Phil Aston: Hello and welcome to the Now Spinning Magazine podcast with me, Phil Aston. And in this episode, I’m absolutely delighted to have with me Tony Martin, one of the UK’s most underrated rock vocalists. You’ve had a really varied career, but what we’re going to talk about today specifically is Black Sabbath and the new “Anno Domini” box set. So, welcome, Tony. Thank you so much for joining me.
Tony Martin: Thank you. And thank you for having me on the show. Very cool.
Phil Aston: A bit of context, because I think this is kind of helpful for you. My son is 30 now, but when he was 15, he set up a Facebook group, kind of saying, “One day, please can we have the Tony Martin Black Sabbath albums released?” That was 15 years ago. He was still at school, half his lifetime ago. And I think in the early time when he set this up, he may have reached out to you and you might have said something like, “I don’t think it’s gonna happen, Dan.” And here we are, all these years later, and it’s not only happened, but it comes out this Friday. How does that feel to know that these albums are now going to be available again?
Tony Martin: Well, first of all, well done to your son. It took 15 years, but he got it done. To be honest, there’s been a few periods when I didn’t think it was happening. In fact, about a year ago, Tony Iommi’s manager called me and said, “You know what, this is just so complicated. I don’t think we can do this.” So I was resigned to it not happening myself. It’s all to do with band politics, really. There are so many people involved or have their fingers in the pie that they all have to be on board. And there were allegiances changing all over the place, left, right, and center. So in the end, it was getting a bit tiring, but well done to Tony Iommi and BMG. My God, the patience they showed to get this thing together and actually get it out there. Wow. But how does it feel? It feels brilliant, to be honest. I’m very excited. I haven’t actually had these albums in my own hands physically for the past 25 years. I gave all mine away thinking I’d be able to get some more, and I didn’t. They just stopped making them. So to actually physically hold them again is really cool. What a great job they’ve done of it. So I’m thrilled and excited. And I’m helping out now because I’m not in the band, obviously, anymore. So I just offered my help to promote it and they said, “Great, let’s do it.”
Phil Aston: Isn’t it amazing? Because I’ve done quite a few reviews about Black Sabbath box sets and stuff, but this one, within about 12 hours, there’s literally 12,000 views of the review. The love for this period of Black Sabbath is actually huge. It’s grown. It almost feels as if the profile is higher now than it was at the time.
Tony Martin: Yeah, there is a kind of reason for that. Partly people have got over the “it’s the new guy” thing, and also it’s been 25 years since. So now we’re reaching out to a whole other group of people, in addition to those that were already there. But to the outside world, it looks like there was a huge gap, and to me it felt like a huge gap. But actually, the fans were always there. I’ve been waiting myself as well to get this back out there. And it’s just band politics, really. That’s all it is.
Phil Aston: Because you had that period when it was almost as if this part of Sabbath’s history was hidden because of band politics. None of this really happened, which I think probably stirred up more interest and kind of people wanting to find out more.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it could be. It’s an old famous thing, you know, if something ain’t around for a while, people start talking about it. But yeah, it’s a strange thing, the music business. You’re either in fashion or you’re not. But I am just thrilled that they’ve got around it. Just the patience they’ve shown to actually put this together. At one point they were just saying, “We can’t do it.” But I’m really chuffed anyway.
Phil Aston: I imagine there’s been compromises along the way. Lots of fans probably don’t understand how complicated the politics and all the different licenses and everything that goes on over the years, they become more and more entangled. People say, “Where’s Eternal Idol?” But of course, that was a different record label. Different people own it.
Tony Martin: Yeah, absolutely. It’s owned by somebody else. And also Eternal Idol, or “Eternal Idiot,” as we call it, was kind of reissued not that long ago. Really.
Phil Aston: That’s right. With the two CD version, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. So they were kind of thinking, “Well, there’s no real panic because that’s already been done and let’s just move on.” Because that would have wrapped them up in contracts for centuries, I think. I can’t even think that they’ll ever get them to let that go. But they were struggling to get the people involved with these four albums to make up their minds and do stuff. I’ve been all for it all the way along, I have to say. Obviously, because it’s my career, my history. It’s not just the band’s history. It’s ten years of my life that went AWOL. So, yeah, I’ve been up for it all the way along, but some people don’t and it’s taken them a while to get on board.
Phil Aston: I think it’s fantastic. The first one was Headless Cross. You joined one of the biggest rock bands with all that history behind it. You were an established singer with the Alliance. But this was a chance, as you say, with Eternal Idol, you went in and it was already prepared. You sang it, but this one was where you could really put your mark on it, your personality lyrically as well as musically. Can you remember what it was like actually being at the beginning of that? Did you feel comfortable around Iommi and Powell and thinking, “Right, what kind of lyrics am I going to do by Headless Cross?”
Tony Martin: Yeah, I was comfortable by then. Well, kind of. The thing is, with Eternal Idol, if I can just backstep a little bit. The Eternal Idol wasn’t the first call up. The first call up was in 1986 when they were doing the Seventh Star with Glenn Hughes. And that scared me to death because I can’t sing like Glenn Hughes. Nobody can sing like Glenn Hughes. They put me on standby back then, so I’d sort of tentatively had an introduction to Tony Iommi. Then in ’87, they got me in for the audition, and that was the next introduction to Tony Iommi. But because Eternal Idol was already written, that gave me a whole year plus a bit more to find out what this thing was. What the hell was I supposed to do? So just doing Eternal Idol like that was fine by me because I didn’t have to discover anything myself back then. It gave me a chance to get my feet in. So by the time it got to Headless Cross, now I know all the guys, and I kind of know what’s expected of me. I still had to find the “me” that I needed to find. I went around it the only way I could, by focusing on things I was interested in. I couldn’t do the lyrics and melodies that Geezer was writing for Ozzy because that was a generation before me. The stuff that Ronnie was doing was fantastic, but I couldn’t get inside his head. So I had to think about what I was going to do. I had an interest in the old gothic death stuff, like Dracula and Frankenstein, Mary Shelley type writing, and of course, in England, we have Shakespeare. Nobody speaks English like that anymore, that old English text. I thought, “Old English text, gothic death, and Black Sabbath. That might work.” So I put them all together and came up with Headless Cross, which is where I lived. I lived in a village called Headless Cross.
Phil Aston: Yeah, you put that on the map. They weren’t pleased about it. The most recognition I’ve got is my name on a bus stop. And Cozy Powell thought the album needed more death, didn’t he?
Tony Martin: Oh, that’s true. That’s actually true. We were recording “When Death Calls,” and he was in the studio playing, and he suddenly stopped. We went, “You alright?” He went, “Yeah, just remind me, what’s this song called again?” I said, “It’s called When Death Calls.” He said, “I don’t think there’s enough death in it.” And he carried on playing. So, okay, maybe he’s taking the piss, but isn’t it such a great sounding album? As Tony Iommi says, he never left Black Sabbath. So when people criticize him, saying, “You should change the name or whatever,” he never left. So it was still Black Sabbath. The riffs, the guitar sound was reaching new peaks of excellence around this time.
Because when it was just him and Ozzy, for example, it was guitar, that was it. When Geoff Nichols joined during the Dio period, it introduced a few more keyboard things. That allowed Iommi to play solos against those keyboard pads and chords. And then you come along and start sticking 50 tracks of vocal harmonies on it, like in Anno Mundi and stuff like that. It just kept developing. Sabbath isn’t really known for vocal harmonies and keyboards, but underneath that was still Tony Iommi. And it still sounded like Sabbath. We were happy to do that. We just wanted to make Tony happy and do the best for him. It was his band. So we were happy to seek out that Sabbath sound and make sure it did what it said on the tin. A couple of times, like with the Seventh Star thing, he ventured a little bit away from it. Songs like Heart Like a Wheel don’t really make the Black Sabbath sound, but it’s still good stuff. I have great respect for all of the eras that went before. I had to sing all of the songs. So I do have great respect for it. And it’s been an honor, you know, like being part of the whole story. But he was the only one that stuck it out. And we respected him for that. You’re right, they did ask him to change a couple of times. He said, “No, I can’t change now.”
