made an appearance (goobies)...

and to be fair I think the crowd was hoping for a title switch and if it wasnt for that Dusty Finish (RIP Dream) we would of had a new champ....soon as the ref took the clothesline, I for one dropped my head, cause I knew what was coming, but Davo got a couple of minutes to soak in the adulation of the excited masses...P.S I hate you Moretti ;)

after the crowd was less disapointed and raffle was drawn  and what have you ...the masses were entertained by the return of "Full Force " Matt Rogers to Gossie and the invitable bashing of hs opponent, on this occasion a chap by the name of Dan Wilson, who had a rather fetching mohawk and quite a bit of skill in the ring...

but all them headlocks and hip tosses dont do you a whole helluva lot of good when Full Force clobbers you with a couple of clotheslines from just north of hell and then applies a powerbomb for the invetable 3 count.

then came the main event and finally Gosford got to see the true colors, apart from the ones they were wearing, of Bonza and his 4 Nation cohorts, when Bonza cut a scathing promo on Davo saying he aint ever getting another shot at the Nations big belt, 

...yes, they had the CCLC crowd fooled the past two shows being all nice and friendly...when all along they are, well to be honest, #DirtyHeels...still, they put on a great effort and this time they had Elliot and a few of his compadres to roll with, and it was quite the bonza match, apologies for that, everyone worked their collective klackers off an put on a deadset ripper...

Adam  Hoffman was flexing his blue nation muscle  , Shazza kept trying to get a hold on the other half of the Blue Foozies (and co PWWA Champ) Jess Troy, but the sneaky little minx pretty much evaded Shazza, which was probably the best for her, Dane Sinclair was bouncing Swagzilla around pretty much at will and Bonza was doing what Bonza does and that is stretch, bash and wallop everyone he got his hands on....mostly Elliiot...

the high flying Robbie Eagles gave as good as he got in between revving up the crowd ..but to no avail, the 4 Nation bretheren took the win ...

it was at this the Lime Lizard hit the ring to celebrate with his evil cohorts, he was closely followed by Concrete who was subsequently beat down by all the Nation members until the save was made by Eagles, Shazza, Elliot and Dane...

this closed the show with all the good guys taking a bow....


Once again a cracking night....hope they come back (and bring some Basso and P.S with them)

PILEDRIVER...Australia very own wrestling mag

Wrestling mags!...been around for a good long time , and over the years Ive had a couple of favourites, starting out with the mags Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Inside Wrestling  and The Wrestler, all brilliant and as we know now, unparalled, stunning works of fiction, but its what we had for our edification..

HELL...before that we had a short clipping in the Sunday papers in Sydney (and every other state I guess) that gave us a the show results from the Sydney Stadium the night before...so I wasnt complaining.

And so it went,  I purchased PWI and its cousins and went on my merry way getting into wrestling deeper as the yonks raced by.

One day (and I cant remember how or when) I discovered a wrestling hotline in Australia that gave the O.S results a damn side quicker than the mags ever did, and Im fairly certain this is when I first heard about, quite possibly, the greatest wrestling mag ever, and it was a Aussie publication , called PILEDRIVER,  and to quote Master Yoda "Stoked I was"...

I went to a newsagent at Wentworthville to get my first issue, which was the December #6 issue, the 1990 Annual with Hogan on the cover, and a story inside that gutted him to be fair, 40 BIG pages for only  $6, it was from here that my Piledriver addiction started, sadly I missed a few issues , but I still ended up with about 15 or so...which I still have to this day.

The writers of the mag were outstanding, I dont think Ive ever met any of them, not that it matters, the list of journalistic greatness that provided content for PILEDRIVER were truly talented, and their nom de plumes were brilliant...

Ed Lock, Laz Dr D, Leapin Larry and Dennis Twilight, just to name a couple...the stories they pumped out were decidely bonza AND totally opposite to the tripe that Apter was selling as journalism, which is why they were so great, they didnt treat the punters like mugs AND they always saved space for aussie show reports 

...this particular column was called "Harbor City Havoc" and had all the guys of the time who were working RSL clubs such as Liverpool and Ingleburn...guys like my longtime personal favourite, Ken "Dazzler" Dunlop and his longtime tag partner and occasional opponent Wayne "Lofty" Pickford, Ace Fenton, Rod "Stinger" Borthwick, Thunderbolt, "Dynamite" Danny Burns, Skyhawk and Blade Runner.

Piledriver also re-lived the glory days of Channel nine tv , storys about famous angles and workers were a staple of the mag , stories about Brusier Brody and Killer Kowalski jumping on Pepper Gomez's alledgedly indestructible stomach (he missed) were among my favourites ...they had interviews with Mike Hunt and Roy Heffernen and devoted many a page to the Classic days of Aussie wrestling.

