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Thank you for your support and we can’t wait to see you filling out a Calling Spots t-shirt nicely you sexy bunch!

In sports entertainment, RIVALRY takes on innumerable forms, but only 25 can be considered the greatest in history. For the first time ever, WWE PRESENTS: THE TOP 25 RIVALRIES IN WRESTLING HISTORY. From grudges spawned out of championship pursuits to personal vendettas that transcended the boundaries of the ring, all the timeless conflicts are presented here. Each RIVALRY is narrated by a different sports-entertainment personality with show downs from WWE, NWA, WCW, ECW, AWA and WCCW!

Featuring Cena vs. Edge, Stone Cold vs. Mr McMahon, Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat and many more, this controversial countdown is sure to be dissected and debated by fans of all eras.

With over 7 hours of action on 3 Disc DVD and an additional 90 minutes of extras exclusive to the 2 Disc Blu-ray, no WWE fan should miss this release!

Don’t forget to visit www.wwedvd.co.uk for all your latest DVD, Blu-ray & Download releases.

Fun story; after issue 1 was released last year we got an email from a guy who had read the ‘zine that said “I loved the first issue. I don’t suppose your fanzine has any call for a comic involving zombies wrestling?” – YES OF COURSE IT DOES. Now, we were not LOOKING for zombies wrestling but, sure enough it made it into issue 2 of the magazine.

So, here’s the craic – whether you’re a writer, artist, marketing guru or just a wrestling fan that can do something better than anyone else, we may not be “looking” but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to hear from you. Because we get a high volume of people interested in joining our team, however, it’s essential we get people who fit in with the ethos of the ‘zine. For this reason, I cannot stress enough how vital it is that all candidates have read a copy of the fanzine.

Here are some of the things we look for. This is not an exhaustive list but the more things you tick off, the more attractive you will be to our project:

• A skill that you are better than most people at – Writing, drawing, graphic design, etc.
• A positive outlook on pro wrestling and life in general.
• A strong knowledge, ability and desire to promote our project via social networking mediums.
• Creativity and the ability to think of ideas that other people would not think of.

This is not a job vacancy post. We are not currently looking to expand our team…to be honest, our team is absolutely brilliant from top to bottom. This is simply a guide that will be added to and referred to moving forward. However if you do have a fantastic idea, email us at CallingSpots@gmail.com telling us your great idea, how you fit in with all of the above, which issue of our ‘zine you most enjoyed and please send over any example work you like.

The fanzine is non-profit, in that all money made is used for overheads and reinvested into growing this project. For that reason, we are a very tight-knit team who all do this for the love of our respective art, and for the love of pro wrestling, not for financial gain. This is a project that artists of all shapes and sizes, with a passion for wrestling, can come and help develop themselves.

Affiliate Promotions

One thing that we are currently looking for are affiliate companies with which we can cross-promote. We are keen to help promote other cool wrestling projects that we believe in, in return for you promoting us. We cut deals on an individual basis so please email CallingSpots@gmail.com for further details. If you have a wrestling related small business or independent project, please get in touch and we can look into a cross promotion.

Thanks – Rich, Editor.

World Heavyweight Championship Match

Alberto Del Rio (c) vs Big Show in a Last Man Standing match

The show opens backstage with Bret Hart chatting to Del Rio. It all turns a bit weird when Bret calls Alberto a “Mexican Bret Hart”…I’m not sure what this means but he then gives his shades to Del Rio’s personal ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez which was a nice little throw back. With Del Rio having won the title from Big Show just several weeks earlier on free TV during an episode of Smackdown, it was difficult to get into the match the first time around but both men put on a solid little match. The finish is a little too close to that of Cena and Batista’s last man standing match from Extreme Rules 2010 for me. It is not uncommon for history to repeat itself in pro wrestling and even big spot finishes have been rehashed, such as Big Show and Brock Lesnar’s breaking ring finish back in 2003 only for Show to do the same with Mark Henry in 2011. With less than 3 years between them, this felt too recent for me but overall this is the only sour point on an otherwise decent opening bout.

WWE Tag Team Championship Match – Team Hell No (c) vs Team Rhodes Scholars

Kane and Daniel Bryan’s run as a tag team has been an undoubted highlight of WWE programming in 2012, with their anger management segments being entertaining and they have had a great run with the tag team titles. Aside from their random 5-minute-split, Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes have added a lot of value to WWE’s tag division over the least year also, providing some quality in-ring-action coupled with their own style of wit, making this a mouth-watering prospect for fans of tag wrestling.

