Best Irish Event You Have Attended

gimmick

Just thinking about this over the weekend. Excluding WWE shows what has been the best Irish show, ie IWW, NLW, CPW, NWA you have been to?

For me, it would have been the Whiplash TV taping at The Forum in Waterford in October 2005. It was in the older downstairs venue which is far better than the upstairs. This was the night D Lo Brown no showed due to an unforeseen family commitment. On the card was SOS, Jay Phoenix, who I think goes by the name James Wallace these days, Bubblegum, Manchester Massive as well as Viper, Red Vinny, George McFly, Bam et al.

Not sure why this night sticks out so much, but ity was a blast. Some very enjoyable matches, most notably Viper Vs Phoenix which had the place absolutely rocking all night.

Been to a good few shows since, but none have come close to that one.

Global Impact at the same venue was good as well.

ShawnRaven

Excluding WWE, it would have been my first Waterford Forum show which i believe was June 06. It was also a Whiplash taping. Not so much for the card, but more for the night that was in it. Their supershow in March 05 in the SFX was pretty good as well, Good Styles v Daniels match at it.

VR!

rossie1977

off the top of my head the night of the zero gravity tournament in balbriggan January 2007. Pac, kid kash, El Ligero, vinny and bingo all in top form that night.

honestly can't think of any WWE event in Dublin that has stood out since their return a few years ago, the show in the RDS because it was outside but the matches themselves have been nearly forgotten

SuperWoody101

Not been to many Irish shows but I would say NLW's first event. Non stop action all night, great show.

Gerard.C

I gotta agree with Gimmick, there was a great athmosphere in the Forum that night!

flahavaj

The best Irish event I've ever attended was the Munster Hurling Final in 2004. Some game of hurlin boy.;)

ShawnRaven

Was that when Kilkenny won... again? It's about all that county is bloody famous for these days?

VR!

flahavaj

validreasoning! wrote: »

Was that when Kilkenny won... again? It's about all that county is bloody famous for these days?

VR!

Kilkennys in Leinster!

And they're also famous for crossing the bridge into Waterford every morning stealing the local people's jobs. But thats a different argument for a different day.....;)

the flananator

A few off the top of my head;

NWA Ireland's debut in Kildare, around 2003 I think. Was my first time seeing NWA Ireland, a company I had only previously read about in Total Wrestling magazine. First wrestler through the apron was Fergal Devitt. He had a nice little match with Aquila. Next up was the awesome Ross Browne and his partner who I think was Dino Delicious, against the Finglas Hooligans, who seemed awesome at the time with their innovative double team moves. They had a heated match. Gonzo De Mondo (whatever happened to him?) and Paddy Morrow faced Danny Butler and Vinny Mayhem in a Dublin vs. Kildare match; all I remember are a few "cool" highspots from Morrow and Mayhem, and a red-hot atmos. In the match of the night, Sean Brennan had a great bout with Phil Boyd. Boyd was soooo much more entertaining, and got more heat, when he used "The Thrill" gimmick, with the "Thriller" entrance theme, the rose, the jacket etc. But I guess he prefers playing it more serious now and thats fine. Anyway, they ended up wrestling to a draw with the ref. allowing the fans to decide who won. Unsuprisingly, "Maxer" got the popular vote! In the main event, Aguila won a battle royal, last eliminating Browne. The show was by no-means stellar by most people's standards, but on this night everything was right; the CYMS hall was full for the first time that I can remember that did not involve a school play, the crowd were sooooo into it (myself and my buddies included, one of whom wasn't even a wrestling fan), and it was just a great night.

Celtic Pro's debut show sticks out in my mind also, probably more for what it meant at the time more than anything. We drew 180 people (far more than we expected), whom were hot all night. There were two-genuinely stand-out matches on display also; Anthony Idol vs. Kid Richie and Blake Norton vs. Amazing Insano (say what you will about him, Norton busted his butt in this match to make the super-green Insano look good). Sadly, the shows seemed to go slowly downhill from here .

As people have already said, the first IwW supershow in the SFX was great fun, with Styles/Daniels plus the Donneybrook four-way with the greatness of M-Dogg 20.

