- originally written Dec 18th, 2010-
I finished up Octember in the last one, so all that remains to do is to wrap up 2010 in this bad boy, and cover the shows from November and December, and all ancillary trivia that goes with it. So, let's get to it!
One cool thing about November, to begin with, was catching up with some old mates from Irish Whip who I hadn’t seen in a while, like ‘Angry’ Andy Barton, Bam Katraz, Vic Viper, and ‘The Kid’ Keith Connolly. All four are great guys, and it was nice to see them again, and have a chat. I also briefly ran into Brother Skelly during the month, too, and it was good seeing him.
My one booking in November- another light month- was a return to SSW, in Bathgate. I flew over to Glasgow Prestwick on the Saturday morning, and was met by Calum on the other end. It was July when I last saw him, so it was great catching up with him again. We hung out at his for a while, before his services were needed at the SPWA unit in East Kilbride. Scottish rock band The Recovery were shooting a pop video in the unit (for their track ‘New York Baddie’), and needed some wrestling footage to stick in it. I ended up participating. After a fair bit of hanging around, we worked a tag match: me and Calum against Davey Blaze and TJ Rage. It went well, and it was great to get to see Calum in action. The Recovery were also a nice bunch of lads, and the song they were performing sounded good, though I’m sure it sounds better when it’s not being blasted out at absolutely full volume! Heh heh.
After more waiting around, we took off for Bathgate: me, Calum, and SPWA trainees Saqib, Anthony Christie and Disco. (Mr. Christie’s karaoke version of the Travis song ‘Sing’ was utterly bone-chilling, I should note. Heh heh. Late at night, as I lie in bed, I can still hear it echoing in my head, like one of those haunting, slow-motion voiceovers they do in films!) The journey didn’t take any more than an hour. Once there, it was great to see some of the regular SSW guys (Muzlem, Falcon, Ken Adams, Effen Awesome, amongst others)—I always enjoy the atmosphere there; nice bunch of guys.
My match was for the SPWO Title (the promotion’s secondary title, I believe), and I faced reigning champ Andy Wild. Andy’s gotten some very good press, for lack of a better term, over the past while, as one of the top wrestlers in Scotland, and such praise is deserved. I enjoyed our match a lot, and feel it flowed nicely. Despite hurting his elbow a bit toward the end of the match, he worked through it, and we went to the planned finish. Thankfully, I don’t think it was a serious injury, just a bad fall. I went a bit “old school”, incidentally, rocking my first pair of custom pants that I got back in 2006, and dusting off one of my old trademark moves, the I-10. (A few of my moves are my own creations, and they’re uniquely named: the G-17, I-10, and B-84, representing my real-life initials, and date of birth. Bit of utterly useless trivia for you, there.) Enjoyable match, anyway.
There was a battle royal afterwards, too. Not that guys don’t take them seriously, but battle royals are usually a bit of fun, as you can have a bit of a laugh with some of the other guys in there; someone was choking me in the corner at some point, and singing ‘Bear Necessities’ in my ear! Heh heh. (Red Vinny and I, back in the day, as well, used to tell each other “you’re not Jigsaw, bitch!”, quoting Donnie Wahlberg’s character from Saw III.) Anyway, once the show was ‘in the can’, as they say, we headed off, and Calum dropped off Saqib, Anthony and Disco. I was knackered, so it seemed like a much longer journey than it probably was! We got back to his, anyway, and had some pizza, which went down nicely. It was a very long day, so it was nice to end it quietly, with a bit of Father Ted, pizza, and some chat.
I flew back the following morning, to Dublin, got home, and had a well-needed shower. Not that my personal hygiene was in question—it’s just very refreshing to have one after a flight, and especially with the aches and pains picked up from a show the previous night. That was that for November.
My final weekend of shows for the year took place in December, but there were question marks over whether or not they’d be going ahead- or if I’d be able to make them- considering the crazy situation with the frost and snow in Ireland and the UK over the end of November and start of December. Ice/slippiness aside, I liked the snow, I have to say. It’s rare to get snowfall of that volume in Ireland, and it was really nice to see the landscape covered in white this close to Christmas. Along with that, being up against the elements, at times, allows humanity and community to shine through; I saw people helping to push cars stuck in the ice (and did so, myself), and help each other up off the ground after a fall. It’s nice to see. That said, the ugly side of humanity shone through as well, with fucking little knackers/chavs/scumbags/neds pelting people with snowballs and, most annoyingly for me, lashing snow or iceballs at passing cars. Driving on ice is hard enough without these little scumbags throwing stuff at you. I hate skangers/chavs with a passion; mindless, racist knuckle-draggers with abysmal fashion sense (who the fuck walks around with their pants tucked into their socks?), and worse taste in music; this I know, since they’re always pumping out this repetitive dance/garage music shite out of their phones on public transport. Get a fucking pair of earphones you inconsiderate halfwits. Anyway, I digress… Rant over!
Flights leaving Dublin were a bit touch-and-go for the week leading up to that weekend, but there was no trouble getting over to Leeds on the Saturday. The plane sat on the tarmac for a little while getting de-iced, but that was it, mainly, apart from a really sketchy landing in Leeds Bradford Airport; the pilot had to slam on the brakes due to the ice, overshot the slipway leading to the Airport, and had to turn around to taxi back to the terminal. I’m not a ‘bad flyer’ by any stretch of the imagination, but the landing was a bit of a “whoa, shit” moment!
