GRADOMANIA!

You’ve probably read a dozen articles on the powers of social media, so I’m not going to bother writing much about it. However, social media – Twitter and YouTube in particular – is rather important in explaining the success of a certain Scottish wrestler…

The wrestler in question is GRADO, a recent addition to the ICW (Insane Championship Wrestling) roster. Beneath is the video that first alerted the world to this peculiar lad from the “tap end of Stevenston.”

Even when recognised – at least in part – as a parody of a scene featuring Dennis Stamp from ‘Beyond The Ropes’ (a terrific wrestling documentary from 1999), it’s a brilliant introduction to Grado.

Fortunately, for Grado, there would be a reprieve. He made a surprise appearance at ICW: Insane In The Membrane, careening his way through the crowd to join in a brawl before taking part in a six-man tag-team  match on that same evening. Not long after this, ICW owner Mark Dallas granted Grado a shot at the ICW Heavyweight Title at Super Smokin’ Thunder Bowl. Amazingly, Grado won the title, only to lose it on the same night.

A couple of months on, Grado can probably be acknowledged as the most popular wrestler in Scotland right now. And it gets better. Today has seen a number of internationally-renowned wrestlers hold a sheet of paper with “GRADO #1”  written on it. It doesn’t sound like much, but any sort of notice from wrestlers (such as Alex Shelley) is bound to do wonders for interest in both the wrestler and the company.

As such, it was amusing to see Grado’s correspondence with Colt Cabana on Twitter. For those who don’t know, Colt Cabana is a wrestler who has previously worked for Ring of Honour and WWE, and is also known as a good friend of CM Punk. Cabana spoke of Grado as his “hero.” No matter which way you look at it, that’s pretty fucking cool.

The day is still young. If you want to get in on this, follow Grado and ICW on Twitter. Much of today’s Grado lovin’ can be found with the hastag #GRADOMANIASUNDAY

If you’re in need of further proof of Grado’s brilliance, YouTube hosts several of his promos for ICW, including fan footage of the recent ICW visit to London.

It will be interesting to see how far Grado ends up going. If the promos and subsequent adoration are anything to go by – and they are – then I’d guess that he’ll go far. Bring on Gradomania!

You Watch Wrestling?!

Yes, I’m addressing that accusation.

While the WWE are currently giving anti-wrestling peoples plenty of reasons to mock wrestling, I am of the belief that only an idiot should apologise for being a fan. These same naysayers, after all, are the very ones who will submit to X-Factor on a Saturday night, often at the behest of a dominant partner. Now tell me: which is worse? Yes, I thought so.

To state the blindingly obvious, the “Attitude” era was fucking great. No matter what age you were at the time, it was entertaining. Everything seemed to run so smoothly, you could be forgiven for marking out during pretty much any episode. The Pay-Per-Views were legendary. Not all of them, but the vast majority were unmissable. Had the internet been readily available in those days, who knows just how popular the Attitude era could have been?

So, by contrast, the PG-13 nature of modern-day WWE is not nearly as appealing in terms of ring action. This is to be expected. WWE are not likely to budge on this, given Linda’s political ventures and the general profitability of child-friendly WWE. This is fair enough. After all, it is markedly different to the product we were offered fifteen years ago, although the expectations of the audience remain largely the same. If anything, the increasing reliance on social media (Twitter, Tout) is giving the audience a greater feeling of importance.

The change over the past fifteen years deserves a dissertation of its own, so that’ll come later.

From its modest beginnings, wrestling has grown into a sport that thrives on storylines and hype. Some will voice dismay at this, and this is understandable. However, should be recognised that the sport would  not have become internationally successful without extensive sensationalism and shock value. It is these “qualities” that will make us proud, embarrassed, pleased and distressed to be wrestling fans. Part of being a fan is taking the bad with the good and the brilliant with the abysmal. Ultimately, it gets a reaction. The argument can be made that X-Factor offers a similar appeal, but then, WWE doesn’t tend to upset our ears by purchasing a Christmas #1 for some fat girl from Essex.

This is The Swollen Heel

If you have made it this far, congratulate yourself. Open a beer.

This is The Swollen Heel, a blog maintained by a few renegade jerks who are passionate about wrestling. Recently, we realised that late night pub arguments about politics or football or religion were pointless. If we are to defend anything with near-criminal intensity, it should be wrestling! Within minutes, we were debating the merits of Daniel Bryan, the appeal of Brodus Clay and whether or not anybody actually missed Batista. In fact, the only point we agreed on was that Ryback is fucking terrible.

I have been a wrestling fan for around 15 years, having been converted by a primary school friend who later became a wrestler and is now an LA-based MMA prospect. A dodgy cable box allowed me to watch RAW, Smackdown and the occasional ECW or WCW show. It was good, but it also seemed difficult to be a pre-teen wrestling fan when so few others would talk about it. This, of course, was before I knew about the internet.

Between 2002 and 2005, I paid no attention whatsoever to wrestling, instead turning my attention to other interests, such as music, drinking, self-harming, internet porn and sundry other wholesome activities. However, seeing Mick Foley at a BCW show in Kilmarnock in late 2005 changed all this. A friend (who will contribute to this blog at a later stage) and I took the train through, got horribly drunk and had a great time. Meeting Mick Foley wasn’t actually that great, but the experience was excellent. From there, I have tried to watch as much televised wrestling as I can without paying for Sky Sports. In addition, I have been impressed by local shows presented by Insane Championship Wrestling. A series of unfortunate events have kept me from all but one of their shows this year, but the popularity of their monthly shows suggest that it’s a good time to be a wrestling fan in Glasgow.

This blog will mainly consider issues pertaining to WWE and TNA, although I hope to be able to cover local promotions in Scotland (such as PBW and ICW) as well. On lonely, sober Friday nights, we may also write sobbing laments for departed or jobless wrestlers. Ultimately, this will depend on how lonely we are (very) and how often we are sober (rarely).

So, if you’re interested, please do bookmark us and get in touch. I’m not getting paid to do this…but I’d like to be someday. This isn’t all about the wrestlers, you know.

Yours,

Pedro Alphonzo