The mag also gave detailed reports about OS tours , shows like Wrestleriot I & II (which I caught at Tweed Heads RLFC) that had talnt like Jushin Thunder Liger, The Malenkos, Hawk, Smash and Americas favourite jobber, Mr Pin Me, Pay Me, Bobby Blaze

They also did a whiz bang report in issue #9 about the  IWA show that was held at Wonderland over a couple of weeks that starred Paul Orndorff , Kamala, The Terminator(one of the Lauranitis boys)and Jules Strongbow among others.

They also did a cracking series about Ric Flair over a couple of issues..it was a decided must read at the time, Piledriver covered the fued with Vader (which I still think is one of the best WCW title matches ever) , they touched on Flairs relationship (or lack there of ) with Dusty, they even delved into the how comes and why for's that the potential Super match between Flair and Hulk never came about at the WWF, Im still trying to figure that one out meself.

They told the tale of Bret Hart being bollocksed over at WWF and  WCW, and whipped a cracking issue dedicated to Big Van Vader when he was at the peak of his powers , issue #22 covered Razor heading off to WCW and #24 had a comedy piece ( I think) about Sid ruling the WWF.....They had a couple of dedicated mini issues in 1995 and 96  for The Bulldogs, Macho Man, Benoit and HBK as well.

And like any great magazine they had a section for lunatics out there to vent thier respective spleens , or even to send in artwork ( some even by a fella called Greg Bownds...could it be?)  this section was called Grunt & Groans and your faithful blogger even got a couple of letters printed ...mind you the mark factor was ridiculous...but you sorta knew it would be.....Sadly,  I sort of lost track after about issue 33, you know The Rock on the cover one...BUT the pile of drivers, I do have,  are still read through occasionally ...and Piledriver had some cousins from Blighty pick us the slack, with both Power Slam ( which only just stopped printing) and FSM keeping the curtain pulled back for all us wrasslin fans.

SO...too all the Wrestlers, reporters, illustrators and general wrestling fans that helped PILEDRIVER become what it did...Cudo's to you all ....TOP BLOODY JOB.

PILEDRIVER IN 

THE WIRLIF ARCHIVES

Seeya next time

GOSFORDMANIA II - The Return of Newy Pro

Gday

Well, Newy Pro said they would come back and sure enough, last Saturday night, 18 April, they did and we had what im gonna call GosfordMania 2....and a grouse time was had by all...even those fkn numbnuts that yell out inane shit that only they get ...
speaking of yelling inane shit, let me just have a whinge for a sec,  I have to ask, if you dont like wrestling, and it certainly appears that these fkn intelligentsia  dont, or if they do, they got a funny way of showing it, why would you waste coin on a ticket , sure they were having a hoot, but they were giving people around 'em the shits, and some of the stuff they said during the girls tag and when Madison was in the ring, was just wrong, I just dont get it....wonder why they bother?...never happened at the Hordern in the 70's or even Reveseby workers back in the 80's...

The curtain jerker for the evenings entertainment was, once again, the leader of the Pink Nation, "SwagZilla" Sean Kustom, who has got himself a nice shiny belt since last time we saw him at the Gosford Arena, and he was going up aginst a guy I hadnt ever seen, or heard of, for that matter before,  a fella called Insta Graham, who quiet frankly, looks like the love child of El Generico and Dasher Hatfield, Insta made his way around ringside, stopping for the occasional selfie with the masses....the bell rang and it was on.  I have to say that young Kustom is smooth in almost a Randy Orton-ish way, nothing seems like a effort, his dropkicks are off the charts brilliant, hell, all his stuff is pretty damn good.  Insta didnt suck either to be fair, but after some pretty good work, the Middleweight Champ got the pin...great start

The leader of The Blue Nation, Adam Hoffman,  with his Blue Floozies in tow and he was going up against Bee Boy who just came back from the states after a few shows over yonder...I like Bee Boy , his got that Chikara feel to him, having said that, I could watch Hoff wrestle nearly all day, I think Hoff was chucking in a few heelish moments  just to see if the crowd noticed, I certainly did, but then I  think the 4 Nations are a class heel group and should wrestle everywhere that way, but thats just me waving my "mark" card I guess, I a firm beleiver in maintaining a character across various feds, and I say this due to the intraweb shrinking the wrestling world, ANY WAY...Bee Boy was flying all over assundry, but Hoff hit a 450, got the 3 count, the Floozies got all excited and they shook on it and parted company

The Four way dance was announced and the last participant out, the local legend, one Concrete Davidson, who got the pop of the night I reckon, I might be byast...Davo was up against the Blue Oni, if someone could tell me what a Oni is, would be much appreciated, also in the match was the fella he grappled last time here at the Gosford Arena, Brian "The Heat" Seeker and a young fella called Matt Diamond who after a few years off after a powerbombing through a table hurt his back, was also included in the proceedings, Diamond, who  I first saw at The Cube when he was tagging with Robbie Eagles in "The Lightspeed Express" (and I bought the dvd)  is quite frankly  off the chart amazing...one of those rare gravity defying fellas...actually gravity defying dont cover it...he floated is more like it.   

