A belated happy new year to you, folks. Hope 2011’s been good to you so far.
A trip to Castleford, in Yorkshire, for DPW opened my year, from a wrestling point of view. Though the flight over to Leeds Bradford was hassle-free, there was one minor change to my usual routine. Generally, I’d drive myself to the airport, and park there, availing of the reasonable fees you can get if you book online, in advance. This time, however, I couldn’t; my credit card had been used fraudulently just before Christmas, was cancelled, and I was awaiting the issue of a new one. Very, very, very annoying, but you gotta roll with the punches, as they say. I ended up getting taxis to and from the airport, in the process reminding me of why I prefer to drive myself there. The driver TO the airport took a ridiculously circuitous route- despite me telling him which way to take- and the one on the way home was waffling nineteen-to-the-dozen, overshot my turn, and short-changed me. (Granted, it was only by a small amount, but he was a cheeky fuck to do it.) Never again. (Or, maybe, next time I’ll just be more assertive with what I want.)
Things were grand getting to Leeds, though, and after a breakfast at the airport, I checked into a Travelodge nearby. I’d have a very early morning flight the next day, so it was easiest to just stay close to the airport. I spent a few hours in my room there, chilling out and watching The Day Today, and Dexter (Season 3), on my portable DVD player. It was a really nice, relaxing way to spend most of the afternoon. At the last DPW show I was on, I spent a tough few hours hanging around the freezing Ossett Town Hall during the first ‘cold snap’ of the winter. This trip was during the second cold snap, but having the chance to spend the afternoon in comfort (and warmth!) made a big difference. I made my way to the Castleford Civic Centre by train, and a short walk, in good time for the show, and was suitably zen when I arrived!
I opened the show, teaming with El Ligero to face Prince Mohmed Ameen and Zack Diamond. (Ligero & I were facing Zack again; he had teamed with Joseph Connors last month in a losing effort against us. We were actually due to face the Myatts on this show but, unfortunately, they were unable to make it, in the end.) This was my first time working with Mo in about two years or so; we’d crossed paths on the UK scene a number of times, and he had a few shows for Irish Whip in 2009. It was nice to see- and work with- him again. It was a fun match, too, highlighted (for me) by Mo nearly wiping out the entire front row of the audience! There were steel guardrails set out around the ring, but I think one of them, probably, wasn’t weighted down properly. Mo got dropkicked off the apron, and went flying into the barricade; the end of it came loose, and ended up tilting towards the crowd. (Think of an upper-case L, where the vertical part of the letter is flying towards the audience!) There were panicked gasps, but thankfully no-one got hurt! That aside, the rest of the match went well, and was enjoyable. Ligero & I went over, and are due to face the dysfunctional team of Martin Kirby and my fellow IwW alumnus Mad Man Manson in April, for the DPW Tag Team Titles.
I popped off after the show, and walked back to the station to get my train back to Leeds. There were two other guys waiting there, both of whom had attended the show. One, Philip, had done a documentary on British wrestling a few years ago, and I’d met him at a previous DPW show. The other guy, Thomas, I hadn’t met before. We got chatting, anyway, and it was nice to have a bit of company on the trip back; sound lads. We parted in Leeds train station, and I got something to eat, as I waited for my connecting train back to Horsforth. I hadn’t eaten all day—a partial habit I’ve gotten into on show days—so was delighted to tuck into a McDonald’s. I got back to the Travelodge around midnight or so, and relaxed for a spell. 5-6 hours later, I had to be up for my flight home, and I was super-paranoid about oversleeping! Mainly, as I’d stupidly forgotten to charge my phone before I left, and the battery was nearly dead; my concern was that the phone wouldn’t have enough juice, as it were, to activate the alarm clock function, and I’d miss my wake-up call. Thankfully, that didn’t come to pass. The phone woke me up, and I walked back to the airport into a very chilly wind, and some fierce rain, and THAT- truly- woke me all the way up! The flight home was grand, and that was my first booking of the year done and dusted.
There was one other piece of wrestling-related business in January, and that took place towards the end of the month: I was taking part in TNA’s Gutcheck tryout dealie, in Wembley, London.
The travel went exceptionally smoothly- and according to plan- considering the infinite amount of variables that could’ve gone wrong. I flew into Stansted from Dublin, got the Stansted Express train to Tottenham Hale, the Tube from Tottenham Hale to Euston, and the London Overground from Euston to Wembley Park. A lot of connections, but it all went fine. The Tube—while superbly efficient—was quite a bit more cramped than I remembered it, though then again, it’s been about eight years since I last used it.