Phil Aston: The next one, if I pronounce this right, it’s Tyr.
Tony Martin: Yeah.
Phil Aston: Because when it came out, me and my friends, actually, because there was no Internet back then and nowhere to go and check it, we did call it Tyr. To be.
Tony Martin: Yeah, Tyr.
Phil Aston: Watch you find in Birmingham. You know what I mean? So it actually rhymes with beer, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It is, yeah. Actually, it’s Tiw, which is Scandinavian for the son of Odin or something.
Phil Aston: Well, this is almost as close, probably, to Sabbath getting into almost a concept album. Isn’t it? This is a collection of songs that in another time and space you probably as a band would have gone out and performed the whole thing.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it wasn’t meant that way, but they were struggling to find a name for the album. We were recording and getting towards the end and the management called us up and said, “We really need a name for this album.” And Cozy said, “I’ve got one. Let’s call it Satanic Verses.” We went, “What, like Salman Rushdie thing?” He said, “Yeah, it would be great publicity.” We said, “Yeah, but we’ll all be dead.” So we did struggle, but they happened across the artwork. We’d done Anno Mundi, we’d done Gates of Valhalla and all that sort of stuff. They went, “What if… Tyr?” It was fine by me. So it took on the Viking sort of theme. By that time, I was thinking, once I’d done Headless Cross and started to have an interest in the Vikings and stuff. As you know, the Vikings haven’t been particularly good for us. They came over and stole all our women and sheep and whatever. But I had an interest in them as well. So I was thinking, every culture, every religion has its dark side. There’s always a devil type in a god type. I thought we could go around the world and I could do this. You could pick up on all sorts of cultures and pick out the dark side of various things. But it was the last kind of… I still did that with various other songs and various other artists. But Tyr was leaning towards that theme.
Phil Aston: It’s an excellent album. Then of course, the strangeness of the politics in Sabbath. Dehumanizer comes along and Dio re-enters the scene. You obviously had an opportunity because every cloud has a silver lining. You can go off and do your solo album at this time. But you did kind of like… It sounds like it was almost a forced relationship, the way that he was and he wasn’t. I mean, how was that period for you? Because you did demo some of the tracks, didn’t you?
Tony Martin: Firstly, it was a shock. I didn’t see that coming at all. Literally just walking out the door to the next writing rehearsals. My managers called up and said, “They don’t want you to go.” From what I recently found out, although I had my suspicions, Tony Iommi said the record label just wasn’t supporting it. They weren’t getting behind us at all. Then they started banding about all different names and stuff, and Ronnie’s name came up. They thought they’d give it a go. He said it was all on and off all the time. After they let me go, it wasn’t too long before Tony called me back and said, “Can you come back?” I said, “No, I can’t. I’m doing my solo album.” More time went by, and he called me back again and said, “Are you sure you can’t come back?” I said, “I’m doing my solo album. I really can’t.” He said, “Do you want to come down and try?” So I did. I went down and tried putting my voice on some of the songs, but it would have meant rewriting everything, and they weren’t going to do that. So I said, “The best thing is if you finish this with Ronnie, get this done and out of the way, then maybe we can talk again later.” So that’s kind of what happened. By that time, I’d done my solo album, which I wanted to get as far away from the Sabbath thing as I could at the time. I went back to doing what the Alliance and some of the bands I’d been with, that middle-of-the-road AOR type stuff. But when they called me back to Sabbath, Polydor dropped my solo album like a brick. They said, “We can’t do this if you’re going to go back with them.” So that got stopped. It’s so confusing. By the time I got back with the guys to Cross Purposes, it didn’t feel that much of a gap for me, because I’ve been talking to them and working with them through the Dehumanizer thing.
Phil Aston: Stylistically, that album, because it was on the IRS label, I know some people have said, “Well, it should be in there.” Stylistically, musically, it’s very different. I mean, you take it out. These four albums in this set, excluding Eternal Idol, they sound like a progression. Dehumanizer sounds like a kind of sidestep. Even the way the riffs are done in the songs, it’s changed. You take the vocalist out, but the music continued. You took you out and it was very different.
Tony Martin: I suppose it does a bit. If I go back and think over it, I guess that’s what it was. It was kind of an interruption into the flow of things. When we were doing Tyr, I thought we were doing really well. I thought we were onto something. Dehumanizer, in that sort of respect, does feel a little bit like an interruption. But there was some good stuff on there. Ronnie’s always been a good singer. I don’t quite know how they feel about it, but it was kind of nothing to do with me. I just let them get on with it.
Phil Aston: After that, Cross Purposes is probably, out of the four albums in this set, my personal favorite. Geezer’s back in the band now, so you’ve got his bubbling bass in there. And again, lyrically, it’s all you. Did you feel any kind of, “Oh, Geezer’s back. Will he want to help out?”
Tony Martin: I did ask. He just said, “No, you can do it.” So I just carried on.
Phil Aston
The reason why I love this album is that it’s varied. A lot of people think of Black Sabbath as the Godfathers of heavy metal, and heavy metal is always heavy metal. But if you think back to albums like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in the seventies, they weren’t all heavy metal. There were all sorts of things on there. There were keyboards and light and shade. This, I felt, connected to that album, because you had light and shade on it. So there were more dynamics in the lyrical delivery and the song delivery, in the way that Iommi is weaving his riffs around the melodies. What are your thoughts looking back on this album now?
Tony Martin: I think you’ve just summed it up. It did sort of shift up a notch. Not only that, but the sound they were getting with Leif Mases producing it, it sort of grew up. It lifted somehow out of what they’d done before. It felt like, “Oh, this sounds good.” The songwriting and the exploring we were doing with the songs and stuff. At the time, Geezer Butler said that’s the best album he’s ever been on. He never said that again, but he said it at the time.
Phil Aston: I can imagine him saying just that.
Tony Martin: But it was good. Having Bobby Rondinelli in the band as well. Technically amazing. Brilliant player. His drums close in, and he plays with his wrists. Very technical. Whereas Cozy’s drums are stretched out far and wide. He’d lean over and hit them. But great to have them both in. What an honor. I mean, it’s Geezer Butler as well.
Phil Aston: When you got to South America, Bill Ward was in for a few gigs, wasn’t he? That must have been quite surreal. Bill Ward and Geezer playing songs like Headless Cross, which they had nothing to do with.
Tony Martin: They had nothing to do with. We were kind of weird because once we’d started to get Geezer and Bill back in, they wanted to start doing more of the older songs. That just makes you look, read between the lines going, “What’s going on? Where’s this going?” Once it’s happened to you, you know it. Then you’re reading between the lines. You start to feel it. Then you go, “Ah, right.” You can feel it. They’re clearing up. I did ask if they were going to do a reunion with Ozzy. Iommi was always denying it. Said, “No, no, we’re not doing that.” But I didn’t mind. The reason for that is because I knew what I could do in the future then. I thought, “Well, if they just tell me, that’s fine. Cause then I can plan.” The first time it was a shock and I didn’t know what to do. But I was kind of keyed up for it the next time. But he kept going. They got Bill in. I love Bill. I think he’s brilliant. We did some shows with him. But for some reason, and I don’t know what it is, I mean, I can tell you Iommi loves Bill. He regaled so many stories about when they were out there and how funny it was. I never understood why they never gave him time to get back in it. When you think of Def Leppard, they made a drum kit for a one-armed drummer.