I was in Yorkshire for DPW’s final show of the year, in Ossett. The morning/afternoon was spent with some of the prep for the show- picking up the ring, helping with the venue setup, etc., while the afternoon was spent sitting idle (and a little bored, frankly) in the Ossett Town Hall. Pardon my French, but it was fucking freezing in the hall. Fucking. Freezing. The radiators were on, but due to the high ceilings, and open spaces, they might as well not have been. Considering the sub-zero temperatures at that time, especially across Northern Europe, I really just wanted to be home in bed!
The show drew quite well, anyway, but the card had to be re-jigged a little, due to pull-outs ‘cos of the weather. I was originally due to face El Ligero and Cameron Kraze in a triple-threat, but ended up teaming with Ligero to face Joseph Connors (who I hadn’t seen since August 2008, when he very kindly gave me a lift back to East Midlands Airport from an RDW show in Skegness we were both on) and Zack Diamond. It was a fun match, even if I ended up in the second row, when I overshot my plancha dive to the outside! (I wiped out one of the empty chairs just behind the front row!) Joe got a nasty bang on the head mid-match, and a pretty bloody nose, when he hit his face a little harder than I’m sure he intended on a bulldog. He was a bit glassy-eyed after, but was ok. It was nice chatting to him, afterward, and to Zack, as well. Very sound lads.
I’d planned to head back to a B&B near Leeds Bradford Airport after the show, but it didn’t work out. I’d dropped by earlier in the morning to pick up the key, so I could return later at my leisure, but no one answered; frustrating, considering I’d mentioned that I was going to be doing so, when phoning up to make the booking. After ringing the doorbell seven times, and banging very loudly on the front door bellowing “Let me in. LET ME IN!!!”, I decided to give up. On the fourth or fifth ring, a golden retriever came down the stairs and regarded me with a sort of smug indifference; man’s best friend, indeed. In order for me to have a room for the night, the proprietors of the B&B would have to stay up to give me the key, and take payment. Due to a number of factors, it wouldn’t be until after midnight, and possibly near one o’clock when I’d be doing so, so it didn’t seem worth it to a) keep them waiting up for me, and b) paying for a room that I’d only be using for a few hours, since I’d be flying home early to Dublin. I had to cancel the booking, so, quite late, and simply stay at the Airport for a few hours. Not ideal, by any stretch of the imagination, but it happens. I did have a delicious pepperoni pizza, though, with the promoter and two of his trainees, Dan & Alex, before I got dropped off, that really hit the spot, as it were. It was needed.
The flight back was fine, and I watched some Police Squad on the portable DVD. (I was saddened by the death of Leslie Nielsen, I must say. Very funny man; Airplane! and the Naked Gun films are amongst my favourite comedies of all-time.) Zombie-like from the lack of sleep, I essentially sleepwalked through the Dublin Airport terminal building (accompanied by Howie Day’s Collide on the iPod), got back to my car (which was completely frozen, annoyingly), and drove home. In January, I had a show in Germany on a Saturday, flew home on the Sunday, and then drove to Naas for an NLW show that evening. I was shattered after it, but in an amusing sense of circularity, I finished the year essentially doing the same, as I got home from a foreign show, and then did a domestic one the same day. This time, it involved a slightly longer drive, up to Belfast for PWU, but I thankfully napped for most of the morning I got home, so got a little bit of rest, at least. The roads were a bit icy- but perfectly safe- and the trip up was fine, listening to pop music to stave off tiredness. (EVERYTHING is 'pop music' to me, by the way. I could be listening to Rammstein, for example, or the African tribal stylings of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and I'd still refer to it as pop music! Just to note.)
My involvement in the show was to save ‘Toxic’ Scott Annette from a beatdown being apportioned out to him by heels Damien Corvin and ‘Mighty’ Marty Andrews- and a very generous portion, at that!- and challenge them to a tag match. I enjoyed the promo, setting up the match, and had a bit of a laugh leading the crowd to boo- and even hiss- Andrews for interrupting the Corvin/Annette match! Awesome crowd to work with. The match went grand, and got the job done nicely, as Scott and Marty advanced their feud, and Corvin & I advanced ours. I got to try out a headscissor variation on Corvin, to the outside, which he took really well; one to add to the repertoire for the future, methinks. Generally, most of the new faces I meet around the place would be from the UK or Northern Ireland, so to meet someone new (for me) with a Dublin accent was a bit weird, as I met Insano there. He & I have travelled in different Irish wrestling circles over the years, and our paths crossed for the first time on this show. We chatted for a while, and he seemed like a nice guy.
I made the trip back to Dublin with Kev Rocks, and enjoyed the company, and chat. After dropping Kev off, I picked up a much-desired chicken fried rice from my local Chinese, and tucked in as I watched Ireland’s Mary Byrne get voted off the X-Factor. (Boo! Fix! Heh heh.)
And that’s 2010 done and dusted for me, wrestling-wise. It’s been a decent year, I think, but I’ll deal with the year as a whole in the next one o’ these. It’ll be better dealt with in another blog, rather than try to shoehorn some crap into the end of this one.
For now, I’m off to try and sort out a better deal for my digital TV and broadband, as I’ve been tipped off that the bastards are driving up prices from January. Very clever, right? People are gonna be earning less with the new budget, so you put prices up. Those fools be straight up trippin’, yo. Jeah!
Anyway, thanks for reading, folks. Not sure if I’ll get ‘round to another blog before Christmas, but if I don’t, have a great one, and enjoy yourselves.
Ballance
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