Power Slam

Power Slam

Publisher	Findlay "Fin" Martin
Frequency	Monthly
Year founded	1991
Final issue	14 July 2014
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Power Slam was an independent non-kayfabe magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1991–2014 by SW Publishing, with co-founders Findlay Martin and former WCW Magazine owner Colin Bowman.^[1] Power Slam was Europe's best-selling pro wrestling publication.^[2]

The magazine began life as Superstars of Wrestling in 1991 before altering its name after 30 issues in July 1994. It was released on a Thursday every five weeks, and provided recent results, colour photographs from live events, articles on historical and contemporary matters within the business, and exclusive interviews with prominent industry figures. Power Slam stopped offering subscriptions on 4 February 2014, in anticipation of the closure of the magazine, which occurred on 14 July with the release of issue 237.^[3]

Columnists

• Findlay "Fin" Martin, editor. He has an edition of the wrestling blooper web series, Botchamania, named for him. In 2014, Martin joined the Wrestle Talk TV podcast, WrestlePod.^[4] As of 2017, he co-hosts the Power Slam Podcast with Inside the Ropes.
• Mohammed Chatra, also known for presenting Pro Wrestling Noah on the UK's satellite sports channel TWC Fight! (formerly The Wrestling Channel).
• Greg Lambert,^[5] a British journalist, wrestling manager and promoter for the XWA.
• Patty Therre,^[1] former executive editor of WCW Magazine.
• Ernie "Stately Wayne Manor" Santilli, 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.
• Oliver Hurley, author of Wrestlings 101 Strangest Matches
• Phil Jones (also a photographer)
• Ant Evans, formerly editor of boxing news site SecondsOut 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 was 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 was often partly to do with involvement of professional wrestling personalities, for example Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović 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 took an impartial view on the wrestling world being non affiliated with any wrestling promotion or organization. Contributor Greg Lambert has been an on-screen talent and behind-the-scenes promoter/booker for Britain's Frontier Wrestling Alliance but the magazine never crossed the grounds of journalistic integrity by inviting/allowing him to promote his real-life business.

A 2009 Power Slam interview with Triple H was subject to scrutiny from the Pro Wrestling Torch, who criticized Triple H's comments within it.^[6]

In 2012, Fin Martin defended CM Punk against ongoing rumours that Punk's "straight edge" lifestyle was a ruse. Martin wrote: "We have spoken to many people over the last eight years who have been to bars and nightclubs with Punk and/or traveled with him in Europe and the U.S. and Canada, and all report that Punk has invariably abstained from alcohol, illegal drugs and tobacco."^[7]

Power Slam was used as a reference in the Jim Cornette, James Dixon and Benjamin Richardson book, Titan Sinking: The decline of the WWF in 1995.^[8]

PS 50

Every year the magazine presented the PS 50 (akin to the PWI 500) listing the 50 wrestlers whom the writers believed to have had the most successful year, in terms of workrate and performance. 2012 winner Hiroshi Tanahashi was the first wrestler to be ranked number one in two consecutive PS 50s, followed by Austin Aries and CM Punk. There was also an annual reader's poll for various awards ('match of the year', etc.) similar to that carried out by RSPW.

Despite their criticisms, their readers polls always crowned 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	4-50	Total	First appearance	Last appearance	Federation
1	Kurt Angle	USA	3	3	0	5	10	1994	2012	WWE, TNA
2	Shawn Michaels	USA	3	1	2	4	10	1994	2008	WWE
3	Chris Benoit	Canada	2	1	1	5	9	1995	2006	WWE, WCW, NJPW
4	Stone Cold Steve Austin	USA	2	0	0	3	5	1996	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 Thunder 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

References