Phil Aston: Yes, very true.
Tony Martin: Surely they can find time to get Bill settled back in. Whatever problems they’ve got. I mean, come on.
Phil Aston: You would think, yeah, very true.
Tony Martin: Get on with it. I thought, “Right, this is going to go south again.” But it didn’t. We carried on with Forbidden, and then Cozy came back after his accident. It was really up and down. Confusing. People in and out. During the time I was in the band, there were eight different lineups.
Phil Aston: It was very much a revolving door, wasn’t it? Before we move on, I just want to ask, because I know a lot of fans ask this. In the booklets in these box sets, there’s an image of Cross Purposes Live. That was a VHS tape and a CD. Is there a reason why that wasn’t included in some way? Is that game politics?
Tony Martin: I did ask about that, and they were just keen to get on with it. They said, “Come on, let’s go, let’s do it.” What they told me was that they’re going to take their time now to see what else they can gather and do an additional thing to this along the way with more of that in it. With the Cross Purposes Live and some other stuff. There’s a track that I recorded with them when Eddie Van Halen came and did Evil Eye.
Phil Aston: Yes, yeah, Evil Eye, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. I used to take the track out. I had it everywhere. Writing sessions, recording sessions, rehearsals. I just happened to be there. I didn’t even know who was coming. Iommi just turned up with Eddie Van Halen. I went, “Holy hell, it’s Eddie Van Halen. What’s he doing here?” He did some rehearsals with us and then disappeared. Never saw him again. But I got the recordings of the rehearsals that we did.
Phil Aston: Oh, wow.
Tony Martin: So I sent them to Tony Iommi. I said, “Use these. Get these on.” He said, “No, no, we can’t.” The reason they said was anything that has the slightest newness about it looks like a new Black Sabbath track or album track. They’re not allowed to release anything new under the Black Sabbath name. So even if it’s historical, they couldn’t allow it. It’s really weird.
Phil Aston: That means there must be lots of live stuff recorded. More bands were recording live stuff from the nineties onwards that you just couldn’t work on because it would go out under the Black Sabbath name.
Tony Martin: Not just live stuff. I’ve got about eight tracks that we never released. Just from the writing sessions and rehearsals and stuff that we used to do. They just can’t get out. They just won’t allow it.
I don’t understand. Well, I kind of understand. When you’re trying to protect your name, your mark, your image, your everything, which is where the band politics comes in, they won’t allow you to do anything that they think. And there’s all kinds of… Everybody from Ozzy to Dio to everybody. They don’t want their thing to be diluted or taken away. I do understand that. There are people involved all along the way that have an objection of some kind or another.
Phil Aston: But I guess, hopefully, this box set’s going to sell out really quickly and will show there’s a demand for this material and for this part of Black Sabbath history. There’s a lot of love for it. A lot of people worked really hard within it, like yourself. They’re great albums, wonderful songs. If there’s other music waiting in the wings, whereas we all get older, thinking through the eyes of the fan, it would go down so well, wouldn’t it? But I am, as you are, very grateful that these four albums have arrived in a box.
Tony Martin: Yes, it’s an important thing for me. It’s an important thing for the band, and it’s a great thing for the fans. I’m thrilled. It’s been an honor to be part of the story. I love the fact that it’s out there now. They did say there is no limit to the box sets. They have sold out on day one.
Phil Aston: I’m not surprised.
Tony Martin: They said the way they do it is they tend to poll the outlets and stuff and say, “How many do you think you can sell?” And they put their numbers in, and they’ve gone way past that. So now they’ve got to go back and produce more. There’s no limit to it. I love what they’ve done. There’s more in the box set than just the albums. Posters, programs, and everything.
Phil Aston: And then Forbidden. I’ll be honest, Tony, when I heard this for the first time back in the day, I didn’t like it. I tried, but I didn’t like it. My son liked it because I think probably because his dad didn’t. But now the remix, it’s as if someone’s released the drums and the guitars. It sounds like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It does. It’s brilliant. I love the fact that they’ve dismantled it and put it back in a way that they couldn’t or didn’t with the other three. Forbidden needed it for all kinds of reasons. It was done under a sort of cloud where a lot of us weren’t really into it very much. But it was also an attempt at trying to give Sabbath a kind of acceptable twist to the youth. It didn’t work.
Phil Aston: The nineties were weird, weren’t they? The nineties were strange for heavy rock.
Tony Martin: The problem was we were fast heading towards great new bands like Nirvana and eventually Green Day and Metallica doing stuff. We were going and they were trying to change the sound to fit in. It didn’t work. We didn’t think it would. But there are people out there that love Forbidden as it is. I said that to Iommi. Last time I saw him, there are people out there that love it. He said, “They’ll probably love this version now.” But shaking the chains, guilty as hell, rusty angels, forbidden. And of course, “Loser Gets It All” is a great track. That wasn’t even on the album originally.
Phil Aston: It’s brilliant.
Tony Martin: Yeah. Strange. I absolutely love it now. It does sound like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds like it should be there in amongst the others. They’ve done a great job. Tony and his engineers have really pulled it together. It’s slightly more guitar and slightly less keyboard. They’ve done Cozy’s drums. Fantastic job on those.
Phil Aston: They’re just unleashed, aren’t they?
Tony Martin: Yes. They haven’t changed anything. They’ve mixed it and given it a new attitude, which is brilliant. They’ve given it more space. It sounds bigger. I just love what they’ve done to it. I’m really proud of it now. I didn’t like it then. There’s still a couple of tracks where I would love to have gone back in and…
Phil Aston: Yeah, you know.
Tony Martin: I thought at the time, because I was that off it at the time, my head just wasn’t quite there. A couple of tracks I thought I could have done better. I did sort of say when they were doing it, “Can I go back in?” They said, “No.”
Phil Aston: I suppose because that might edge towards it being a new recording then.
Tony Martin: Yeah, tricky. I’m not going to tell you which tracks it is, but there were a couple in there that I wasn’t quite happy with. But on the whole, it’s a great job they’ve done.
Phil Aston: Because when you were playing live, there were more songs from your period in Sabbath coming into the set, weren’t there? You were a unique vocalist in many ways for the band. You could cover Ozzy, Dio. You probably could have done Ian Gillan. Anything. You could have the ultimate set list, really, going through every era.
Tony Martin: That was a bit of a mistake. I told them I could sing anything, really. They thought, “What can we give him to sing?” They threw all sorts of stuff at me. I had a shot. Fortunately, I’ve got the kind of voice that can get around most things, and that’s a result of being in so many different kinds of music. I’ve been involved in everything from reggae to rock.
Phil Aston: Who were your key vocal influences growing up? As you say, outside of this Black Sabbath badge, your voice can go in any direction. So who were your influences? Was it blues, soul, rock?
Tony Martin: It kept changing. Everything I listened to, I thought, “That’s good. That’s good.” Each couple of years, something else took my attention. I’d really pour my soul into it. When I started off with reggae, believe it or not, I worked with Musical Youth and Dexys Midnight Runners in the studio. I was a guitarist back then. Then I loved blues. I got into prog rock bands like Yes, King Crimson, Jethro Tull. Then it shifted to Emerson, Lake & Palmer. That led to Rush and bands like that. Then I had to come down out of that prog rock technical stuff because Sabbath is much more honest and basic and straightforward. To a point. When you’re in the band and you find out how he does it, it’s stunning. I never even gave it a thought. I thought, “It’s got to be easy.” It wasn’t easy at all. Iommi can put seven, eight different riffs into one song, and each one of the riffs could be a song on their own.
Phil Aston: Very true.
Tony Martin: So, wow. You get your head around it. It’s weird. Plus, the time signatures he was throwing at us. There was a 14/4 and a 15/8 or something he was throwing at us. How he gets his head around it, I just don’t know. When I saw him a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a really good job on this.” I said, “Thanks, man.” He said, “I actually don’t know how you sang over some of this stuff.” I said, “Neither do I.”