But If I had to choose one show above the rest, I would select No Limit Wrestlings second ever show, which took place in the "Mecca" that is Moat Theatre;) in Naas in October 2006 (pretty sure thats an accurate time-line). It just seemed so edgy and modern compared to anything else I'd seen in an Irish ring before. It had Jamie Coleman's fantastic promo. It had Alex Breslin (a female for those who don't know) taking a super-stiff chair-shot. It had Joey Cabray taking a chair shot from his bro Georgie and bleeding everywhere, only for Georgie to announce over the house mike "I'm gonna ****ing kill him!". It had the stunning 3 Stages of Hell match for the NWA-I title between Sean Brennan and Anthony Idol. And more than anything, it also had Fergal Devitt's return to and Irish ring, where he beat the **** out of Adam Abz for 35 minutes in probably the best match I've seen on Irish soil. That the house was sold out to a red-hot crowd didn't even matter, the card was just great.

It saddens me to think that out of the promotions I have listed, since these shows have taken place, two have faded considerably while the other two have abanoned their modernity/edgyness/coolness in favour of bigger crowds, the famillies and making money, but hey, they'e absolutely right to do it.

Fozzy

Probably the first Irish show I went to, the IWW Supershow with AJ vs Daniels. There was a lot of entertaining stuff on that card and I didn't know what to expect from it. Fourway was a lot of fun, as was Chris Sabin's match with Darren Burridge

I'll give a mention to the IWW show in the SFX in November of 2005 too, I remember having a good time at that

ShawnRaven

flahavaj wrote: »

Kilkennys in Leinster!

No it's not! We deliberately lost that legal battle, you can have it!!

And they're also famous for crossing the bridge into Waterford every morning stealing the local people's jobs. But thats a different argument for a different day.....;)

I could say several politically incorrect jokes right here, but it's too early in the morning for it!

VR!

shinzon

Gerard.C wrote: »

I gotta agree with Gimmick, there was a great athmosphere in the Forum that night!

Was that the night SOS nearly broke his neck by leaping over the top rope and manson started walking all over the chairs at the end of the night, and if it was then yeah one helluva night


Wanty

grames_bond

my favourite was the first time wwa (world wrestling allstars) came to the point, road dogg and Jeff jarret was the main event, disco inferno was battered by grandmaster sexay (then he danced), we got to hear the line "finally the juice has come back to dublin", buff bagwell was there and the commissioner: bret the hitman hart!! absolute legend!

ShawnRaven

grames_bond wrote: »

my favourite was the first time wwa (world wrestling allstars) came to the point, road dogg and Jeff jarret was the main event, disco inferno was battered by grandmaster sexay (then he danced), we got to hear the line "finally the juice has come back to dublin", buff bagwell was there and the commissioner: bret the hitman hart!! absolute legend!

Ah, WWA! Australia's contribution to the Wrestling world.I was at their second show in the Point in 2002, it was utter dirt! How that promotion lasted the two years that it did is actually quite disturbing. It did have promise in the beginning alright, in fact their first PPV, The Inception was actually fairly decent! But The Revolution was god awful! The Eurption was pretty much the final nail in the coffin, and Andrew McManus hasn't been seen since. WWA's talent director, Jeremy Borash was found in TNA shortly afterwards.

Better stick with Home and Away & Shortland St, eh?
VR!

grames_bond

validreasoning! wrote: »

Ah, WWA! Australia's contribution to the Wrestling world.I was at their second show in the Point in 2002, it was utter dirt! How that promotion lasted the two years that it did is actually quite disturbing. It did have promise in the beginning alright, in fact their first PPV, The Inception was actually fairly decent! But The Revolution was god awful! The Eurption was pretty much the final nail in the coffin, and Andrew McManus hasn't been seen since. WWA's talent director, Jeremy Borash was found in TNA shortly afterwards.

Better stick with Home and Away & Shortland St, eh?
VR!

im pretty sure i was at that show too, like three rows from the front and ur right it was muck, no bret hart, a really fat lex lugur, and sting who just didnt give a sh!t....and sabu injured himself doin a high flying move that he was clearly too old to do, so lay down on the mat for like 5 minutes while the other 2 in the triple threat match had a bit of a play! :rolleyes:

Jimmy McMurtry

Yeah the WWA 1rst event was deadly especially when Bret Hart put the sharpshooter on Jeff Jarret me & a mate ran down to railings cause we knew the show wud b over bt we stil missd Bret

The iww supershow was cool aswel cause I never knew there was any irish wrestling scene n also getn to see Styles & Daniels live

ShawnRaven

grames_bond wrote: »

im pretty sure i was at that show too, like three rows from the front and ur right it was muck, no bret hart, a really fat lex lugur, and sting who just didnt give a sh!t....and sabu injured himself doin a high flying move that he was clearly too old to do, so lay down on the mat for like 5 minutes while the other 2 in the triple threat match had a bit of a play! :rolleyes:

The only decent match on the card (and i know i've said it before), was Joe E. Legend vs Simon Diamond! I couldn't care less for the midgets, even if Midijah was refereeing.