The 30 Man Royal Rumble Match

Having won a “beat the clock challenge” on Raw, ‘The Showoff’ Dolph Ziggler chose the number 1 entry spot in the rumble in a bid to outlast 29 other superstars and headline WrestleMania 29. The Rumble match is always one of the most exciting of the year and has become renowned for its surprise entrants. The Godfather returning was good, Goldust’s appearance and tussle with his brother Cody Rhodes was great, but the most shocking of the night had to be the return of Chris Jericho. The crowd went nuts in what was a legitimate surprise return. He does love “working the internet” that Jericho lad! With all of WWE’s big players in the Rumble match it was always going to be fun to watch.

WWE Championship Match – CM Punk (c) vs The Rock

In a match that was teased for over 6 months, after CM Punk attached The Rock at the end of the 1000^th episode of Raw, The Rock was a very serious challenger to Punk’s historic 434 day run as WWE Champion. The Shield were banned from the match, meaning that Punk would need to overcome The Rock on his own. The outing was a very good effort with some fantastic storytelling. The main story that this match told was that the Spanish announce table HATES The Rock and finally got it’s revenge. Rocky pulled the top bit off the table early…I guess either a little too early as Punk put it back and did a little bow thing to the announcers. Either that or he just didn’t fancy going through it and was displaying tactical genius.  Either way it proved futile, as later in the match Rocky pulled the top bit off again and went for a Rock Bottom through the table. However much to The Rock’s chagrin the table had him sussed and broke on both men before the move could be executed. It would be the great one who had the last laugh however, nailing the move on Punk outside the ring anyway. Ouch. Punk had a fair amount of offense in the match and there were some spots that demonstrated the psychology of the men involved, such as Punk working the mid section in a nod to the previous Raw when The Shield has caused internal bleeding to The Rock after a beat-down. We got one of Rock’s SICK sharpshooters but that was quickly forgotten when Punk hit one of his amazing roundhouse flash kicks to the noggin of The People’s Champ. A good little match and one that fans have been wanting to see for years.

Overall the rumble was a very solid show that seemed to benefit from only having 4 matches which were presented as being important. The Rumble match especially was very good. You can pick up your copy on DVD and Bluray from Monday 15^th April HERE:

Bluray: http://amzn.to/YPOFDb

DVD: http://amzn.to/ZOK1Iw

Win a FREE Copy via WWEDVD.co.uk

WWE kicks off The Road to WrestleMania and in 2013…Finally!…The Rock has come back to the Royal Rumble! Will the People’s Champ finally bring the WWE Championship home to Team Bring It for the first time in over ten years? Plus, 30 or more Superstars compete in WWE’s historic over-the-top rope main event where one resilient Superstar earns a chance to main event WrestleMania! Sheamus emerged from the pack in 2012 and went on to claim the World Heavyweight Championship on the grandest stage. Who will add their name to the illustrious list of Royal Rumble winners this year, and will they have a date to go one-on-one with the great one, The Rock, at WrestleMania 29? This is truly a monumental edition of one of the WWE’s most long-standing events, and a must-have for all WWE fans.

To celebrate the release of Royal Rumble 2013 on DVD and Blu-ray as of the 15th April (FremantleMedia), we have a DVD copy to give away to one lucky winner!

The competition is open to UK residents only and will be sent to your from FremantleMedia directly, not Calling Spots. The prize is exclusive to Calling Spots fans only so enter today. To enter the competition for a chance to win the Royal Rumble 2013 on DVD you simply have to do BOTH of these two things:

1) – Copy and paste the following into Twitter and Tweet to your followers:

Follow @CallingSpots for an alternative view on pro wrestling & check CallingSpots.com for a chance to win Royal Rumble 2013 on DVD!

2) – Follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/callingspots

And that’s it. We will be drawing a winner on Sunday April 28^th so make sure that you are in it to win it.

Remeber to visit our BUY IT NOW page to get your copy of the Calling Spots Pro Wrestling Fanzine to find out what all the fuss is about. In the next issue you can read our Christopher Daniels and Kevin Steen interviews.

Thanks guys

The Prizes….

 Star Prize – The Calling Spots bundle features:

• A PREMIUM HAND-PICKED selection of Artwork (including the original MH Sweating Scenarios comic strips, the ‘Best in the World’ comic and the new British wrestling comic strip, plus much more)
• A limited edition steel tin WWE DVD set
• A Calling Spots badge
• Whatever else we fancy throwing into the package

Runners up – We have the following to give away to runners up:

• More original Calling Spots artwork
• More wrestling DVDs, from both WWE and Indys
• We can’t announce the names of the DVDs…That would be advertising, but trust us…you will want these.