Phil Aston: Just mad, isn’t it? You could try anything. I might have thought, “That means you might be able to put some of the songs in that Ozzy couldn’t do into the set. Or I can try something that I’ve never been able to do before because Tony says he can do anything.”
Tony Martin: It’s because I showed willing. I told them I’d have a go. And I did have a go. I did put into it. The songs, the writing, the live shows, whatever. I kind of made a rod for my own back in some ways because it was hard flicking between all of the different vocal techniques. But I did my best. It sort of came across okay. The problem is when you try to do stuff like that, it can sound a bit like a tribute act. But we got it nailed, I think. Especially having people like Cozy Powell, Geezer Butler, and all those guys in the band. We were willing to seek out that Sabbath sound, and we were conscious of it. So we were all aiming for the same thing. From outside, it might have looked like a chaotic mess. But on the inside, it all had a focus. We were all willing to give it a go. That’s what I think they saw in me. I knew they liked my voice, but I think that’s what they saw, a willingness to have a go and see if you can make it work. All those different time signatures and riffs that I had to go, looking back, to me, it’s Black Sabbath. Like,
Phil Aston I’m a Deep Purple fan, and every lineup of Deep Purple is still Deep Purple. I know Black Sabbath, there’s lots of politics in the way some of the fans look at it. But I think, which is why they had Heaven and Hell later on instead of Black Sabbath, because of the politics. But listening to these four albums, one after the other, you brought to life Viking mythology and song. More death. Just your passion and the way you projected the lyrics and your phrasing makes these albums unique. An important part of the Sabbath story. Finally, do you feel like this outpouring of love for this lineup is validating everything? Any doubt that might have been back then?
Tony Martin: Yeah, doesn’t it just? The biggest validation is from Tony Iommi himself. It wasn’t regarded that highly until he sat and listened to it without the bickering going around. When I went down a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a great job on this. There’s fantastic songs on here.” I said, “I know.” It’s just that validation that he gives it. The fact that the fans are returning to it. The fact that we’ve got new fans coming to it. Whole new record labels. I think it’s Rhino in America. It’s BMG in the UK, Europe. The record labels are coming back to it and getting behind it. They see something in it. The management sees something in it. So it’s all coming together. Which is a shame because I’m not in the band anymore.
Phil Aston Who knows? Maybe you and Tony will think, “It’d be great if some of this other stuff can come out at some point and we don’t have to wait another 25 years.”
Tony Martin: If he was going to do that, he’d say, “Let’s just write some new stuff.” But from what I’ve been told, Tony’s touring dates are done now. He won’t be going out on the road again. That’s probably out of the question for writing. I did tell him I was interested if he wants to do something. But he’s got so much going on. He’s still busy. Doing stuff. He had that ballet, the Black Sabbath ballet.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that’s true.
Tony Martin: Never saw that coming. No, he’s working on all kinds of stuff. He’s writing new material for something else now.
Phil Aston: So what about you, Tony? Have you got any plans for another solo album?
Tony Martin: I never actually stopped. For the past 25 years, my career took me into the studio and writing for people. My voice appears on 89 albums and projects now. It’s been good for me. I owe everything to Black Sabbath because that’s how the world got to hear my voice. People know what they’re talking about when they talk to me. “Can you write, can you sing on this?” They already know what they’re hearing or expecting. I always try to make it better than what they give me in the first place. A lot of that is me in the studio, and I’m happy, and I still am, happy doing that. But I do tend to choose what I do these days.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that makes sense.
Tony Martin: So I’m still doing the odd thing for people now. I did have a solo album a couple of years ago called Thorns.
Phil Aston: Great album.
Tony Martin: Yeah, totally unknown guitarist from America, Scott McClellan. I only met him because he kept badgering me on Facebook. He kept sending me stuff. I was like, “Go away.” He said, “Listen to this. What about this one?” In the end, I listened to it and it was brilliant. So I gave it a go and it turned out really well. But then Covid interrupted that and we couldn’t get out there with it. Some countries were saying, “Yeah, you can come,” and other countries were saying, “No, you can’t.” It all got distracted. I haven’t finished with Thorns because they wanted to do a vinyl for it. They said we had to take some tracks off to get it to fit on the vinyl. I don’t want to take any tracks off.
Phil Aston: Make it a double.
Tony Martin: Yeah, make it a double. Write some more. I wasn’t prepared for that. I’m pacing up, trying to write some new songs. Scott has sent me loads. We’ve got enough tracks for Thorns 2, but I haven’t finished Thorns 1 yet. I’ve got to come back to that. I do want to finish that off and get that done. Then if we can do the next Thorns thing, who knows? We’d like to try and get it out on the road. Getting out on the road for me is so different to the Sabbath thing. The Sabbath machine is huge. They only have to mention it and all the cogs start turning all at the same time all the way around the world. It all starts fitting into place within days, within weeks. On your own, it’s different. I can’t do that. I have to hire other musicians to go out on the road and rehearse the whole thing and start again with a brand new show. It’s a lot harder for me, but I would love to get back out there. My career took me into the studio, so I’ve got more to do. But I just tend to choose now.
Phil Aston: If people want to get Thorns, is it DarkstarRecords.net? Is that the best place?
Tony Martin: No, Battle God. They are the main label. Darkstar were involved and they’re still there, but they’ve had some troubles in the past couple of years. They were on board and I did two versions of it from between the two territories. I liked that. But mostly now, Battle God is the label to grab hold of it. It’s still available and I’m still signing them. People send me the stuff to sign.
Phil Aston: But I haven’t finished yet, so there’s more to come.
Phil Aston: Brilliant. Well, thanks very much, Tony, for all of your time today. Everybody, make sure you go and get a copy on CD or vinyl of this Black Sabbath Tony Martin years box set, “Anno Domini.” It’s absolutely superb.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it is good. I’m just smiling. I think it’s brilliant.
Phil Aston: No, that’s it, isn’t it? Whatever anyone thinks, these albums are available again. People can hear just how awesome this time for Sabbath really was.
Tony Martin: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Phil Aston: All right, take care, and hopefully I’ll talk to you again in the future.
Tony Martin: Thank you. All right, Phil, thanks, mate. Cheers.
Phil Aston: Well, a huge thank you to my guest, Tony Martin. That was fantastic. I’m almost lost for words in knowing what to say to sum up that interview because I know a lot of you are really interested in this box set, “Anno Domini” by Black Sabbath, which is out on CD and vinyl. Just as I thought, it’s sold out already, but there’s going to be another pressing. I was able to ask some of the questions I know some of you have been wanting to know, like why weren’t there extra tracks? Why wasn’t the live Cross Purposes included, etc. So now you know. Some of it is really exciting because it means there might be a companion set with some outtakes or live stuff as well. That’s really exciting.
Tony Martin is a fantastic vocalist, really passionate, really imaginative with his lyrics and his vision of how he writes his music. These four albums are essential. They’re Black Sabbath albums, okay? That’s what they are. They sound like Black Sabbath albums. Wasn’t it interesting that Geezer Butler said Cross Purposes is the best album he’d ever played on? It is a truly remarkable album. But they all are: from Headless Cross, to Tyr (which I can now pronounce correctly), Cross Purposes, and Forbidden, which has been given a new lease of life. Seriously, it is incredible. Just stunning.
Thank you again to Tony Martin for joining me here on the Now Spinning Magazine podcast. Please keep spinning those discs, whether they are vinyl or CD. Check us out on the podcast. We’re on every platform you can think of, from Apple to Spotify to Amazon. Of course, we’re on YouTube. Please subscribe and check out the website at nowspinning.co.uk. Remember, music is the healer and the doctor. So take care and I’ll see you all very, very soon.
Watch the full interview here
Phil Aston Now Spinning Magazine