Davo and Matt took a crack at some crowd popping moves, Concrete pulled off, what i now refer to as, the Concrete Pylon Power Bomb...at one point, I saw young Matt limp back through the curtain, I figured he musta done a hammy or his back or something, WRONG, ten seconds later he came flying across the stage and hit a flip somersault plancha (or something) on his opponents that made the crowd go WTF, LOL and all those abbreviations...sheer brilliance

After much tussling , grappling and athletic endeavour, the mighty Concrete got the pin...BUT...keep an eye on Diamond..just  wow.

I tweeted before the show the hashtag #BonzasGonnaStretchYou, and sure enough the Newy Pro champion and leader of the Red Nation, tied his six pack flashing opponent in knots, Bonz hit him with a couple of clotheslines that looked bloody near fatal, sure Spencer got in some offence, but, there was no doubt that Bonz was gonna slap him, and sure enough, in a very slick move, Bonza tied his opponent up in a four leaf clover-ish manouvre and beat him for the win...

.I been a fan of Bonz for a few years now, and I reckon he wouldnt of looked out of place during the "golden era" alongside Ronny, Larry and their co-horts

this match wasn't advertised, so it was a middle of the show "dark match" if you will, Matt Rogers was in a tag last time he was here with Chris Hermes v The Alpha's , this time he had a single against some westie from "Minnoh" called JT Robinson, who had a flash set of daks I must say,  and he did give "Full Impact " a tussle or three, but, Full Impact was having none of it and commenced to proceed to slap Mr Minto around and  in the end got the 3 

Came time for Rachel Rose and her tag partner, the shiela that drives you into a frenzy, the sheila called Shazza Mckenzie, to tussle with Adam Hoffman two biggest fans "The Blue Floozies"  the coasts very own, Charli Evans  and her partner Jessica Troy....and it wasnt a bad match to be fair, some of Jessica's moves were , to my eyes, a tad unsure, but that will improve with time, and cudos to Shimmer veteran and occasional PWWA champ Shazza for leading the way and putting on a pretty good match...even if Shazza and Rachel won..BOO HISS..evil heels

The main event of the evening, for the PWA tag team championship, YEP, I said the PWA Tag belts , you know the ones usually tussled over at the Casula Powerhouse, them omes ...anyway.....This fued has been going for yonks, The Neo Sovereign Revolution v Moretti and Madison have been tearing up the Powerhouse at  Casula, The Cube at Campbelltown and now the Gosford Arena ... and if you appreciate aussie wrestling, and I do, it was Ronnie Miller and Larry O'dea ( with some help from Lewin, Curtis and Tex McKenzie, am I showing my age?) that got me hooked then this was a dream match for you, four of the best ever, including the Queen of SHIMMER,  in one ring at approximately the same time, well, it was lucha rules you see, and cheeky bloody Moretti used all his tricks including and not withstanding, the Sweaty Ball Atomic Elbow, Madison, Robbie and good old "Crossface Orange" Ryan turned it up and went for it, planchas, topes, and all those other mexican delicacies, were on display for the appreciative masses, BUT, you just knew that The Green Nation would get by on some chicanery and they did, one belt shot later and they retained their titles

Another top night put together by the Newy pro guys, best get some dvds sorted guys, I wouldnt mind some for the collection...and the crowd was into it, which is a good sign that they may make us a regular gig, which I wouldn't complain about ...although Im gonna change my seat, and get away from the dipsticks.

And as a WIRLIF public service here are Twitter handles for the Newy Pro gang

NEWY PRO - @NewyProWrestlin

CONCRETE DAVISON - @StrongConcrete

JACK BONZA - @JackBonza

RYAN EAGLES - @KingKong_Eagles

MICK MORETTI - @NewSpiceMint

ROBBIE EAGLES - @RobbieEaglesNSR

MADISON EAGLES - @SeriouslyEagles

SEAN KUSTOM - @SeanKustom

BEE BOY - @TheBeeBoy

SHAZZA McKENZIE - @Shazza_McKenzie

CHARLI EVANS  - @Charli_Evans1