Although Nathan Jones was a sight to see live, and he actually wasn't bad in the ring at that show, i don't know what the hell WWE did to him months afterwards!

VR!

Jimmy McMurtry

I remember bein so dissappointd cause Sid was advertised for the 2nd WWA event n he wasnt der:mad:

the flananator

The World Wrestling Allstars....

I was at their first show in The Point aswell. It was my first ever wrestling show. Can you imagine my disapointment when my mother told me she had bought me tickets to go see the WWF and handed me tickets to something called the "WWA?".

I didn't know what to expect. We were a little late but arrived in time to catch a glimpse of the fireworks display and the intro video on the big-screen which showed highlights of their previous card in Australia (the Inception PPV). The entire package was very professional. A few things from here;

* Jeremy Borash was the ring announcer,and very good at it. He was also commentator with Disco Inferno for the first half and Konnan for the second half. The commentary was hooked up to the PA system, so we had live commentary all night, which was a very, very nice touch.

* The work-rate was terrible. Psycosis and Juvi phoned their match in. Other bouts included Konnan&Nathan Jones vs. Lenny Lane and Lodi, Buff Bagwell vs. Stevie Ray, Gangrel vs. Luna, Disco Inferno vs. Grandmaster Sexay....if you haven't cringed, do so now.

* Norman Smiley beat Crowbar/Devon Storm in the match of the night, in a lively hardcore match after a slam through a table.

* I marked HUGE for Brian Christopher and Road Dogg, the former of which I didn't know was booked so I jumped for joy when I heard his music hit. In fairness, this was my first wrestling show:o

* I think everyone marked for Bret Hart calling Vince a piece of **** and sticking Jarret in the Sharpshooter. My Dad was probably the only one in the building who didn't know who he was, and heckled him throughout his promo, much to my amusement.

* Some people were pissed Ken Shamrock, Jerry Lawlor and other advertised stars weren't there; apparently there were a lot of no-shows. I didn't even know they were announced in the first place so didn't care. LOVED this show.

The second WWA show on the other hand was a completely differnt story.

Ads aired on televison promising Scott Steiner, Sid Vicious and other for a major show in the RDS. I go out of my way to get good tix, bout 8 rows from the front. Then, I find out from a tiny snippet in the paper that the show had been postponed till a later date. This turned out to be in the point, and guess what? Steiner and Sid weren't announced anymore. Worse still, my 8th row privelage disapeared, I had to sit with the plebs in the balconey. That really pissed me off. At least I had a great view of the action. Problem was; the action was terrible.

* That retard and owner of the company McManus opens the show with a terrible promo where he practically laughed at his own company, pointed out the building wasn't sold out, informed us the ADVERRTISED Jeff Jarret wouldn't be on the show but would be in Scotland the following night (why ****ing tell us that? Did he expect us to travel to Scotland to go and see Jarret? We'd already ****ing paid once). The crowd booed and heckled until this RETARD eventually took his seat alongside Disco Inferno at the announce booth and proceeded to give terrible, terrible commentary through-out the night.

* Shark Boy vs. a no-name Nate Webb was the opener. They had a decent little match in fairness, but no-one cared.

* Konnan vs. Norman Smiley was next. First problem; Konnan had been the super-over face at the previous show, with Smiley heel. In THIS match, Konnan played heel, while Smiley played face. As little sense as this made, Smiley managed to make things worse. When he got the mike, he seemed to think mentioning the fact he's English would endear himself to us. It didn't. It really didn't. In fact, the news was met with ferocious booing. Smiley attempted to make up for it by name-dropping U2 and others, but failed. Without a fan-favorite, this match sucked.

* Kaz and Nathan Jones fought Disco Inferno and some guy I can't remember. Poor match.

* Commishoner Mike Sanders beat Joe E. Legend. Another poorly conceived match; no one knew who Legend was, meanwhile Sanders came out to Enter Sandman, so people were ****ed off when this ****ing loser came out and not Sandman. Crap match.

* Disco Inferno was a constant source of irration as ring announcer, but not in a good heel heat way, more of a "I'd be enjoying this show more if Disco attached a large rock to his leg and jumped into the Liffey". The ring announcer should be trying to get fans into the action, not trying to piss them off. One such blunder was when he announced the 3 way between Sabu, Perry Saturn and Simon Diamond. What did he do? He announced that it was No DQ, so "Tables, Ladders and Chairs are allllllllll legal!!!!" which was met with the pop of the night. Problem was, there were no tables or chairs to be found, so fans chants of "We Want Tables" through-out the match could never be met. Gilberti must have ****ing known there were no tables or ladders on the card, he was just trying to get himself over. Then, in the most ****ing annoying part of the night, one of the wrestlers was slammed off the announce table in a feeble spot, to which promoter, commentator and RETARD McManus blurts out "Well,you got your tables!!". Wanker.