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Vic Mackey-Vocals/Guitar
Shane Vendrell-Bass/Backup vocals
Curtis Lemansky-Guitar
Ronnie Gardocki- Drums
These are mine so far.

1. Cletus Van Damme
2. Farmington
3. The Barn or just Barn
4. Guns N' Sweet Butter
5. Ronnie's Mustache
6. Dicken Granny
7. Hamma Votekar
8. Different Kind (shorten from Different kind of cop)
9. Life N' Lem

Hi guys, I'm 28 and have ASD and I wanted to ask for your advice regarding multiple aspects of using dating apps.
I've recently installed Bumble and Tinder and have matched with 2 different women across those apps (3 more have liked me on Tinder but the app won't let me see who liked me unless I paid).
I wanted to ask you guys what type of message do I need to send them in order for me not to sound socially awkward.
The first girl I matched with shared some tastes with me (anime, gaming and rock & metal music), the message I sent her said If you had a long car trip, what song would you play to start the trip off right? (I asked a friend about tips and he told me this was a good one to send them).
This is my bio, how can I improve it (translated it from Spanish)?

Hi, I'm Ale! and I'm passionate about music (I'm a guitarist). I consider myself a big geek, a lover of video games, anime and music, especially rock and metal. If you like some of those things then I think we could get along well. Bonus points if you like Van Halen 🤘 and Dio, be it Dio Brando or Ronnie James Dio. I'm looking for someone with similar interests, who I can be myself with and create a genuine connection. 

And these are my profile pictures, I know I'm not good-looking, I usually don't like the way I look in the selfies I take but these were the best ones I could take (the earliest one was from 3 years ago, the one where I had long hair), it'd be great if you could also give me advice regarding how to improve my pictures.
I do have a bit of romantic experience but they were the ones who started chatting with me and told me they liked me so I don't know how to take initiative and thinking about asking a woman for a date somehow makes me feel tremendously nervous.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post and sorry for the bad English, it isn't my main language.