How can you win these brilliant prizes?

As mentioned we want to make sure that both our loyal supporters and new readers have opportunities to enter, so this is how it will work; for each of the below list that you complete, your name till go into the hat. There is no limit on how many times you enter, so if you complete 3 things from the list then you have 3 chances of winning!! Here is the list:

• Pre-order your copy of Calling Spots issue 5 (the 1^st 50 pre-orders get DOUBLE entries)
• Purchase you copy of Calling Spots issue 4
• Purchase issues 1-3 of Calling Spots via our ‘3 for 2’ offer
• Tweet 5 of your mates individually and tell them WHY they should buy a copy of Calling Spots and where from (copy us into the Tweet please)
• Recommend a friend – tell people you know in real life to buy a copy and, once they order, to quote YOUR Twitter handle or email address in the PayPal comments box

The draw will take place after Issue 5 is released, so plenty of time to get involved and win some prizes! Speaking of Issue 5, you can pre order your copy today at from our BUY IT NOW PAGE for just £2. It features:

• Our exclusive interview with TNA star Christopher Daniels
• More Mark Henry Sweating Scenarios
• A look at the extreme lengths wrestlers have gone to protect the business
• Our round-table discussion about the DragonGate UK tour
• We have a chat with ROH World Champion Kevin Steen before he visits the UK
• 14 signs that you are obsessed with wrestling
• A fantastic quiz on Ric Flair in memory of his son Reid
• Loads more articles
• Loads more art
• Loads more banter

So pick up your copy TODAY here.

In the mid 90′s, no other pay-per-view series produced more epic matches, historic moments or championship showdowns than WWE In Your House. Debuting in 1995, In Your House PPV’s were the place where the top WWE Superstars settles their scores in the months between the “Big 4” events. In 28 events over 5 years, In Your House earned a permanent place in WWE history through the iconic Superstars it hosted and the litany of innovations that stemmed from it.

True WWE fans will reminisce about the first ever Hell in a Cell, Inferno and Buried Alive matches, the debuts of Kane and Big Show and the genesis of several yearly staples such as Backlash, Judgement Day, Unforgiven and No Way Out – all organising at In Your House. So get ready to rewind time and fill your boots with 8 hours of WWE In Your House!

Even better news is that WWEDVD have 20 DVD O rings and 20 Blu-Ray sleeves of the upcoming Best of In Your House collection, signed by Best of In Your House graduate Kane!

Entry couldn’t be simpler just pre-order the title on www.wwedvd.co.uk and you will automatically entered in the draw to win one of these exclusive signed sleeves.

Digital Downloads:

WWE Home Video UK titles available to download for the first time from Monday 25th March

FremantleMedia are delighted to announce that WWE Home Video UK titles will be available to download digitally for the very first time from Monday 25th March.

The first wave of WWE releases will be available in Standard Definition (SD) and 1080p High Definition (HD) formats and conveniently, fans will be able to purchase individual matches or the complete show on most WWE pay-per-view releases.

We are pleased to reveal that as of the 25th March, the following 12 titles will be available to download:

3 WWE New Release titles from 2013:

• WWE – NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS 2012, Featuring CM Punk vs. John Cena

• WWE – HELL IN A CELL 2012, Featuring Ryback vs. CM Punk in a Hell In A Cell match

• WWE – SURVIVOR SERIES 2012, Featuring Ryback vs. John Cena vs. CM Punk and Team Foley vs. Team Ziggler in a Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Match

Plus the following 9 WWE Catalogue titles:

• WWE – EXTREME RULES 2012, Featuring Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena and CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho.

• WWE – MONEY IN THE BANK 2012, Featuring Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk for the WWE Championship and two Money In The Bank Ladder Matches.

• WWE – NO WAY OUT 2012, Featuring Big Show vs. John Cena in a ‘Steel Cage Match’ and Daniel Bryan vs. Kane vs. CM Punk in a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship.

• WWE – OVER THE LIMIT 2012, Featuring CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship and John Cena vs. John Laurinaitis

• WWE – SUMMERSLAM 2012, Featuring Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar, John Cena vs. Big Show vs. CM Punk and Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio

• WWE – VENGEANCE 2011, Featuring Alberto Del Rio vs. John Cena in a Last Man Standing Match, Mark Henry vs. Big Show and Triple H & CM Punk vs. Miz & R-Truth

• WWE – BEST OF RAW & SMACKDOWN 2011*, Collection of highlights from the weekly WWE programmes ‘Raw’ and ‘Smackdown’. Among 2011′s stand out moments on the programmes were: The Rock’s return to WWE, the ongoing rivalry between CM Punk and John Cena and the removal of Vince McMahon from power.