* The 3 way in question was actually not a bad match, Sabu was cool. His Triple Jump Moonsault was great to see live. He carried the other buffoons. MOTN, not that that was a difficult feat.

* The main event was awful. Sting/Lex Luger vs. Buff Bagwell/Malice. No one knew who Malice was. Power Slam reported that month that Luger had been quoted as saying backstage that "I'm doing this tour as a holiday to meet old friends and wrestle five minute matches". What a ****. Bout was a non-event as you can imagine.

In conclusion, Andrew McManus is a retard.

grames_bond

everything said above is totally correct fair play mate! i was one of the people upset at the fact that shamrock wasnt there, one of the reasons i went to the show the first time and he was in the programme and everything! but road dogg made up for that!

the 2nd one coudlnt have been any worse, and i wanted to throw something wen he announced that jeff jarret would be in scotland....WE DON'T GIVE A F*CK WE ARE IN IRELAND!! a few of the wrestlers did sutographs after, none of the really big ones but that was the only thing of the whole night you could say fair play to! shocking, just shocking!

rossie1977

sh*t man you remember all that from memory wow, i was at the first WWA show too and it was decent; got to shake hands with bret at the end (he stayed around at ringside for a while); i had already been to a few WWF events in much bigger arenas like the MEN in manchester by that time so i wasn't expecting the world, we had tickets for the second show as well but as soon as it was postponed we just decided to get a refund instead, reading your report i am very glad we did

the gangrel/luna fight was hilarious, they brawled out right beside us in the crowd, nearly knocking me off my seat

the flananator

rossie1977 wrote: »

sh*t man you remember all that from memory wow, i was at the first WWA show too and it was decent; got to shake hands with bret at the end (he stayed around at ringside for a while); i had already been to a few WWF events in much bigger arenas like the MEN in manchester by that time so i wasn't expecting the world, we had tickets for the second show as well but as soon as it was postponed we just decided to get a refund instead, reading your report i am very glad we did

the gangrel/luna fight was hilarious, they brawled out right beside us in the crowd, nearly knocking me off my seat

Yeah, they just seemed to lock-up and next thing you know they're in the crowd! "Black Wedding" rules wasn't it? Another thing I remember is them borrowing a spot from the Chyna/Jeff Jarret "Good Housekeeping" match where Luna caught Gangrel (or was he the Vampire Warrior?) coming off the top rope with a tong to the groin!

ShawnRaven

the flananator wrote: »

The second WWA show on the other hand was a completely differnt story.

Ads aired on televison promising Scott Steiner, Sid Vicious and other for a major show in the RDS. I go out of my way to get good tix, bout 8 rows from the front. Then, I find out from a tiny snippet in the paper that the show had been postponed till a later date. This turned out to be in the point, and guess what? Steiner and Sid weren't announced anymore. Worse still, my 8th row privelage disapeared, I had to sit with the plebs in the balconey. That really pissed me off. At least I had a great view of the action. Problem was; the action was terrible.

* That retard and owner of the company McManus opens the show with a terrible promo where he practically laughed at his own company, pointed out the building wasn't sold out, informed us the ADVERRTISED Jeff Jarret wouldn't be on the show but would be in Scotland the following night (why ****ing tell us that? Did he expect us to travel to Scotland to go and see Jarret? We'd already ****ing paid once). The crowd booed and heckled until this RETARD eventually took his seat alongside Disco Inferno at the announce booth and proceeded to give terrible, terrible commentary through-out the night.

* Shark Boy vs. a no-name Nate Webb was the opener. They had a decent little match in fairness, but no-one cared.

* Konnan vs. Norman Smiley was next. First problem; Konnan had been the super-over face at the previous show, with Smiley heel. In THIS match, Konnan played heel, while Smiley played face. As little sense as this made, Smiley managed to make things worse. When he got the mike, he seemed to think mentioning the fact he's English would endear himself to us. It didn't. It really didn't. In fact, the news was met with ferocious booing. Smiley attempted to make up for it by name-dropping U2 and others, but failed. Without a fan-favorite, this match sucked.