(Hopefully, I do an ok job with this case. It is an Israeli case so I'm always worried about controversy.
I was going to do some other case to represent Israel in my alphabetical order thing I've been doing but that case got way too big, had a lot of conflicting information and just had so much detail including word-for-word court transcripts that I just gave up. Maybe I'll come back to it in the far future. But for now, here is a much shorter unsolved mystery.
This case also has some of the worst incompetence that I've personally written about in a long while)
Maya Singer was born in 1966, in Eilon, Israel. She had an interest in painting and painting is what she would spend many hours engaging in. Her family decided to move to Jerusalem and Maya enrolled in The Zionist Youth Farm Boarding School. Maya made many friends at the school but her best friend was Miri Herzog who came from Aseret. The two became close due to shared interests as Miri also loved to paint and sculpt.
On the night of November 24, 1983, she had left the school and began walking home with witnesses saying that she waved her hands to try and hitchhike. Once a car came to a stop, she got inside and the vehicle drove off. Later that night, a security guard at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Central Jeruselum noticed a car drive by and heard a woman screaming from the inside that she had been kidnapped. He rushed to report the incident to his fellow guards who patrolled the area hoping to find the vehicle, instead, they found something much worse. They reached the surrounding forest and noticed a fire in the distance. Getting closer they saw a bonfire and inside was a young girl whose upper body was naked, still alive and screaming in pain and for help. An ambulance was called and due to the close proximity to the hospital, one arrived quickly.
Hours later several police officers arrived but they didn't appear to do much of anything other than close off the crime scene and by the time reporters arrived, most of them were already gone having collected no evidence. Maya was still alive and would barely mumble a few words and phrases to her family and doctors with those words being "Syrian", "police garage" "a stranger, a stranger" and "He hurt me very, very much. Why did he do this to me?". The police were not present and would barely even try questioning her. Only a rare few times would an officer try to question her. Maya was in critical condition but the hospital staff remained optimistic and that she was expected to survive. Tragically, their optimism was misplaced and on November 26, after clinging to life for 48 hours, Maya contracted an infection and passed away.
The ensuing police investigation would be heavily criticized for the negligence displayed throughout. Although police would take photographs of the evidence, nothing was collected or tested. This lead to Maya's father heading to the crime scene himself where he found clothing, cigarette boxes, a syringe and a necklace. He had to collect this evidence and deliver it to the police station himself. They also didn't seem to question anyone at all. Even the guards who discovered Maya weren't properly interviewed until after they gave press interviews and appeared on TV. According to the guards, what did happen was the police mostly ignoring them, seeming uninterested, asking a few basic questions and then declaring the investigation as "over" and left without even taking any notes. The most insulting display of incompetence was when the police interrupted and put a stop to Maya's funeral and took her body back to the morgue, their explanation? They had simply forgotten to take her fingerprints during the autopsy.
On November 29, police arrested two suspects, local Jeruselum residents and accused them of attempting to rape Maya and setting her on fire after they failed. At the time they didn't have much of any evidence beyond Maya simply knowing one of them. A judge ordered their release due to a lack of evidence. In December, police arrested one of them for a second time, Shlomo Saadon, a 30-year-old married man with children. According to the police they had wiretapped a phone call he had with an American girlfriend, his girlfriend was in Israel at the time and threatened to reveal "what had happened". The friend was also arrested. The police never produced this call or proved it had ever existed. He also didn't own a car or any vehicle so yet again, a judge dismissed the charges and ordered their release.
Not long after the second failed prosecution, the media reporting on the case soon grew a bit more sensationalized. When it was mentioned that Maya knew one of the suspects, she knew him from occasionally smoking Hashish with him only a handful of times. According to Maya's mother, the news now "Almost made her out to be the queen of the underworld of Jerusalem," and were writing articles about how the murder was drug-related. Her parents accused the police of leaking that detail because in their own words "The police thought that if the public saw the victim as responsible for her fate, it would be easier for them to accept the fact that the murder was not solved." And that was where the trail went cold.
The murder struck Miri Herzog especially hard, she was unable to properly cope with the loss and would even alarmingly say "I'm next". She would later drop out of school and prefer to stay with her friends and family as much as possible. Friends and family would mention how she'd go into her room alone and just remain silent. It's unknown if Miri ever truly moved on but as the months passed by, she began to get out more and travel.
On June 3, 1984, 2 years after The Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt, Miri went there with some friends as a tourist. They went to the small coastal town of Nuweiba. The last person to see her alive was a young woman and she and Miri agreed to meet up that afternoon. Miri never turned up. 2 days later her disappearance was reported to the local police. Egyptian police did not attach much importance to the case and it was unknown if they even initiated any search efforts at all. Egypt also refused to cooperate.
By chance, an off-duty IDF soldier was vacationing in Nuweiba when by complete chance he came across a body buried under the sand dunes. Afterward, he returned to Israel and reported the find. He returned with more IDF soldiers and Miri's family and entered Egypt secretly. The body was a young woman and identified as Miri based on the various sculptures of Miri's and poetry she had written found at the scene. The news was eventually leaked to the public and Egyptian Officials were outraged with many seeing it as a violation of their sovereignty. Based on reports, Egyptian police quickly found the burial site on their own and held Miri's body at a morgue in Nuweiba for months and refused to repatriate it seemingly out of retaliation. Eventually, on November 5, 1984, an agreement was reached and Egypt finally returned the body to Isreal. Unfornatuely, after this stunt, there was no chance of a joint investigation and yet again, it's unknown what if any investigation was conducted by Egyptian police. There were, however, rumours circulating that Miri had been raped and murdered by some local Bedouin people or by Egyptian police officers themselves. Allegedly, Miri had met a Bedouin man who wanted to marry her.
A year and a half after Maya's murder, the police reopened the investigation and put an investigator named Solomon Amir as the head of the investigation team with Solomon being pressured by his superiors to solve the case. While Maya's family would constantly and rightfully criticize the police for their handling of their daughter's case, Solomon was the exception and they described him as the only one who actually listened to them and by all accounts he tried his hardest to bring them closure. Solomon went through the old files from the previous investigation and found that more leads went ignored than he had thought and it was up to him to chase them all down again.
First, they spoke to a taxi driver. The driver said that after the murder he picked up a passenger who spoke with an "Arabic accent" and was talking about the case with details not published in the media included. Assuming the driver didn't misinterpret that accent and that her family didn't mishear her dying words then this would explain why she mumbled "Syrian" The police tried their hardest to track down the passenger but as it had been nearly two years that was very difficult. So they then turned to using his description of the passenger to create a composite sketch of the man. No one who saw it came forward.
Another new lead that Solomon looked into was one of Maya's friends. No one could get a clear look at the car Maya had entered, except for her, who identified the vehicle as a white van. Tracking the van down would again be nearly impossible so the police found a nursing student at the same hospital Maya was sent to, to act as a decoy. She would walk outside at night, stand outside Maya's boarding school and hitchhike, hoping that this alleged van driver would still come back to claim another victim. This routine would go on for three to four months but no such van would ever show up.
Solomon would then look into more of Maya's last words, even if it meant investigating his fellow officers, especially so since he focused on "police garage". He and a few of his subordinates would discreetly through the personal files of police officers to see if any of them knew Maya, lived in the area, had a vehicle matching the one seen at the scene or owned a garage or a house with a garage near the crime scene. They tried comparing the ID photos of officers to the sketch of the Taxi Driver's passenger. Solomon would take it a step further and expand the investigation to dismissed or suspended police officers. Afterward, Solomon and his trusted officers would go to all nearby hospitals to ask if any police officers were treated shortly after the murder in case Maya resisted. The last course of action taken with this lead was when Solomon took it literally and investigated all three police garages in Jerusalem at the time to see if any vehicles were checked out on the day of the murder.
They also investigated the murder as possibly being of an occult nature due to the ritual of only stripping Maya halfway and setting her on fire. Eventually, this theory was dismissed. Gas Stations were also investigated to see if anyone on that night bought a bunch of fuel that would've been used to start the fire but no one could remember such a thing. Solomon was so desperate for leads that he even tried analyzing Maya's paintings in case they could reveal anything about herself as she didn't keep a diary.
Solomon had only one lead left to pursue and this may have been the most important as it's also one for Miri's murder. Maya and Miri both began their friendship over a shared interest in painting, but they would also befriend someone else with that interest. Nobody else ever got his name, just that he was Yugoslavian and a fellow painter himself. According to friends, among the friends that Miri took with her to the Sinai Peninsula, one of them was Yugoslavian. A composite sketch was made of this supposed Yugoslavian Painter and shown to the Israeli Border Guards at the Egyptian border but they didn't remember or recognize the man. And as for their records? they were entry and exit registrations were written on cards, unorganized and lost.
The theory that Solomon personally believes in is that the Yugoslavian Painter killed Maya, and then went on a trip to Egypt with Miri and killed her. But this man's identity has never been determined. Despite trying his hardest, the second investigation into Maya's case was halted and Solomon was assigned to other investigations but he still remained in touch with Maya's parents and would keep trying to reopen the case. Eventually, he returned in the early-mid 2000s. Although he put a ton of hard work into investigating the case himself, the initial investigation was a mistake that could never be lived down and tainted public perception so much that another popular theory is that police officers were involved in the murder.
On June 16, 2019, an Israeli news station aired a short documentary on Maya's case to bring new attention and awareness to it. In July, the police stated that someone had seen the special and contacted them with new information prompting them to reopen the case and conduct another investigation. It is unknown what the new information was, only that nothing came of it.
Both cases remain unsolved, and exactly one week from now on June 3, 2024, it will be the 40th anniversary of Miri Herzog's murder.
Sources
https://news.walla.co.il/item/3243927
https://13tv.co.il/item/news/domestic/crime-and-justice/killer-murder-sixteen-teenager-931016/
https://www.haaretz.co.il/misc/2008-02-21/ty-article/0000017f-e1a9-d38f-a57f-e7fb375c0000
https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/ma1984/11/08/01/article/89?&dliv=none&e=-------he-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxTI--------------1&utm_source=he.wikipedia.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=%22%D7%A8%D7%A6%D7%97+%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%99%D7%94+%D7%96%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%92%D7%A8+%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%99+%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%A6%D7%95%D7%92%22&utm_content=itonut
https://13tv.co.il/item/news/domestic/crime-and-justice/maya_zinger_murder-276889/
https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hadashot/1984/07/11/01/article/62/?e=-------he-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxTI--------------1

מארכיון חדשות 13 - ללא קצה חוט יצאה מבית הספר - ונחטפה: מי רצח את הנערה מאיה זינגר?

