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Hi everyone, December is always an interesting month in professional wrestling with pantomimes all around the country battling for our family audience and some bigger promotions taking time off to regroup ready for the new year. Christmas themed shows always bring out the festive cheer and normally involve some sort of Santa themed chaos! Just this week Ace Matthews arrived as a giant present up at Anarchy Brew in Newcastle for NORTH wrestling's ALL CAPS, and it wouldn't be Christmas in wrestling without the brilliant and equally cringeworthy Isaiah's advent roast taking pot shots at the UK's favourite and most hardworking individuals, Ivy and Rory Coyle have already been targeted by the Guiding Light and fans have also been treated to a Lanaoke Whamageddon!
Looking back at Christmas shows over the years stand out moments such as Doink receiving Dink as a Christmas gift, and Santa Claus getting stunnered by Stone Cold live long in the memory. We won't talk about December to Dismember! This week WWE Home Video UK have sadly announced that they will be ceasing distribution of wrestling DVD's and Blu Ray after the release of Crown Jewel 2023. After 36 years its safe to say fans in the UK are truly grateful for the service they have provided. Their most recent DVD offering is aptly Christmas Classics including Santa Claus winning the 24/7 championship and the Rock's 12 days of Christmas.
In local wrestling news on 25th November I ring announced what I would class as my first festive show of the year as The Kingdom of Wrestling presented its 2 year anniversary show Crowning Glory 2 featuring the main event of The Playboy Prince Lance Revera defending his championship against the North West Saviour Sam Bailey. A brilliant family friendly show including a raffle expertly conducted by superfan Luiz Da Silva and also appearances by Harley Hudson, RPD and Andre Dekker. The Southport Market is a great location for wrestling shows and on this occasion was decked out like Santa's grotto with a red velvet curtain, Christmas lights and at least 10 Christmas trees adding to the ambience. Unfortunately VGS member KC Payne took exception to me announcing his loss in Southport and tried to throw me through aforementioned tree! Hopefully the Payne King will return in the New Year in a better mood. Kingdom run their first show of 2024 on 9th March.
Top Rope Wrestling is an exciting prospect for any wrestling fans, with its own wrestling academy which showcases it's young upcoming stars such as The Shooter Snow, Puppet conductor Sebastian Cloud and fan favourite Romie Kendrick, in matches against the best of British wrestlers such as James Mason, Dean Allmark and one of the longest running tag teams around The Models Joey Hayes and Danny Hope. Their Christmas show took place at Padiham Town Hall on the 3rd of December to a sold out crowd. Lets Clause a scene featured the main event of the Middle Eastern Millionaire The Sheikh taking on Santa Claus. In the weeks leading up to the match the Middle Eastern Millionaire had tried to recruit the Grinch at a Christmas Fair in Accrington Town Hall and even put a beating on Santa's elf Turbo T, not before T had executed a few manoeuvres of his own on the Sheikh! Thankfully Santa Claus arrived to the joy of the packed audience. The battle ensued but was unfortunately spoiled by this years number one on the naughty list Superstar Lana Austin who proceeded to attack Santa and suggesting she wanted to "Punch his beard off". Thankfully Accrington's own Melissa Fierce made the save and chased Lana off, even hitting a hurricanrana on the Sheikh to send him on his way. The show ended with Top Rope Women's Champion Melissa Fierce and Father Christmas himself celebrating in the ring sending the fans home happy. Top Rope Wrestling will be back at Accrington Town Hall on 30th March.
In other exciting wrestling news I am proud to announce that alongside my ring announcing role at Tidal Wrestling I have also been made the General Manager, this means I will have authority over matches at shows and will hopefully allow me to keep things under control from ringside! My duties begin on January 14thwhen Tidal presents its first show of 2024 New Dawn 2. Already signed for that show is Number 1 contender Tate Mayfairs taking on Tidal Men's Champion new Tidal Chief Scotty Rawk. The Women's Championship is also on the line as the awesome Rhio defends against the star of the Nina Samuels show, Nina Samuels. And everyone in Huddersfield is looking forward to seeing the rematch between the Tidal Terminator Vusyk and The Blackpool Thunderstorm Sam Gradwell. Their match last year is very high up on our list of contenders for match of the year! Make sure to vote for your favourite match in the Tidal End of Year Anchor awards, which will be contested during the final week of 2023 over on Tidal's X and Instagram pages.
2024 is already looking really exciting with Wrestle Tours hosting their annual trip to WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia April 5th and 6th. The Road to WrestleMania begins at the Royal Rumble, make sure to attend a Hooked on Wrestling party screening the Rumble all over the UK on the night of Saturday 25th January. Last year I attended the Wembley Box Park screening which was epic, and the year before hosted the party in Liverpool, I had the sound of that claxon ringing in my ears for weeks! Another date to mark in your wrestling calendar is the annual FTLOW in the Bowlers Exhibition Centre Manchester, the convention takes place 2-3 March 2024 and guests already confirmed include Trish Stratus, XPac , Hornswoggle, Rikishi and Sgt Slaughter.
There are still some other exciting shows coming up before the end of the year including Riot Cabaret, Planet Wrestling and of course PROGRESS Wrestling presenting Unboxing VI on December 30th. Anything could happen on that one as anybody could show up to take on any opponent in the Electric Ballroom! If anyone has any questions for me, or anything you would like me to write about please feel free to email me at Maddog@RealRasslin.net and I will do my best to answer any mail.
That's all from me this month, join me again when I run down my highlights of 2023 on New Years Day. You can catch me this week on Wrestling with Johners podcast LIVE Wednesday at 7PM GMT and then at PROGRESS Wrestling Unboxing 30th December.
Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Maddog
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