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