Prologue: The Stage is Set

For the past year and a half, Jenny Valentine had been the reigning Universal Women's World Wrestling Champion, her dominance in the ring undisputed. However, a severe injury forced her to relinquish the title, promising to return and challenge whoever held it after WrestleMania. This announcement lit a fire in the WWE women's division, sparking fierce rivalries and alliances as the top female wrestlers vied for the vacated championship.

WWE Royal Battle Ground

Main Event: Ronda Rousey vs. Paige VanZant in an Underground Cage Match
The PPV kicks off the rivalry with an intense underground-style cage match between Ronda Rousey and Paige VanZant. The crowd is electric as these two MMA legends face off. Rousey wins, but VanZant vows revenge, hinting that this is far from over.
Co-Main Event: Lauren "the Animal" Fogle & Bella Ink vs. MJ Domino & Mai Richards in a Tag Team Brawl
The newly drafted LFC superstars make their WWE debut in a brutal tag team brawl. Lauren and Bella's chemistry proves too much for Domino and Richards, securing a decisive victory. However, MJ Domino and Mai Richards form a grudging respect for each other, setting up a future alliance.

WWE Vengeance

Main Event: Ronda Rousey vs. Britt Baker in a Hardcore Match
Rousey's feud with the AEW stars continues as she battles Britt Baker. The hardcore stipulation brings out the brutality in both women, but Rousey's tenacity earns her another victory. Baker, seething from the loss, swears to turn the tide.
Co-Main Event: Paige VanZant & MJ Domino vs. Lauren "the Animal" Fogle & Bella Ink
VanZant partners with MJ Domino, hoping to overcome Lauren and Bella. Despite their best efforts, Lauren and Bella's teamwork once again prevails, cementing their status as a dominant force.

WWE Elimination Chamber

Main Event: Elimination Chamber Match for the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship
The vacant title is contested in a grueling Elimination Chamber match. Participants include Ronda Rousey, Lauren Fogle, Bella Ink, Paige VanZant, Britt Baker, and Mai Richards. The match is a brutal showcase of skill and endurance. In a shocking turn, Bella Ink emerges victorious, claiming the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship.

WWE No Way Out

Main Event: Bella Ink vs. Britt Baker for the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship
Bella Ink's first title defense is against a determined Britt Baker. The match is fierce, but Bella retains her title, proving her worth as champion. Baker, however, continues to eye the championship, refusing to back down.
Co-Main Event: Ronda Rousey vs. Paige VanZant in a Submission Match
Rousey and VanZant clash again, this time in a submission match. The technical prowess of both women is on display, but Rousey's experience gives her the edge, forcing VanZant to tap out.

WWE Fastlane

Main Event: Bella Ink vs. Ronda Rousey for the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship
Rousey challenges Bella Ink for the title in an epic showdown. The match is an instant classic, but interference from Britt Baker costs Rousey the match, allowing Bella to retain her title. The rivalry between Rousey and Baker intensifies.

WWE Battleground

Main Event: Bella Ink vs. Paige VanZant for the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship
VanZant gets her shot at the title, pushing Bella to her limits. Despite a valiant effort, Bella Ink retains her championship, solidifying her status at the top of the division.
Co-Main Event: Ronda Rousey vs. Britt Baker in a No Holds Barred Match
Rousey and Baker's feud reaches a boiling point in a no holds barred match. The brutality is off the charts, with Rousey finally securing a decisive victory, setting her sights back on the championship.

WWE Extreme Rules

Main Event: Bella Ink vs. Ronda Rousey vs. Britt Baker in a Triple Threat Extreme Rules Match for the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship
The title match is a chaotic, weapon-filled spectacle. Bella Ink manages to retain her championship by pinning Baker, leaving Rousey enraged and more determined than ever.
Co-Main Event: Paige VanZant & MJ Domino vs. Lauren "the Animal" Fogle & Mai Richards in a Tornado Tag Match
The fierce rivalry spills into a tornado tag match, with VanZant and Domino narrowly defeating Lauren and Mai, further escalating the tension.

WWE SummerSlam

Main Event: Bella Ink vs. Ronda Rousey for the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship
Rousey gets another shot at Bella Ink in a high-stakes match at SummerSlam. This time, Rousey's relentless assault pays off, and she captures the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship.
Co-Main Event: Britt Baker vs. Paige VanZant in a Last Woman Standing Match
Baker and VanZant's rivalry culminates in a last woman standing match. Both women put everything on the line, but Baker manages to outlast VanZant, earning a hard-fought victory.

WWE Hell in a Cell

Main Event: Ronda Rousey vs. Bella Ink in a Hell in a Cell Match for the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship
The rivalry reaches its peak in a hell in a cell match. Rousey and Bella Ink tear each other apart, but Rousey's resilience keeps her as the champion.
Co-Main Event: Paige VanZant vs. Britt Baker in a Steel Cage Match
VanZant and Baker clash again, this time in a steel cage. VanZant manages to secure a victory, evening the score between them.

WWE Survivor Series

Main Event: Team Rousey vs. Team Bella in a Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Match
Rousey and Bella Ink lead their teams in a traditional elimination match. Team Rousey, featuring Lauren "the Animal" Fogle and Mai Richards, triumphs, giving Rousey a psychological edge.
Co-Main Event: Paige VanZant vs. MJ Domino
VanZant faces her former ally MJ Domino in a singles match. VanZant secures a victory, but the mutual respect remains.

WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs

Main Event: Ronda Rousey vs. Britt Baker in a TLC Match for the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship
Rousey defends her title against Baker in a brutal TLC match. Despite Baker's best efforts, Rousey retains her championship, solidifying her dominance.
Co-Main Event: Bella Ink vs. Paige VanZant in a Tables Match
Bella Ink and VanZant clash in a tables match. VanZant manages to put Bella through a table, securing a significant victory and positioning herself as a top contender.

WWE Royal Rumble

Main Event: Women's Royal Rumble Match
The Royal Rumble match features intense competition, with surprise entries from Brooke Gilley and Crystal White of LFC Women's Wrestling. Ultimately, Paige VanZant wins the Royal Rumble, earning a title shot at WrestleMania.
Co-Main Event: Ronda Rousey vs. Lauren "the Animal" Fogle for the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship
Rousey defends her title against a fierce Lauren Fogle. After a grueling match, Rousey retains her championship, but Fogle gains respect from the WWE Universe.

