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Powerslam.
Does the name ring a bell? I doubt it. Although it’s a mainstream magazine sold at WH Smiths and most newsagents I doubt, unless you’re a wrestling fan, you’d of even heard of this magazine let alone read any issue. Well let me tell you your missing out, although I might be a bit biased since I am one of the biggest wrestling fans on ciao.
Powerslam is a monthly magazine sold in the UK. It covers all aspects of wrestling, and isn’t a WWE magazines, its independent. That means it’s not full of the propaganda the WWE magazines have (e.g. in one WWE magazine they tried convincing the reader that Brock Lesnar vs. Bob Holly was the greatest Royal Rumble main event of all time!). Instead it covers all the major and minor American, Japanese and British wrestling feds, including WWE (obviously), ROH, NWA:TNA, NJPW, NOAH, FWA, NWA: UK Hammerlock, and several years ago it covered WCW, ECW, XPW, SMVW, and others. Pretty much if you got all the issues of Powerslam (there’s about 120 of them at the moment) you would have an extensive history of pro wrestling in the last ten years. Powerslam is owned, edited and written mainly by the wrestling literature legend, Fin Martin. Fin not only runs Powerslam but also runs the Powerslam hot line, which is 09065-667600, it’s charged at 50p a minute but it’s worth every second as you hear Fin’s funny northern voice give the low down on the latest episode of Raw or PPV.
Powerslam is made up of 2 main parts: The regular columns, and the articles. The regular columns tend to be much shorter than the articles, due to their not needing to be as much written. They change quite a lot and recently they have got rid of some classic regulars, which I’ll review anyway.
This and That: This is a column that has recently been gotten rid of, probably for liability reason. It was a small column at the back of the mag where readers advertised wrestling stuff
they were selling or wanted to get their hands on. In fact I was once in this column advertising some issues of WWF magazine I was after, I was bombarded with replies I can tell you! However this little column which has been running since Issue 1 in 1994 was recently got rid of, featuring it’s last performance in issue 117 or 116.
Baloney.com: This is another column I was very sad to see go. It was a short insert at the front of the mag which featured funny comments on the wrestling world from the RSPW news board and the UKFF gang, both which are wrestling forums. These were very funny, and well worth a read. Please bring them back!
What’s going down: This is the first thing you see when you open up the magazine. Basically it is reports and reviews of all the episodes of Raw and Smackdown in the last month, it also covers things such as PPV results, WWE news, general wrestling news and Japanese wrestling news and results. This is a essential part of Powerslam, and is particularly fun to look through old issues at to see how much the industry has changed.
On the road: This is results of WWE house shows, various Indy events and some Japanese main events. Although it doesn’t review them it’s a great in-depth guide to what has happened recently.
Colour Commentary: This is Fin Martin’s little opinion column (I say little, but it is actually quite large). It usually airs his opinions on the recent happening in the wrestling world, always a good read and brutally honest.
DVD/ Video Review: This crops up every couple of month and has in-depth reviews of the latest WWE Silvervision releases. It is quite a good guide to which DVDs are worth getting, and it is pretty honest, so if a DVDs naff it won’t say its good.
Stately Wayne Manors column: This is hit and miss. It’s meant to be a comedy column and sometimes it’s a hilarious read, other times its just plain awful. It makes fun of a-lot of the wrestling world, and wrestling fans, and sometimes it can get a bit offensive. However I must say recently (in the last 5 issues) it has been getting better. It is one of the longest running columns in the magazine.
Signs of The Times: Various signs that fans have held at WWE shows that have caught the editors eye. Usually there’s one or two that will make me laugh out loud, and although its only a very small touch its little things like this that make Powerslam such a good read. Examples “JR is my Dad!”, “Boo this man”.
Wrestling on the Fringe: This column has been running for sometime now, and although it only takes up half a page it’s always got something interesting to say. It is written by female wrestling fan (yes they do exist!) Patty Therre.
Upcoming Events: Calendar for all the biggest events on the wrestling calendar, useful if planning to visit a show.