• WWE – WRESTLEMANIA 27, Featuring John Cena vs. The Miz and Triple H vs. Undertaker in a No Holds Barred Match.

• WWE – WRESTLEMANIA 28, Featuring John Cena vs. The Rock, Triple H vs. Undertaker in a Hell In A Cell Match and CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho.

*Individual match purchases will not be available for this title.

More fantastic WWE titles will be available to purchase on 8th April.

Please visit http://www.apple.com/itunes/ for all titles mentioned.

Bret “Hit Man” Hart: The Dungeon Collection

WWEDVD are delighted to announce that you can now pre-order BRET “HIT MAN” HART: THE DUNGEON COLLECTION on DVD and Blu-ray (Release Date: 13th May 2013)

For nearly 30 years, Bret “Hit Man” Hart travelled the glode proving he was “The Best There Is, The Best There Was, and the Best There Ever Will Be”. In The Dungeon Collection, the Hit Man himself compiles his best never-before-released on DVD matches and takes you behind the scenes in a brand new, revealing interview detailing the inside stories surrounding these rare matches.

With over 8 hours of in-ring action, including classics from the Stampede Wrestling Vault as well as vintage WWE bouts against the top stars of the 80′s and 90′s, this is a must for all Bret Hart fans.

Don’t forget to visit www.wwedvd.co.uk for all your latest DVD and Blu-ray releases.

Here is that cool poster we mentioned

Here are some of the key deets you need to know about:

When – Sunday April 7^th. Please arrive at your reserved table before 9pm. Finishes….late.

Where – Shark Club Newcastle. A funky venue right in the city centre, opposite St James Park.    Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4BT.

Price – Entry is absolutely FREE, however if booking a table then Shark have asked of a £100 spend per table of 5 people. So basically just £20 each worth of beers, cocktails and 25p chicken wings instead of paying £17.99 to watch the PPV at home. On top of that, Shark Club is famous for its £5.50 steins (2 pints) of Coors, plus table service all night by their world famous gorgeous Shark girls so no need to even get up out of your seat! Do not worry if you do not want a table however, you can also reserve individual seats at the bar with no minimum spend or you can join a mixed table of fellow Calling Spots party-goers!!

How to reserve a place at this epic event – To reserve your place, please send one email to CallingSpots@gmail.com and mcsharp@hotmail.com (both in the same email). In the email please state the full name of everyone in your party and quote “Calling Spots sent us”. Spaces are strictly first come first serve and we will sell out so do not delay.

We can’t wait to see you all there. We will be shamelessly wearing our own merch at the show so make sure you pop over to have a chat about wrestling and that.

Spread the word and let’s get everyone involved.

Until then….pick up the latest copy of the Calling Spots Fanzine HERE for just two british pounds

Cheers.

We tweeted about this concept, after 15 minutes of our phone vibrating non-stop we realised people were up for it. The next day we released the above poster and we have had an unreal amount of tweets, retweets, likes, shares and all the other social network jargon you can think of. So, this is your OFFICIAL invite to the coolest WrestleMania warm up party that is happening right in your own home with all your coolest mate. Here are some of the key details:

Where? Twitter (and kind of Facebook….but let’s just say Twitter and keep it simple)

When? Sunday March 3st at 7pm (UK Time…3pm EST for our US fans)

How? Ok this is the good bit. Between now and March 31^st you need to source a copy of WrestleMania 17 on DVD, VHS, your hard drive, etc. You might want to round up some mates, get some nice snacks and chill some Steveweisers. From now until the event we will be chatting on Twitter via the hashtag #CallingSpotsX7 – This bit is important is this is how you will link in with everyone else at the party by following that hashtag. Please plug this to your wrestling buddies on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Copy the poster above, link us in tweets @CallingSpots or link this very page. YOU are crucial to this party. We are super happy that you want to join us so please spread the word. If this event turns out to be as popular as it seems it is going to be then our plan is to do this more often, voting on which shows you want to watch. Imagine how quality it will be getting wrestling fans from around the world watching and discussing the greatest wrestling shows of all time! On Sunday 31^st we will ramp up the conversation to get the last few people involved.

