Wrestling Magazine Thread

jeffk wrote: »

Arrived this morning, once again no delivery issues with my subscription.


Not a fan of Mma so glad to see the double cover, clever the way the cover ties in with basically a mini mag about Hogan/Tna in the UK


Looking forward to reading the piece on Pwg, shame theres no recent Dvd review to tie in with it

Do you know Alan4l the author of the PWG article at all? By internet rep?

Great fella. Cant wait to read his PWG and Tanahashi piece as they are two of his favourite things in the world.

Also PRIDE FC has probably made me weep in joy more than any entity in the world.

jeffk wrote: »

No, outside the named writers and Brian the editor I don’t know them at all; just I love PWG and am happy to see it get some well-deserved coverage!

Wow if you are fan of PWG you need to subscribe to Wrestling Observer as there is a bunch of fans there. Alan has interviewed most guys on the roster and Excalibur is a semi regular guest on the show.

jeffk wrote: »

Thanks for the advice , but $120 a year :eek: , think ill keep subscribing to FSM instead!

Not getting into that debate again on here but a lot of people think it is worth it or probably worth more even.

Doesnt stop you from subbing for a month and robbing all the audio and stuff.

Long story short Alan is a top man and the best person to write those two articles IMO.

Personally I got the mag in the post yesterday not issues as per normal. Cant wait to read it on the weekend.

jaykhunter wrote: »

The Wrestling Observer seems like Christianity in relief countries. Always trying to convert people! Hiyooooooo

I said I didnt want to get into it again.

I am not trying to convert people. I reccomend lots of products here. Including the magazine this thread is about. :rolleyes: I'll never get you being so combative about people paying for the Observer as this absurd level of fandom when you are an active mod on Pro Wrestling forum on the biggest Board in Ireland. Sorry but that is a much bigger step and commitment.

If Alan's podcast were always free I would post them here especially those with Justin and Eamon as they are the most enjoyable "fans being fans" podcasts around. If you dont take my word as Diabhal and others on that. The ONLY thing this has to do with the Observer is that podcast is hosted on that site.

jaykhunter wrote: »

I wonder how many times you can recommend the same paysite before it becomes shilling.

This whatever this is it is getting really petty.

When was the last time I did it? Like I haven't recommended PWTorch or PWInsider as well. I already explained myself the only reason I mentioned it is that Alan who writes for FSM also hosts a forum and a podcast there. A lot of people solely sub for it.

Whenever he has posted a free show of interest Ive posted it here for example:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=73857624&postcount=20

If you want to do me for schilling then do it for schilling Alan(4L) Couhian and FSM. Here is Diabhal praising Alan's show there at the expense of what else is on offer: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=75222985&postcount=48

Alan is one of the nicer guys around and a buddy excuse me if I get a kick out of him getting on in the Pro Graps world.

Brian Elliott wrote: »

I believe this is it: http://tinyurl.com/82xwblo

Thanks everyone for the kind words about FSM.

I like to think that FSM helps fans want to watch wrestling, whereas there are some publications that make even long-time supporters want to hate it. (That doesn't mean that we don't cover serious issues - it just means that we try to bring you the best of pro wrestling every month.) Since I asked him to begin working with us in 2011, Alan has become a major representative of this FSM philosophy, and he's used his expertise to put together some great articles.

The same reason I like Alan4l's output in general so much is linked to why I like FSM. I stopped reading Wrestling Magazines a few years ago as the old Fighting Spirit was really poor and primarily due to Powerslam fulfilling the old adage about familiarity breeds contempt. Like I've said elsewhere I've tremendous respect for Finlay finding a formula that is extremely time tested. But I was so sick of how predictable articles where written and selected. Also don't get me started on the unrelenting negativity of the editorial.

Likewise with Wrestling Observer I've gotten bored with the MMA doing Pro Wrestling better Pro Wrestling nonsense, Bryan Alverez's "all Wrestling sucks these days" schtick when he barely ever watches the good stuff as he can't be arsed and in terms of Wrestling scoops the whole plans change all the time disclaimer on everything. I miss the fun of the first few years the Bryan and Vinny shows had which was initial reason I signed up for the site now it is largely snide and slap dash. JayK seems to think I am this blind Meltzer/Wrestling Observer zealot when anyone who subscribes there will tell you I am not. Seems like a futile effort on here even pointing it out.

Both Bryan Alverez and Finlay Martin seem to begin watching a match or show in this pit of misery and worrying about buy rates rather just watching from a clean slate. Bryan is a horrible influence on Dave Meltzer at times as he gets sucked into the intense negativity. Dave still finds a lot to love about Wrestling but it has to be drawn out of him on radio shows. At least with Alan and FSM have sense of proportion and can spot when they are being redundant. I am kind of being unfair to Bryan but there is a lot merit to what I am saying.

Alan is quickly becoming Johnny Giles to my Eamonn Dunphy here in this thread but he is such a leveller to all the merited and unmerited negativity on the Observer site. When it comes to matches and match quality his opinions are sought after by loads of fans on the internet and a number of wrestlers & promoters even stated he is the main person who search for to get opinions on their matches. People used to do the same with Dave Meltzer back in the day but Dave is getting older, his time is spilt with MMA, he's a bit of an auld fella when comes to watching Wrestling (Puro/Indy iPPVs) on a computer instead preferring on still waiting for someone to send him a tape, barely watches indies etc. So if Dave reviews something it could take months if at all. So that function has kind of filtered down to Alan. Some other wrestling fans on other forums resent that hugely but Alan got it by having his finger on the pulse and being nice, representable guy. Before this gets too single white female until late last year I would have said similar things about Rob Naylor who wrote for FSM until he got signed for FCW.

Simply put I dont hate Wrestling after reading FSM or listening to Alan's podcast. I either say cheers to Brian somewhere online or ask Alan does he have a link to that Dragon Gate match he was talking about.

Ever since ROH moved their TV to Sinclair I very genuinely really don't think there has been a more vocal critic online than me. I completely understand the personal criticisms of Jim too but developmental was and is a major topic of conversation recently. Whether it is FCW leaving their TV station, WWE opening up another in Connecticut to this weeks CAC Jim Ross speech: http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/25260-chris-cruise-writes-about-jim-ross-advice-to-wrestlers-whose-goal-is-to-reach-the-wwe

JoeSnow wrote: »

I liked the new layout of FSM magazine.

It really is.

Got a super big kick out of the Talksport/Revival series of articles as that radio show was so influential in my Wrestling fandom and it being an interesting story of a toxic mix radio station and Pro Wrestling politics coming together. Probably cant think of a worse combination actually.

Another article I liked was Lister's Finlay piece. I admit to generalising and possibly giving a bunch of people the short shrift here. But I think Stateside writers understand that Finlay is a big deal in terms of the later 20th/early 21st century fabric of British Wrestling as this type of learnt response but they dont know the who, what, when and why of it all. John Lister has always been able to write credibility about the history British Wrestling despite being only a fairly young man himself. John gets it.

I guess we will be reading this Jim