* Kaz and Nathan Jones fought Disco Inferno and some guy I can't remember. Poor match.

* Commishoner Mike Sanders beat Joe E. Legend. Another poorly conceived match; no one knew who Legend was, meanwhile Sanders came out to Enter Sandman, so people were ****ed off when this ****ing loser came out and not Sandman. Crap match.

* Disco Inferno was a constant source of irration as ring announcer, but not in a good heel heat way, more of a "I'd be enjoying this show more if Disco attached a large rock to his leg and jumped into the Liffey". The ring announcer should be trying to get fans into the action, not trying to piss them off. One such blunder was when he announced the 3 way between Sabu, Perry Saturn and Simon Diamond. What did he do? He announced that it was No DQ, so "Tables, Ladders and Chairs are allllllllll legal!!!!" which was met with the pop of the night. Problem was, there were no tables or chairs to be found, so fans chants of "We Want Tables" through-out the match could never be met. Gilberti must have ****ing known there were no tables or ladders on the card, he was just trying to get himself over. Then, in the most ****ing annoying part of the night, one of the wrestlers was slammed off the announce table in a feeble spot, to which promoter, commentator and RETARD McManus blurts out "Well,you got your tables!!". Wanker.

* The 3 way in question was actually not a bad match, Sabu was cool. His Triple Jump Moonsault was great to see live. He carried the other buffoons. MOTN, not that that was a difficult feat.

* The main event was awful. Sting/Lex Luger vs. Buff Bagwell/Malice. No one knew who Malice was. Power Slam reported that month that Luger had been quoted as saying backstage that "I'm doing this tour as a holiday to meet old friends and wrestle five minute matches". What a ****. Bout was a non-event as you can imagine.

In conclusion, Andrew McManus is a retard.

Oh man, i only wish myself and Minto had have gotten you on the BPW podcast in September or was it October last year when we were discussing this show. Had you voiced that opinion as opposed type it out, you probably would have had us both in stitches.

Seriously, great write up and sums it up. I don't know why i kept thinking Legend and Diamond were in the ring together for that event though.

VR!

the flananator

validreasoning! wrote: »

Oh man, i only wish myself and Minto had have gotten you on the BPW podcast in September or was it October last year when we were discussing this show. Had you voiced that opinion as opposed type it out, you probably would have had us both in stitches.

Seriously, great write up and sums it up. I don't know why i kept thinking Legend and Diamond were in the ring together for that event though.

VR!

Ha cheers. I pretended I liked the show to myself for years to justify the effort and money I paid to go to it, but I had to finally admit what a complete and utter bag of vagina the WWA turned out to be.

ShawnRaven

the flananator wrote: »

Ha cheers. I pretended I liked the show to myself for years to justify the effort and money I paid to go to it, but I had to finally admit what a complete and utter bag of vagina the WWA turned out to be.

I was the same until i saw WWE RAW two years later in the same said venue.
VR!

the flananator

validreasoning! wrote: »

I was the same until i saw WWE RAW two years later in the same said venue.
VR!

That was my first WWE show; it was awesome, just great. The feeling of elation when it was announced HBK was on hand, the excitement of his match with HHH (with a great finish IIRC) not to mention the excellent Kane/Benoit main event.

ShawnRaven

the flananator wrote: »

That was my first WWE show; it was awesome, just great. The feeling of elation when it was announced HBK was on hand, the excitement of his match with HHH (with a great finish IIRC) not to mention the excellent Kane/Benoit main event.

I was at the Merch stall when i heard HHH's music play, the amount of people who fled from the stalls to check out the entrance, it was like a bombscare or something.

Unreal!
VR!

TOPDAWG

gimmick wrote: »

Just thinking about this over the weekend. Excluding WWE shows what has been the best Irish show, ie IWW, NLW, CPW, NWA you have been to?

For me, it would have been the Whiplash TV taping at The Forum in Waterford in October 2005. It was in the older downstairs venue which is far better than the upstairs. This was the night D Lo Brown no showed due to an unforeseen family commitment. On the card was SOS, Jay Phoenix, who I think goes by the name James Wallace these days, Bubblegum, Manchester Massive as well as Viper, Red Vinny, George McFly, Bam et al.

Not sure why this night sticks out so much, but ity was a blast. Some very enjoyable matches, most notably Viper Vs Phoenix which had the place absolutely rocking all night.

Been to a good few shows since, but none have come close to that one.

That was amazing in fairness (even if viper did spill my pint when he got thrown from the ring!! ) and to make things better i slept the entire way home from waterford to cork, only waking up when we got to my house. :D:D