The LilsBoys
The LilsBoys, Simon and Richard, are online wrestling columnists for The Sun newspaper in the UK since June 2001.[1]
The Sun Online: June 2001 - Present
With the popularity of wrestling growing all the time in the UK, The Sun spotted the need for a column about the grap game. The LilsBoys were hired and wrote their first piece on King Of The Ring 2001.
They have been penning a weekly column ever since, which appears on the sports pages of The Sun's website each Thursday.
They have interviewed almost lots of big names in the wrestling business including Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Dynamite Kid, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Booker T, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Edge, Batista and John Cena.
The two biggest controversies were Flair calling Foley a “stunt man”[2] and then-Raw star Batista saying Smackdown “makes me sick” [3] - which led to real-life and WWE storyline bust-ups between Foley and Flair and Batista and Booker T.[4]
TalkSPORT: Nov 2001 - Nov 2002
Shortly after starting their Sun Online column the boys were invited to be regular guest experts on Tommy Boyd's talkSPORT wrestling radio show, co-hosted by Alex Shane.
After Boyd was fired by the station, Simon took over hosting duties with Alex, Dean Ayass and female grappler Nikita, who is now in TNA Wrestling wrestling as Winter.
After TalkSPORT bosses decided they wanted to bring an older demographic to the station, the wrestling show was dropped for an easy listening programme fronted by 73-year-old actor Gerald Harper.[5]
WrestleCast: June 2006 - Present
Simon returned to the airwaves in June 2006 with a grappling podcast.
He and Radio 1's Joel Ross record a show roughly once a month when a big star is in town to join them. Previous guests include Randy Orton, Mick Foley and Chris Benoit, in one of his last interviews before he died in June 2007. Simon and Joel also conducted a controversial interview with Mr. Kennedy about the WWE's Wellness Policy, released shortly before Kennedy was suspended by WWE for obtaining steroids over the Internet.
Simon and Joel also attended WrestleMania 23 together, along with Joel's Radio 1 partner JK, Dean Ayass and others.[6]
References
- ↑ Sibley, A (August 18, 2003). "Celebrating a year of those LilsBoys". Wrestling101. Retrieved August 18, 2003.
- ↑ LilsBoy, S and LilsBoy, R (April 17, 2004). "Ric is naughty by Nature". The Sun. Retrieved April 17, 2004.
- ↑ LilsBoy, S and LilsBoy, R (January 10, 2006). "Batista’s Bombshells". The Sun. Retrieved January 10, 2006.
- ↑ PWTorch.com (June 10, 2006). "What Started The Booker T-Batista Fight". Headline Planet. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved June 10, 2006.
- ↑ Anon. "A-Z Of Hawksbee & Jacobs". talksport1089.com.
- ↑ LilsBoy, S and Ayass, D (April 12, 2007). "On the road to WrestleMania 23". The Sun. Retrieved April 12, 2007.