We have just received word about the death of Ted “Kingsize” Taylor. A contemporary and rival of the Beatles in their Liverpool days, Taylor and his band played the Cavern Club and found themselves an appreciative audience in Germany, where they also released records. Prior to their Hamburg debut, Cilla Black often guested on vocals with Taylor and his band.
Nicknamed because of his size, the 6.5 ft (2.0 m) Kingsize was born Edward William Taylor, on the 12th of November 1939, in Crosby, Liverpool. The Dominoes were originally formed in North Liverpool, in 1957, from a skiffle group called the Sinners. The original members were Arthur Baker (vocals), George Watson (guitar), Charlie Flynn (guitar), Sam Hardie (piano) and Cliff Roberts (drums). The following year, Ted Taylor joined, as lead vocalist and guitarist. Over the next few years Baker, Watson and Flynn all left the group, to be replaced by Bobby Thompson (bass and vocals) – with whom Taylor had played in another skiffle group, the James Boys – and John Kennedy (rhythm guitar), with Geoff Bethell standing in for Hardie on piano.
The band played local clubs and Taylor developed a reputation as one of the best rock and roll singers in the Liverpool area, as well as becoming known for his vivid chequered jackets. By summer 1960, the group were being billed as Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes. They first performed at The Cavern Club in January 1961, when they featured 17-year-old singer Cilla White, who was mistakenly renamed Cilla Black later that year by Bill Harry in an article in his magazine Mersey Beat.
Soon after that appearance, Kennedy and Roberts left the band to join another group, Ian and the Zodiacs, and were replaced by John Frankland (rhythm guitar) and Dave Lovelady (drums). At the beginning of 1962, the band were placed sixth in a Mersey Beat readers’ poll, topped by The Beatles. Cilla Black sang regularly with the group until 1962.
In early 1962, Ken Shalliker replaced Thompson on bass for several months when Thompson temporarily joined Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. That summer, the band (without Cilla Black) went to Hamburg, where they began making regular appearances at the Star-Club. Lovelady left later in the year, and was replaced briefly by Brian Redman and then by Gibson Kemp, after Ringo Starr turned down the opportunity to join having been offered more money to join The Beatles.
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NXT Fake Rankings, 12/23/2022
Men's singles division - babyfaces
Bron Breakker (NXT men's champion)
Wes Lee (NXT North American champion)
Apollo Crews
Axiom
Odyssey Jones
Xyonn Quinn
Ikemen Jiro
Damon Kemp
Men's singles division - heels
Grayson Waller
Carmelo Hayes
Dijak
Joe Gacy
Von Wagner
JD McDonagh
Scrypts
Charlie Dempsey
Unranked: Dante Chen, Guru Raaj, Hank Walker, Javier Bernal
It's been sixteen months since WWE started dismantling Triple H's vision of NXT, and about five months since Vince McMahon retired and left Triple H in charge of creative. It's telling that almost no one on the roster during the Wednesday Night Wars is still here. I suspect Vince's "up or out" mentality is still in effect, and NXT won't see another long-term mainstay like Johnny Gargano or the Undisputed Era.
On the other hand, I think Solo Sikoa is the only NXT 2.0 performer who has been called up to the main roster. At that rate, it might take a few years to completely turn over the roster again. When Vince was in charge I would have expected Breakker, Jones, and Wagner to get called up by April 2023 whether they were ready or not. As it is, we'll have to wait and see how long Triple H wants everybody to spend in developmental.
Men's tag team division - babyfaces
Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods (NXT men's tag team champions)
Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen
Edris Enofe & Malik Blade
Brutus Creed & Julius Creed
Andre Chase & Duke Hudson
Men's tag team division - heels
Pretty Deadly - Elton Prince & Kit Wilson
Tony D'Angelo & Channing Lorenzo
The Dyad (Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler, formerly James Drake and Zack Gibson) and Indus Sher (Veer Mahan and Sanga, formerly Rinku and Saurav) are featured on TV but haven't wrestled in the past month. I'm surprised they haven't done anything with Gallus (Mark Coffey, Joe Coffey, and Wolfgang), who are apparently still employed but you'd never know it from watching the product.
Women's singles division - babyfaces
Roxanne Perez (NXT women's champion)
Alba Fyre
Wendy Choo
Indi Hartwell
Nikkita Lyons
Fallon Henley
Thea Hail
Women's singles division - heels
Cora Jade
Isla Dawn
Zoey Stark
Elektra Lopez
Kiana James
Unranked: Amari Miller, Lyra Valkyria, Sol Ruca
NXT shot itself in the foot by building the entire women's division around "Mandy Rose is super hot" for 400+ days, and then abruptly releasing her for being too super hot. Having her put over Perez is all well and good, but she could have spent the next year or so giving the rub to several other women.
If you don't want your talent posting nude photos on the internet, you need to pay them enough to make it worth their while. And if you don't want to pay them enough, it makes no sense to push them so strongly. So now Mandy's making a shitload of money and living her best life, and all I can say about NXT's women's roster is "Roxanne and a bunch of nobodies who couldn't beat Mandy."
