- originally written Sept 5th, 2010-
If my last blog didn't have you sick to your stomach, consider the following self-serving tripe the proverbial two fingers down the gullet! You'll be projectile vomiting before you can say "Hmm, liver and onions!"
FEBRUARY: Just the one booking in February, with Wrestling.IE, in Lisburn. There was another show the following night somewhere else, but I had tickets to see Irish indie band CODES in the Academy, supported by another band I like called Delays, and wasn’t gonna pass them up. Excellent gig. The show in Lisburn was grand. I travelled up with Shawn Maxer and Joe Cabray, who are always good company on a trip, and had a singles match with Dunkan Disorderly that went well, considering we’d never worked with each other before. Nothing much else of note from the show.
MARCH: Opened the month with another Wrestling.IE show in Limavady, which is a three-and-a-half hour drive from Dublin. Thankfully, I didn’t have to make the trip alone, and had Maxer with me. Having made the trip to Limavady solo before, I can certainly attest to the fact that it really helps to have someone with you to chat away to, and while away the time. As mentioned before, Maxer’s a good travelling companion, and a nice guy, and the journey didn’t seem that long. I wrestled Bonesaw on the show, and we had an enjoyable match together. Only dodgy thing was a nearly-missed springboard attempt, which I managed to recover from and hit. I used to springboard from the apron—y’know the static one guys like Mysterio do—but after a few near-misses, it kinda messed with my confidence, and I’ve never been 100% happy hitting them since. I could still hit my running “rebound” springboard, though, which involved me running toward the ropes and springing back from the centre of the top rope. This near-miss shook me a little bit, though.
One other thing was bugging me, and that was the lack of regard I was being held in, in relation to some of the other guys in the promotion. Money has never been the primary motivating factor in me doing wrestling, but when it comes down to a case where someone is blatantly paying me less than someone else, and telling me that I’m “not on their level”, it’s a matter of principle, and this was a bullshit situation. Absolute 100% bullshit. For some reason, the promoter had got it into his head that I was somehow “below” this group of guys in the promotion, and was creating a “tiered” system of pay. These guys are good, and I respect them very much as workers- and as people in general- but as far as ability, work-rate and experience goes, there’s no difference between me and them. At all. It pissed me off that my hard work wasn’t being appreciated, ‘cos I always bust my ass to put on a good performance, whether there’s ten people in the crowd or one thousand. I personally thought the promoter was foolish for overtly dividing his roster, and creating unnecessary strife.
The following Saturday, I headed to Leeds, to Morley, to do a show for DPW. Their previous venue was the Ackroyd Street Working Men’s Club, which had attracted a good following, and always had a great atmosphere. This show, however, was their second anniversary, and was in Morley Town Hall, which is an awesome place to wrestle. The backstage at Ackroyd Street is quite cramped, though admittedly nowhere near as bad as 1PW’s venue The Granby in Doncaster, where there’s definitely not enough room to swing a cat! (If you were so inclined.) The dressing room/backstage in the town hall, though, is in the basement, underneath the hall, and there’s loads of room, which I love. Always enjoy being able to wander around a bit, and have enough room to warm up, or just some quiet space to think about my match. There was also a piano there, which was pretty cool. I can’t actually play the piano per se, but I know a few bits of some songs, so it’s always nice to mess around a bit. Christopher Brammer really impressed me, though, playing the ‘Love’ theme from ‘Twin Peaks’, and playing it very well indeed. Another major plus was getting to spend some time with Mad Man Manson. Manson & I were good friends in Irish Whip, and he’s a very sound, very sensible guy. (We also share the same birthday!) We both left IWW around the same time, but for whatever reason, I hadn’t seen him since then. It was nice catching up with him, and seeing him again.
On the night, I had a match with Lionheart. He & I had worked with each other a few times before, twice in singles matches, and also in a few three and four-way matches. As good a worker as he is, I’ve never felt we’ve had that one GREAT match together. That’s through no fault of his, at all. I just reckon sometimes you have to work a few times with someone to develop chemistry with them. Our match was quite good, but I’d definitely like to work with him again somewhere down the line, and have another crack at having a great match. I think it’s possible.
It was nice to be back with DPW. I’ve worked for them since their unofficial first show in 2007, and enjoy heading over to them. David, the promoter, has always treated me very kindly, and made me feel welcome, and he is probably the nicest promoter I’ve dealt with in my career. He is genuinely a pleasure to deal with, and I wouldn’t say that about many promoters!
I spent that evening in a nearby hotel called the Old Vicarage, which had gotten some AWFUL reviews on Trip Advisor, but I found to be fine. I had a chicken fried rice takeaway, though, which wasn’t the best. I love a good Chinese after a show, but this didn’t do much for me, unfortunately.
The following morning, I headed to Leeds train station, and made my way from Leeds to Banbury, in Oxfordshire. I love travelling by train; there’s just something very relaxing about it, and it’s nice to be able to get up, and comfortably walk around. As well as that, I gotta say I’m really impressed with the rail infrastructure in the UK; from my own experience, it’s very easy to get from one place to another. That’s not really the case in Ireland; transport is mainly state-owned, so there’s no competition, and not everywhere is accessible by rail. Anyway, I digress… The journey to Banbury was comfortable, only involving one changeover in Birmingham. I was working for BAWA, incidentally; the British All-star Wrestling Alliance.
BAWA have a very professional-looking setup, with a great 20x20 ring, and a nice entrance-way. Always good to see a bit of investment in production and so forth. The ring and the wrestlers should be the primary focus of ANY show, but a focus on the look of the show, too, is always welcome, and BAWA’s was cool. Unfortunately, the show didn’t draw especially well. It was on a Sunday, and not just any Sunday, but Mother’s Day (or “Mothering Sunday” as some weirdos call it!) As someone aptly stated: “most wrestling fans don’t have girlfriends, but they DO have mothers!” That hurt the attendance a good bit.
Funnily enough with me, I can step out and wrestle/perform in front of hundreds of people and really not give it a second thought, but one aspect of wrestling that’s always made me a bit uneasy and uncomfortable has been entering into a foreign ‘locker room’ environment. Some places can be quite welcoming; I don’t expect (or want) the red carpet treatment as a guest, but it’s nice when guys make the effort to break the ice, and just chat with you. I’m not a very “forward” guy, and prefer to ease myself into a new environment, so it really does help when people try to make you feel welcome. (Lewis ‘The Dragon’ Beardsley in northern English promotion IWF is one sterling example, and was a guy who made the effort to engage me in conversation the first time I was with them, and helped me to relax and feel at ease. Stuff like that is always appreciated.) BAWA, unfortunately, wasn’t a hugely welcoming place, and no one really bothered to chat, so I felt kinda uneasy for my time there. Wasn't that bad, but I wouldn't really describe it as "friendly."
My match with “Mr Efficient” went fairly well, and I accepted the “Mr E” challenge, winning a tiny trophy, and an envelope full of M. Bison dollars (heh heh), by pinning him with my G-17 finisher. I was quite angry, though, when the Thomas Cook office at the airport refused to accept them, and convert them back to Euros (or “European pounds”, as I call them!) Apparently M. Bison dollars aren’t legal tender. Who knew? Heh heh. I flew back to Dublin the following morning.
This is kinda running a bit long, so I’ll finish off March in another blog. If you’ve gotten to the end of this, hats off to you, and thanks for reading!
- Ballance.
No comments:
Post a Comment