WWE Elimination Chamber

Main Event: Elimination Chamber Match to Determine the #1 Contender for the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship
The chamber match determines who will face the champion at WrestleMania, with Britt Baker emerging victorious after a brutal contest.
Co-Main Event: Ronda Rousey vs. Bella Ink in a Non-Title Match
Rousey and Bella Ink face off in a non-title match. Rousey wins, but Bella shows she still has what it takes to compete at the highest level.

WWE WrestleMania

Main Event: Ronda Rousey vs. Paige VanZant vs. Britt Baker for the Universal Women's World Wrestling Championship
The main event at WrestleMania is a triple threat match for the championship. Rousey, VanZant, and Baker deliver an unforgettable match. In a dramatic finish, Paige VanZant pins Britt Baker to become the new Universal Women's World Wrestling Champion.
Special Attraction: Jenny Valentine Returns
Jenny Valentine makes her highly anticipated return, attacking Paige VanZant and declaring her intention to reclaim the title she never lost. The show ends with a staredown between VanZant and Valentine, setting the stage for the next chapter in this intense rivalry.

Epilogue: The Rivalry Continues

The rivalry between these fierce competitors is far from over. With Paige VanZant as the new champion and Jenny Valentine back with a vengeance, the WWE women's division is poised for even more intense and dramatic battles in the months to come.
The Alt Story Below:

WWE Rivalry: Ronda Rousey, Lauren "The Animal" Fogle, Bella Ink, Paige VanZant, Britt Baker, MJ Domino, and Mai Richards

Background:

The WWE Universe was electrified when the newly established Universal Women’s World Wrestling Championship was introduced. The title, vacated by the dominant Jenny Valentine due to injury, sparked a fierce rivalry among WWE superstars and fresh talents from LFC Women's Wrestling and AEW.

Royal Battle Ground (January)

The inaugural Royal Battle Ground PPV set the stage with a gritty underground vibe, featuring hard-hitting and no-holds-barred matches. The main event was a battle royal to determine the new Universal Women’s World Wrestling Champion.
Participants:

• Ronda Rousey
• Lauren "The Animal" Fogle
• Bella Ink
• Paige VanZant
• Britt Baker
• MJ Domino
• Mai Richards
• Brooke Gilley
• Crystal White

The match was a brutal affair, showcasing the distinct styles and strengths of each competitor. The final four saw Ronda Rousey, Paige VanZant, Lauren Fogle, and MJ Domino. After an intense struggle, Rousey eliminated VanZant, but Domino surprised Rousey, leading to an epic final showdown with Fogle. In the end, Rousey’s experience gave her the edge, making her the first Universal Women’s World Wrestling Champion.

Elimination Chamber (February)

The rivalry intensified at Elimination Chamber. Paige VanZant and Britt Baker formed a temporary alliance, while MJ Domino and Mai Richards worked together, leading to a chaotic and thrilling match. Rousey managed to retain her title after a grueling battle, pinning Baker in the final moments.

Fastlane (March)

Brooke Gilley and Crystal White, frustrated with being overlooked, demanded their opportunity. A fatal four-way match between Rousey, Gilley, White, and Bella Ink was set. Gilley and White’s determination was evident, but Rousey’s relentless spirit and strategic prowess allowed her to retain the championship once again.

WrestleMania (April)

The grandest stage of them all featured a triple threat match: Ronda Rousey vs. Lauren "The Animal" Fogle vs. Paige VanZant. The match was an instant classic, filled with high drama and incredible spots. VanZant secured a shocking victory, pinning Fogle while Rousey was incapacitated outside the ring, becoming the new Universal Women’s World Wrestling Champion.

Backlash (May)

Rousey, seething from her WrestleMania loss, faced VanZant in a brutal rematch. Their animosity boiled over, resulting in a double count-out, setting the stage for further confrontations. Meanwhile, Britt Baker and Bella Ink began their rivalry, with Baker emerging victorious in a thrilling singles match.

Money in the Bank (June)

The Money in the Bank ladder match featured Bella Ink, Britt Baker, MJ Domino, Mai Richards, Crystal White, and Brooke Gilley. Domino, known for her agility and cunning, outsmarted her opponents and claimed the briefcase, earning a future title shot.

Extreme Rules (July)

Paige VanZant defended her title against Ronda Rousey in an extreme rules match. The bout was vicious, with both women pushing their limits. Rousey’s experience in high-pressure situations shone through as she reclaimed the Universal Women’s World Wrestling Championship.

SummerSlam (August)

MJ Domino cashed in her Money in the Bank contract against Rousey, resulting in a highly anticipated match. Domino’s cunning strategies were nearly enough, but Rousey’s resilience and championship heart allowed her to retain the title.

Clash of Champions (September)

Every title was on the line, and the Universal Women’s World Wrestling Championship match featured Rousey, VanZant, and the up-and-coming Mai Richards. In a stunning turn of events, Richards pinned VanZant to become the new champion, shocking the WWE Universe.

Hell in a Cell (October)

Mai Richards defended her title against Britt Baker inside the Hell in a Cell structure. The match was brutal and intense, with Baker’s ruthless tactics eventually leading her to victory, crowning her as the new champion.

Survivor Series (November)

Team Rousey (Ronda Rousey, Lauren Fogle, Bella Ink, Crystal White) faced Team Baker (Britt Baker, Paige VanZant, MJ Domino, Mai Richards) in a traditional Survivor Series elimination match. Team Rousey emerged victorious, with Rousey and Fogle as the sole survivors, showcasing their dominance.

TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs (December)

Britt Baker defended her title in a TLC match against Rousey and Fogle. The match was chaotic, with all three women using tables, ladders, and chairs to their advantage. Baker managed to retain her title after knocking Rousey off a ladder and pinning Fogle amidst the wreckage.

Road to WrestleMania

As WrestleMania approached, the rivalry intensified further. Jenny Valentine announced her return, vowing to challenge whoever held the championship after WrestleMania. This declaration added a new layer of tension and anticipation, as every competitor wanted to prove they could defeat Valentine upon her return.

WrestleMania (April)

The culmination of the year-long rivalry took place at WrestleMania in a fatal four-way match: Britt Baker vs. Ronda Rousey vs. Paige VanZant vs. Lauren "The Animal" Fogle. The match was an epic showdown, with each woman delivering her best performance. In the final moments, Rousey locked in her signature armbar on Baker, forcing her to tap out and reclaim the Universal Women’s World Wrestling Championship.

Aftermath

The rivalry didn't end at WrestleMania. Jenny Valentine made her triumphant return, staring down Rousey in a moment that promised even greater battles ahead. With the WWE Universe on the edge of their seats, the stage was set for an even more brutal and competitive year, with every woman in the division hungry to prove their dominance and claim the ultimate prize.

Fangs - retirement
Alysia Magen - Daniella Hemsley
Loza - Alaena Vampira rematch
Alaena Vampira - Loza rematch
Silvia Fernández - retirement
Killer Bee - Yodelling Haley
Jeremy Park - Zuckles
Anthony Vargas - Myth
Lil Cracra - Pully Arif
YuddygangTV - Argentinian King
Tristan Hamm - TempePapi Luisito loser
Le'Veon Bell - Jake Cornish/Mike Edwards winner
Paige VanZant - Elle Brooke rematch
Elle Brooke - Paige VanZant rematch