At 18:45 on Sunday 31^st you need to start your DVD/VHS/(legal) Download and skip the “don’t try this at home” stuff. Once you get to the START of the WWF intro you hit PAUSE. Then you tweet #CallingSpotsX7 to say you are ready. At exactly 18:59 we will do a countdown and BOOM, as the clock hits 19:00 you hit play. We should all be in sync (ish) and ready to chat. Then from there you basically go crackers and have the time of your life Tweeting your best banter and observations about the epic WrestleMania X-Seven event!!

We really hope you can join us – we have a really great feeling about this! Even if you cannot get a hold of the show or will be out and about, feel free to join in the banter on #CallingSpotsX7.

Until then, feel free to pick up your copy of Calling Spots: A Pro Wrestling Fanzine issues 1-4 HERE for just £2 each. These will get you nicely warmed up.

Thanks guys – we cannot wait to see you all there!!

Rich (Editor)

The Streak is OVER
As we all know, it’s around this time of year that we are reminded that the “greatest streak in history” is still intact as The Undertaker gets ready to make somebody famous at WrestleMania. You will probably remember some bloke called Goldberg who had a pretty decent streak a while ago as well. Something that perhaps you didn’t know however, was that John Cena was secretly building his own streak at Survivor Series and was actually 7-0 going into this event. He and The Rock had defeated Awesome Truth the year prior, in 2009 Cena defeated Triple H and Shawn Michaels to retain his WWE title, in 2008 he defeated Chris Jericho to capture the World Heavyweight Championship, in 2006 Cena had his own Survivor Series team who defeated Team Big Show, in 2005 Cena defeated Kurt Angle and in 2004 Cena was on Team Guerrero who defeated Team Angle even though the year before he had been on Team Angle who defeated Team Lesnar. A pretty impressive winning streak. Not any more however as, thanks to interference from 3 individuals making their debut – The Shield – John Cena was pinned by CM Punk ending the streak.

The Shield of Justice
You may know Tyler Black and Dean Moxley for their work on the independent circuit. Many have been waiting for both to debut on the main WWE roster for a long time now and they would not have been disappointed. Now known as Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, the duo have joined forces with NXT’s Roman Reigns to create ‘The Shield’. The trio made a massive impact on their debut here at the Survivor Series PPV, interfering in the main event and putting Ryback through a table to ensure there was no ‘injustice’ in the WWE Championship match.

A lot can change in a year….or nothing at all
At this very Pay-Per-View in 2011, CM Punk regained his WWE Championship against Alberto Del Rio. Now, just under a year later, he enters the main event as the 8th longest reigning WWE champion of all time; a run that will go down in the history books as one of the greatest ever, especially when you consider the frequency of title changes in today’s age. Whether you like how he retained the title her or not, the fact remains that this was the historic victory that ensured Punk surpassed the year mark as WWE champion.

The namesake
The show is called Survivor Series so, as you would expect, there are a couple of traditional Survivor Series matches on offer here. The first is an unannounced match that sees Brodus Clay, Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd, Sin Cara and Rey Mysterio taking on Tensai, Primo, Epico and The Prime Time Players. Brodus aside, the fan favourites have a lot of high octane, high risk and high excitement offence with the larger Tensai and Prime Time Players playing a great foil for them in this fantastic opening match.
The second traditional match we see features ‘Team Ziggler’ (Dolph Ziggler, Damien Sandow, David Otunga, Wade Barrett and Alberto Del Rio) taking on ‘Team Foley’ (The Miz, Kofi Kingston, Team Hell No and Randy Orton with Mick Foley as manager). Watching this show live, this match had not had the best build due to the Survivor Series card being re-jigged at the last minute, and this took away from the spectacle of the match. Watching it back however, to use a couple of clichés, it is very much a ‘textbook’ or ‘vintage’ Survivor Series match and very enjoyable.

The Extras…at least the Blu-ray ones anyway
As is starting to become the norm with WWE Blu-ray releases, the extras on this set include all of the fallout from the PPV from both Raw and Smackdown the following week. This adds to the longevity of the DVD/Blu-ray as you can still understand the context of the storylines which started, continued and ended during the show by watching the extras. We are also treated to 4 full extra matches:

Ryback vs. Brad Maddox
Kane & The Miz vs. Team Rhodes Scholars
CM Punk vs. John Cena (Non-Title Match)
Randy Orton & The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler & Alberto Del Rio

So there you have it….5 FANTASTIC reasons to pick up your copy of WWE Survivor Series 2012 on DVD and Blu-ray from Monday. You can pre-order your copy at this link.

Thank you to our mates at WWEDVD.co.uk. They are the new licensee for WWE in the UK and Europe and are doing a fantastic job. Check out their website for all the latest news on relases.