When I arrived at Wembley Park station, I met Sam Steel shortly after. I’d encountered Sam previously when I was over at TAW last September. (That was the show where I slapped that gobshite valet.) Sam was going to the tryout, too, so we hung out together for a few hours, and made our way to Wembley Arena (which was a little difficult to find, surprisingly!) We arrived there around 1:20 or thereabouts, checked in, and were shown to a very small changing room, with a load of other guys already getting ready. Most of the faces were unfamiliar to me, but I did recognise a few people.
Scottish worker Red Lightning was there; he and I had worked a match back in early 2008, when I débuted for PBW in Greenock, in Scotland. Joel Redman was there, as well—I’d worked him in my second last show for Irish Whip in 2009, and had crossed paths with him in Wrestling.IE a couple of times since. The first familiar face I saw, though, was Ross Jordan’s. (Or RJ Singh, as he’s called now.) Ross and I had worked together in a well-received 4 way match in PTW back in 2007, along with Seb Drea and Matt Naylor. (On that show, Bull Harley- of local rival promotion ACW- had burst into the venue mid-show, bellowing for Peter Staniforth to show himself, as he’d made some rather questionable allegations about him on the UKFF! One of the more unforgettable moments from my trips abroad!)
Things kicked off around 2pm when D’Lo Brown opened the session. He said he was gonna run through a few things that were gonna be able to tell him if the guys in the session were “able to work.” Stuff like collar-and-elbow tie-ups, the International, some chain, and a short match did give a good indication of the level and abilities of the participants, some of whom had come from as far afield as Italy to take part. There was a fair disparity in the abilities of everyone involved, to be honest, some of whom appeared to have not been trained entirely properly. I worked my match with Ross, and enjoyed it a lot. I was lucky to have gotten Ross to work with, considering some of the others there; potentially, it could’ve been an uphill struggle trying to work a decent match if I’d gotten someone else. Ross knows his stuff, though, and is a good worker, and I was happy with our match. Things wrapped around 4pm, and I got some positive feedback from D’Lo, which was quite encouraging. He’s a very nice guy.
Red Lightning, Sam and I went for a bit of grub after, stopping in to a nice Chinese restaurant near Wembley Arena. I headed back to my hotel after, and chilled for the evening (as I was rather knackered from a week of early starts in work, and a fairly early start that morning.) I stayed in the rather uninspiringly-named ‘Wembley Hotel’, which was alright, but the TV reception was crap, and the shower took about 3-5 minutes to heat up sufficiently. Though the TV reception was poor, I had the portable DVD with me again, and watched The Office (the British one) and the Season 4 finale of Dexter, which was totally shocking. Terrific season. Though I enjoy both the American and British versions of The Office, by the way, I do genuinely think the British one is better, and makes more realistic use of the whole ‘documentary-style’ concept. Along with that, I think Ricky Gervais makes a better cringe-worthy boss. The David Brent character is superbly written, and embodied by Gervais. The American one, regardless, is still- to my mind- one of the best American sitcoms of the last ten years or so, and is generally very well-written too. I just think the British one is slightly funnier.
Work on the rail lines on the Sunday morning meant that I had to make a few adjustments to my plan to get to Stansted, for my flight home. The Overground to Euston was closed, so I had to catch a bus there instead, around 6am. The Tube between Euston and Tottenham Hale was running fine, so there was no hassle there, but the Stansted Express train wasn’t running all the way to Stansted; it was stopping in Bishops Stortford, and a connecting coach was bringing people to the airport. Long story short, I made it back in good time for my flight, and made it home with no hassle.
It was a good trip. Though it would’ve been nice to have gotten a bit more feedback from the session, unfortunately the large number of participants (around 15-20) didn’t really allow for it. I was happy with the little feedback I did get, though, and with how I did, myself, during the session. Realistically, I don’t expect anything to come from it, but if I did get anything from doing this whole process it was a much-needed boost of confidence, and renewal of passion, both of which I’d been lacking slightly over the past while. In a way, I really needed this. In that regard, I’m really glad I did it, and did get something from it, if only to get some peace of mind, and removal of self-doubt. I’m driven, now, to make this as good a year as I can make it.
A big thanks to Lewis and Roger for bringing the session to my attention in the first place, and thanks to everyone for the nice comments on the page, in relation to the tryout. Really appreciate it.
‘Til next time, guys, thanks for reading, and all the best.
Ballance
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