Ramblings of an Englishman

​July 2026 is a funny time for a niche topic in the grand scheme of things. It will be 20 years since my first wrestling show seen live (I mean it will be if All-Star never get back to me regarding the buttons 2004 show I was at, the DMs is there in your requests please respond). As such it’s a nice round number to fully look into the facts and figures. A lot of these shows are from the last 12 months where I've really started to be more interested in live wrestling as opposed to just going to the bigger shows and watching the rest at home but it's still a fun collection of names and matches.  For the record this contains 32 shows which are broken down as the below x2 LDN Shows (2006-2007) x8 TNA/Impact Wrestling Shows (2008-2016) x3 NJPW Shows (2019-2024) x15 RevPro Shows (2023-2026) x3 AEW Shows (2023-2025) x1 Pro Wrestling EVE Show (2026)  Most Seen Wrestler So who takes the crown for most seen wrestler? Well as ever there’s some slight controversy with it in terms of the w...

Forbidden Door season rolls about again. Not in the UK this time we have all in but this show will have UK implications with the finals of both men and women’s versions of The Owen. Slight deviation on normal I’ve been away for the most part so my thoughts on TV may not be accurate for what the show has shown. I’ve not seen everything so you know what can you do.  Buy In Drilla Moloney vs. Daniel Garcia  A match announced while I was sleeping before the show. It should be a fine match but I have nothing but that to say for it. I might hit that Drilla right. This was good enough felt heatless with how late it was announced. Drilla killer is nice. 2.75/5   Survival of the Fittest Qualifying Match: Skye Blue vs. Maika  I’ve really enjoyed the idea of building to the next TBS champion after Willow sadly had to vacate the belt. Build up to it make it seem like everyone wants it and blow that off with a first time gimmick match (in AEW) of Survival of the Fittest. F...

Look I know it’s only halfway through 2026 and here I am looking at 2027. But I’m thinking and when I think I have to write it down so the ideas leave my mind. As this one states it’s all about changes I’d make to AEW and their PPV line up in 2027. Look next year is 8 years for AEW the format has been added on and fixed in place (mainly in terms of having your AEW UK show in August whatever it’s called more than anything). Originally Double or Nothing was the top show and then replaced with All In. For 2027 I want to reflect on how I’d change things around a little bit and just explain that reasoning. I’m not on the business side of AEW maybe some of this is impossible I dunno but it’s fun to just speculate. As a caveat I won’t be removing any PPV or changing the names. I don’t think AEW will despite my issues with Forbidden Door as a name. All In Starting with All In and I’d take another break from it being in the UK. Ticket sales aren’t exactly booming and I think Wembley has been a ...

​Sitting here away on holiday thinking about wrestling. I know doesn’t seem like I do much else. But we are in full Forbidden Door season for AEW which I was fortunate to be at last year in the O2 and well is the idea of ‘Forbidden Door’ redundant now?  If you look at what this show meant to being with it was the first union of AEW and NJPW following years of tension. After AEW was founded the president of NJPW at the time Harold Meji felt slighted by the departure of The Elite as well as other key talents to the new promotion in America opting for closer bigger paydays. New Japan saw The Best Friends gone just as they were looking to push Trent as a singles talent and mainstay Lance Archer to name a few.  I wasn’t really until the build up to Wrestle Kingdom 14 and Chris Jericho vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi that Tanahashi said should he win and get a shot at the AEW title he would walk through ‘The Forbidden Door’ to win the title. While Tanahashi didn’t win that day I think it went...

2026 looks to be a record breaking year for seeing wrestling live. I got the bug last October to attend more than just the AEW PPV in August and whenever New Japan does Royal Quest and it has led to me going to a lot more shows mainly RevPro's Live in London series at the Porchester Hall. This is also a special year regarding to this as it is 20 years since I went to my first show it was an LDN show in 2006. I'm counting this as I and Cagematch cannot find records of the show I was at while I was at the Bognor Regis Butlins in 2004 (or 2005 can't remember). So this is an anniversary year for wrestling and has somehow had a call back.  So far this year I have been to the below shows. RevPro Live In London 103 - 04/01/2026 RevPro Live In London 104 - 01/02/2026 RevPro Live In London 105 - 01/03/2026 Pro Wrestling EVE 146: Wrestle Queendom 9 - 08/03/2026 RevPro Live In London 107 - 03/05/2026 RevPro Live In London 108 - 07/06/2026 This already ties me with the amount of shows ...

Despite my currently reservations towards the company I will always have a soft spot for TNA. In England I've been there with them since they were on Bravo long since that channel has stopped coming up on the TV guide. The first match I saw was the Electrified Cage match scrolling through the channels back in 2007 and to be honest probably would've been it if not for Kurt Angle and Christian Cage in the Lethal Lockdown probably would've been it. But man, that match left an impression on me with an immediate love for AJ Styles and Samoa Joe.  I bring that up as it's 20 years next year that I found out about wrestling beyond WWE, sure WCW was alive in my time but I was pretty young I remember the toys being on sale more than Nitro and the first I can really remember of WCW was the 2001 Invasion PPV (and the Jeff Hardy vs. RVD match on that a fan of both right away). From watching that show I ended up going to the Brentwood show of their first UK tour and then onto Wembley...