Q & A: One of my favourite sections of the mag. Basically readers sent in random question to the editor who answer them. It’s always a great read, and you end up knowing something you didn’t before!
“If I can be Serious for a minute…”: This is various quotes from wrestling TV, normally WWE although sometimes NWA:TNA makes it onto this page. It can range from really funny, to pointless.
We Are The Champions: This is a guide to all the present champions in WWE, IWGP, AJPW, and GHS. This is great to look back on in future years to come, it’s a shame they don’t make it bigger though and cover more American and British promotions such as ROH, NWA:TNA, FWA and CZW.
Feedback: These are letter sent in by Powerslam readers positioned at the back of the magazine. There are a few regular contributors such as The TWO and Oliver Hurley. These viewpoints, although sometimes ridiculous, are interesting. Its great to see what the rest of the world thinks on certain subjects.
Posters: Your always guaranteed 3 posters, one big one in the middle and 2 inside the front and back covers. They don’t just cover main stream faces either they have posters of lots of wrestlers from all kinds of promotions.
There are two main types of articles that appear in Powerslam. They type that analyse a wrestler and his/ her career. These articles are generally good, but when you get the same wrestler every couple of months it does grow a bit repetitive. The other type is an analyse of a show, these range from WWE to Japan to British Indies and are usually jam packed full of photos, results and reviews and make for very good reads. The only downside to the articles that appear in Powerslam is that sometime they can be a bit negative and that is a real shame when the wrestling world has so much to offer.
At the end of each year they have two annual features. The PS 50 which is a list of the top 50 wrestlers from the last year in their opinion. This is a very enjoyable read as it documents what each of the 50 wrestlers have got up to in the last year, it also documents which wrestlers didn’t make it in but were in last year. This is a highlight of the publishing year for me, and in many ways is better than the PWI 500, a similar list.
Occasionally Powerslam will include some free gift. These are always bonus magazines such as reviews of every WWF PPV from a certain period in time, or a poster book of Women in wrestling. I wish Powerslam would do more of these are they are very good, and are very few and far apart.
The Powerslam Reader Awards occurs every January and is results of polls readers have voted in. The categories include wrestler of the year, match of the year, promotion of the year, commentator of the year, character of the year, tag team of the year, heel/ face of the year, worst wrestler of the year, and worst match of the year. This is a great feature as not only does it show the winners but it shows the runners up (with percentages!), and previous winners. This is the best feature of the whole magazine for me, and I’m sure others will agree with me when I say its an awesome read.
You can subscribe to Powerslam for £12.50 every six months. I have been a subscriber for almost 2 years now and I must say the issues are delivered promptly and well packaged. BUT last time I tried to renew my subscription I ran into problems. I sent them a cheque which was cashed, and failed to receive any issues. After many phone calls I eventually got it sorted out and received my issues I had missed and the subscription continued onwards. However the problems was not solved as quickly as one would hope, and they weren’t as helpful as I would of liked. I’m afraid to say it is this encounter that has almost lost them the star from full mark down to four stars.
A copy of Powerslam will cost you £2.60 every month, which I think is pretty cheap, compared to other magazines on the market. However the magazine isn’t the biggest thing out so you aren’t getting superb value for money. You can pick up a copy of Powerslam at most WH Smiths and some newsagents, although I have found now that fewer shops are stocking the publication as the interest in wrestling has declined in the mainstream.
If you’re a wrestling fan you can’t go far wrong with Powerslam. In Britain it is without a shadow of the doubt the best wrestling magazine available, infact I would go as far to say as it’s the best wrestling magazine in the world, I have come across. Although it’s not the best value for money, being so small, and sometimes it’s a bit negative Powerslam is nearly always on form. If you a wrestling fan try it out, I’d be surprised if you’re disappointed.
Other Information:
Subscription enquires: 01622 688945 Editor: Fin Martin Back Issues are available at £3 each, phone 01622 688945 for more info Publisher: SW Publishing LTD
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Jun 18th, 2004
exceptional by (4%):
very helpful by (96%):
