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Power Slam

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Power Slam
File:Powerslamlogo.png
PublisherFindlay "Fin" Martin
FrequencyMonthly
Country United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Websitewww.psmag.co.uk

Power Slam is an independent monthly non-kayfabe wrestling magazine published in the United Kingdom by SW Publishing, with co-publishers Findlay Martin and former WCW Magazine owner Colin Bowman. It began life as Superstars of Wrestling in 1991 before altering to its current name after 30 issues in July 1994. The publication provides recent results, colour photographs from live events, articles on historical and contemporary matters within the business, and exclusive interviews with prominent industry figures from WWE and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), among other organizations.

The magazine's UK-wide release occurs on a Thursday every five weeks. In February 2011 Power Slam achieved its 200 issue mark.

On 14th July 2014, it was confirmed that the magazine is to close with issue 237.

Columnists

  • Findlay "Fin" Martin, current editor. He has an edition of the wrestling blooper web series, Botchamania, named for him.
  • Mohammed Chatra, also known for presenting Pro Wrestling Noah on the UK's satellite sports channel TWC Fight! (formerly The Wrestling Channel).
  • Greg Lambert, a respected British journalist, wrestling manager and promoter for the XWA.
  • Patty Therre, former editor of WCW Magazine, editor of Wrestling On The Fringe[1] and contributing editor to GardenandHearth.[2]
  • Ernie "Stately Wayne Manor" Santilli,[3] the only featured columnist to - as Stately Wayne Manor - maintain kayfabe, living up to his image as an ultra-conceited heel manager. As Manor, Santilli joined the staff halfway through the "Superstars of Wrestling" period. He recently put his autograph up for sale on Yahoo auctions with a starting price of $9,000,000.[4] It failed to sell.[5]
  • Oliver Hurley, author of Wrestlings 101 Strangest Matches
  • Phil Jones (also a photographer)
  • Ant Evans, formerly editor of boxing news site SecondsOut[6] and writer for Boxing Monthly magazine. Evans now works for the UFC in the UK.
  • Matthew Randazzo V, author of Ring of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit & The Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry
  • Alex Dale
  • Neil Docking, a journalist working in the North West of England

Content

The magazine is geared more to pro-wrestling than sports entertainment, covering promotions from all over the world (particularly Japanese puroresu), and has also on occasion covered MMA events. This has often partly been to do with involvement of professional wrestling personalities, for example Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović has appeared in the pages of Power Slam numerous times due to Japanese promoters (especially K-1) pitting him against wrestlers in legitimate shoot fights.

Power Slam takes an impartial view on the wrestling world being non affiliated with any wrestling promotion or organization, and is not afraid to criticize the promotions it covers. Contributor Greg Lambert has been an on-screen talent and behind-the-scenes promoter/booker for Britain's Frontier Wrestling Alliance but the magazine has never crossed the grounds of journalistic integrity by inviting/allowing him to promote his real-life business.

PS 50

Every year the magazine presents the PS 50 (akin to the PWI 500) listing the 50 wrestlers whom the writers believe to have had the most successful year, in terms of workrate and performance.The 2012 winner Hiroshi Tanahashi is the first wrestler to be ranked number one in two consecutive PS 50s, followed by Austin Aries and C.M. Punk.

There is also an annual reader's poll for various awards ('match of the year', etc.) similar to that carried out by RSPW. Many of their polls listed, for their time, surprising and unsurprising results (at least two polls once labeled popular wrestling stars like The Undertaker and John Cena as the "Most Abysmal Wrestlers" of their respective years, Undertaker in 2001, John Cena in 2005. Cena was again voted most abysmal wrestler in 2010 and 2011.

Despite their criticisms, their readers polls always crown WWE as the top promotion of the year until 2005, where TNA overtook the company for the first time. TNA would follow up that victory with another in the 2006 reader awards, although in 2007 the percentage of votes for TNA dropped considerably.

PS 50 podium

# Name Country 1 2 3 Other placings Total First appearance Last appearance Federation
1 Shawn Michaels  USA 3 1 2 4 10 1994 2008 WWE
2 Kurt Angle  USA 3 3 0 5 10 1994 2012 WWE, TNA
3 Chris Benoit  Canada 2 1 1 5 9 1999 2008 WWE, WCW, NJPW
4 Stone Cold Steve Austin  USA 2 0 0 1 3 1998 2001 WWE, WCW
5 Kenta Kobashi  Japan 1 2 1 6 10 1994 2005 AJPW, NOAH
6 A.J. Styles  USA 1 0 1 4 6 2003 2012 TNA
7 Mitsuharu Misawa  Japan 1 0 0 9 10 1994 2005 AJPW, NOAH
8 Triple H  USA 1 0 0 9 10 1995 2008 WWE, WCW
9 Edge  Canada 1 0 0 8 9 1999 2007 WWE
10 Bret Hart  Canada 1 0 0 5 6 1994 1999 WWE, WCW
11 Keiji Mutoh  Japan 0 2 0 6 8 1994 2008 NJPW, AJPW, WCW
12 Kenta  Japan 0 1 2 3 6 2003 2012 NOAH
13 Nigel McGuinness  England 0 1 1 1 3 2006 2008 ROH
14 Jushin Liger  Japan 0 1 0 10 11 1994 2005 NJPW
15 Koji Kanemoto  Japan 0 1 0 9 10 1995 2005 NJPW
16 Yuji Nagata  Japan 0 1 0 10 11 1994 2005 NJPW, WCW
17 Bryan Danielson  USA 0 1 0 5 6 2003 2012 ROH, WWE
18 Toshiaki Kawada  Japan 0 0 1 9 10 1994 2005 AJPW
19 Eddie Guerrero  USA 0 0 1 8 9 1994 2005 WWE, WCW, NJPW
20 Dean Malenko  USA 0 0 1 5 6 1995 2000 WWE, WCW
21 Mick Foley  USA 0 0 1 5 6 1994 2004 WWE, WCW, TNA
22 Samoa Joe  USA 0 0 1 5 6 2003 2012 TNA, ROH
23 The Rock  USA 0 0 1 4 5 1999 2002 WWE
24 Low Ki  USA 0 0 1 4 5 2001 2012 TNA, NJPW

Awards

Wrestler of the Year

Babyface of the Year

Heel of the Year

Match of the Year

Card Of The Year

Tag Team

Character of the Year

Most Abysmal Wrestler of the Year

References