The View From Down Here –Youtubing It! [aka The Half-Arsed Column]

Columns, Features, Reviews, Top Story

I struggled with a column idea for this week. After Riot City Wrestling on Saturday night, it was something of a chore to get this out. I had an idea for another interactive column, designed to stimulate discussion… but after last week’s column garnered virtually nothing, I decided not to waste my time (or, apparently, yours).

 

I had an idea for a fantasy booking column TNA vs WWE, but the way I planned it out just didn’t feel right. And every man and his dog have written ad nauseam about Curtis Axel and Daniel Bryan.

 

So what I’ve decided to do is share some YouTube clips with everyone.

 

First up is the match that hooked me on wrestling. Sure, like many Australian kids I had grown up with the old World Champion Wrestling repeats on TV through the 70s and 80s. Black and white goodness. But the first match I saw that had me hooked on this thing we all do was shown on Channel 9’s Wide World of Sports. They showed a lot of wrestling and eventually we even saw the first Wrestlemania on the channel. But this was before then. I believe the match took place in 1983, but probably didn’t reach us until 1984. So I was 12 or 13 years old.

 

It is not a work rate match, and I’m not even sure why it hooked me, but I think it was the look of the guys and the screwy finish and everything else. This match had me.

 

Part 1

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAIOq-B5npE]

 

Part 2

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_lvM499il8]

 

 

Now I’m going to have a look at one of the most underrated wrestlers in Australia. Elliott Sexton is someone I’ve had the privilege of watching since he virtually started in the game. Not only are his skills clean and his moves fluid, but his look is awesome. He can also talk with the best of them. At the moment he is in the United States training with Booker T and I hope that he goes that next step.

 

Here is a match between him and Fuzion (when Fuzion was a babyface – he is a much better angry heel, and when a heel he is also an incredibly underrated wrestler) from a few years ago. It’s not the greatest match (but not bad, not at all), but Australian wrestling is renowned for not putting their wrestling online because they think it will kill DVD sales, so his really good matches just aren’t out there:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTWRHzmYr24]

 

And here is Sexton reflecting on a tumultuous 2012:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y1lZh_prKI]

 

(Of course, I could well be biased as Sexton was one of the very few to give me encouragement and good feedback during my ill-advised comeback to the sport. Not the only, but one of the few. One of the good guys.)

 

 

While we’re on Australians, quite a few Australian women have made it in America. Shine and Shimmer both have many Australians, and they keep appearing in other promotions. However, the 3 best Australian females are not over there, and they should be.

 

Savannah Summers is the best female wrestler in the country. I’ve watched a lot of DVDs and private clips, and my opinion has not changed. Again, not enough exists on YouTube but here is a great one (despite the fan-cam) between Savannah and Jessie McKay (who has wrestled in Shine, I believe).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN3TD5iNt0k]

 

And another fine one with KC Cassidy back when Summers was a heel:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7_1GqiHwwE]

 

The other two women in that triumvirate – Eliza Sway and Miami – are about on a par with one another. However, nothing really great exists of their in-ring work for you online. Still, all three should go to the States and I am sure they would slide right into TNA and make a strengthening division even stronger. (Seriously – and TNA people out there, I mean it.) Still, sorry about the lack of footage, but Australian wrestling’s like that.

 

 

Now, I said above that everyone’s been talking Curtis Axel. But back when we had our big fantasy booking tournament here at InsidePulse, I put Joe Hennig into my promotion. I have been a fan since I first saw him on YouTube. So let’s look at a young Joe, before he was a McGillicutty or an Axel.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o41A1sSDXRE]

 

 

So there you have it – some YouTube clips to keep you entertained for a little while.

 

And that’s the view.

 

 

Australian. Father. Perpetual student. Started watching wrestling before Wrestlemania 1. Has delusions of grandeur and was known to regularly get the snot beaten out of him in a wrestling ring. Also writes occasionally in other Pulse sections.Thinks Iron Mike Sharpe is underrated. http://stevengepp.wordpress.com