The LilsBoys
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| The LilsBoys | |
 Simon and Richard at WrestleMania 22 |
|
| Tag Team | |
|---|---|
| Members | Simon LilsBoy Richard LilsBoy |
| Hometown | London, England |
| Debut | 2001 |
| Promotions | WWE, TNA, ROH, RQW, 1PW, IPW:UK |
The LilsBoys, Simon and Richard, are online wrestling columnists for The Sun Newspaper in the UK since June 2001.[1]
It is not known where their ring name comes from, but the close friends used it in E-Feds in the late 1990s and decided to take it with them to The Sun as their real names made them sound “more like a pair of middle-aged accountants than hot young wrestling writers”.
In real life Simon is a showbiz journalist, while Richard is in banking. Unsurprisingly given this Simon does the writing, interviews and live reviews for The LilsBoys column, while Richard provides guidance and support.
The two most common questions they are asked by wrestling fans are “when are they going to put your column in the paper” and “are Kane and Undertaker really brothers”.
Contents |
[edit] 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].
[edit] 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 the WWE developmental territories wrestling as Katie Lea.
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].
Simon is still good pals with all the team, including contributors like Greg Lambert and Mo Chatra, and dreams of bringing it back one day.
[edit] 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 murdered his family and committed suicide 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]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Sibley, A (August 18, 2003). Celebrating a year of those LilsBoys. Wrestling101. Retrieved on August 18, 2003.
- ^ LilsBoy, S and LilsBoy, R (April 17, 2004). Ric is naughty by Nature. The Sun. Retrieved on April 17, 2004.
- ^ LilsBoy, S and LilsBoy, R (January 10, 2006). Batista’s Bombshells. The Sun. Retrieved on January 10, 2006.
- ^ PWTorch.com (June 10, 2006). What Started The Booker T-Batista Fight. Headline Planet. Retrieved on 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 on April 12, 2007.