Women's tag team division - babyfaces
Kayden Carter & Katana Chance (NXT women's tag team champions)
Ivy Nile & Tatum Paxley
Women's tag team division - heels
Toxic Attraction - Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne
NXT can still only scrape together three women's tag teams, which is still better than Raw and Smackdown put together, which is kind of sad.
No TV or PPV matches in over 30 days: Jagger Reid, Lash Legend, Oro Mensah, Rip Fowler, Trick Williams, Valentina Feroz
No TV, PPV, or streaming matches in over 30 days: Ava Raine, Boa, Cameron Grimes, Ilja Dragunov, Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey, Meiko Satomura, Nathan Frazer, Quincy Elliott, Roderick Strong, Sanga, Sarray, Tyler Bate, Veer Mahan, Wolfgang
Boa has been on the NXT roster since like 2017, and the only reason I know that is because I keep track of things like that for stuff like this. I don't want anybody to lose their job but I am genuinely perplexed how he survived all the releases over the past three years.
Not listed on NXT roster: Aleah James, Blair Davenport, Noam Dar, Stevie Turner
In August, WWE shut down NXT UK and released much of the roster. Everyone else got reassigned to Original Flavor NXT...except these four, for some reason. WWE.com still lists them as "current superstars" but not for any particular show. I can only guess that several of them are awaiting a rebranding like Aoife Valkyrie/Lyra Valkyria and Oliver Carter/Oro Mensah. But Davenport already has a WWE-owned name, and I haven't heard of her being injured, so I don't know what's up with her.
Inactive
Tiffany Stratton (head - unspecified injury)
Yulisa Leon (right knee - unspecified ligament tear)
I wouldn't be surprised if there are more people sidelined on the NXT roster, but reliable information has gotten harder to find as the brand has become less relevant.
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Winged Wheel Franchise Roster
Winged Wheel- John
G
Augustine Trey
Copley Pheonix
Cossa Sebastian
Forsberg Anton
Gibson John
Halak Jaroslav
Hellberg Magnus
Hill Adin
Husso Ville
Knight Spencer
Korpisalo Joonas
Larsson Filip
Lennox Tristan
Lyon Alex
Malek Jakub
Merilainen Levi
Nedeljkovic Alex
Skinner Stuart
Svedeback Philip
Tendeck David
Tolopilo Nikita
F
Anderson- Dolan Jared
Atkinson Cam
Barzal Mathew
Bennett Sam
Berggren Jonatan
Barre-Boulet Alex
Beck Owen
Bourque Mavrik
Buchnevich Pavel
Buyalsky Andrei
Chmelar Jaroslav
Couturier Sean
Dach Colton
Danielson Nate
DeBrincat Alex
Dellandrea Ty
Dolzhenkov Kirill
Dorofoyev Pavel
Duclair Anthony
Ehlers Nikolaj
Eriksson Ek Joel
Fedotov Ilya
Frost Morgan
Glass Cody
Greig Ridly
Groulx Benoit-Olivier
Hall Taylor
Halttunen Kasper
Hayton Barrett
Hoglander Nils
Honzek Samuel
Huberdeau Jonathan
Iaffalo Alex
James Dylan
Jarventie Roby
Johansen Ryan
Kane Patrick
Kasper Marco
Kempe Adrian
Koivula Otto
Kotkaniemi Jesperi
Kubalik Dominik
Kunin Luke
Kuzmenko Andrei
L’Heureux Zachary
Larkin Dylan
Leschyshyn Jake
Lindholm Elias
Lombardi Amadeus
Maccelli Matias
Mantha Anthony
McGroarty Rutger
Mesar Filip
Nazar Frank
O’Connor Drew
Pekarcik Juraj
Petrovsky Servac
Rasmussen Michael
Raymond Lucas
Reinhart Sam
Rust Bryan
Saad Brandon
Samoskevich Mackie
Sapovaliv Matyas
Savage Redmond
Schaefer Reid
Sidorov Yegor
Soderblom Elmer
Sprong Daniel
Steel Sam
Terry Troy
Toffoli Tyler
Torgersson Daniel
Tuch Alex
Tuch Luke
Veleno Joe
Vilardi Gabriel
Wennberg Alexander
Zadina Filip
D
Barron Justin
Bean Jake
Edvinsson Simon
Ekman- Larsson Oliver
Grans Helge
Graves Ryan
Guenette Maxence
Hanifin Noah
Hirose Akito
Hronek Filip
Joseph Pierre-Olivier
Karki Arttu
Klingberg John
Krug Torey
Lindholm Hampus
Livingstone Jake
Marino John
McIsac Jared
O'Rourke Ryan
Pulock Ryan
Samuelsson Mattias
Sandin Pellikka Axel
Schultz Justin
Seider Moritz
Spacek David
Svozil Stanislav
Wallinder William
Walman Jake
Weegar Mackenzie
Werenski Zach
2023-24 waivers: 8
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