Forgive the rather delayed nature of this blog, folks, but I really hit a wall in terms of what I wanted to stick in. Probably the worst case of writer’s block I’ve had since starting these things last year. No idea why. I’d generally just stick to a synopsis of the shows I’ve done in a month, and other random bullshit; March, however, proved to be a difficult month to write about, for some reason. As I say, I’m completely non-plussed as to why, but whatever. Let’s get cracking, anyway…
Show-wise, March opened with my second visit to DCW; Dublin Championship Wrestling. For a while, I was a little reticent about wrestling in Ireland again regularly, I have to admit, but it’s nice to be working here again. There are some very sound people, and I manage to avoid the travel involved with going abroad for shows. I don’t mind the travel too much, to be honest, but it’s just the little things that tend to irk over time, particularly with air travel. For example, I HATE- with a passion- when you’re boarding a plane, and the person in front moves forward only a few rows, then spends a ridiculous amount of time standing in the aisle trying to negotiate their bags into the overhead lockers, holding up everyone behind. I’m also sick to death of Eine Kleine fucking Nachtmusik, the Mozart piece which Ryanair pump out on every one of their flights. Would it kill them to mix things up, and play something else? Would it?!! (Seriously, would it? I’m not exactly expert on stuff like this.)
Anyway, DCW’s March show was taking place in the Green Isle Hotel, in Dublin, and was entitled ‘Championship Chase’; the winner of an eight-man tournament would face the winner of the DCW Rumble (Irish Dragon) at the next show in April. The Green Isle was a nice place but, unfortunately, not really ideal for a wrestling show, in terms of roof height. John Jennings, one of the other wrestlers on the show, split his head open rather nastily, during the third match, when he banged it off one of the ceiling fixtures. Luckily he was ok after. Just a nasty cut.
Things went fairly down to the wire before the show began, actually. The ropes used for the show last month- and since DCW began- were being replaced with cable ropes, which Vic Viper had made. The cables were measured, cut, wrapped in hose piping and foam, and just had to be covered in electrical tape to hold it all together and provide the right aesthetic look. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough tape to properly cover all the ropes, so a mad dash to Homebase was needed! Door time was coming ever closer, and the ropes still hadn’t been done- there was much hand-wringing and collar-tugging, I can assure you! Door time was 5:30pm, and the tape arrived with about fifteen minutes to spare! Everyone on the show grabbed a roll, and got taping as quickly as possible. As I say, it got very close, but the ropes were done just in time for the show!
I opened the show, in a tournament quarter final match with Tucker. I’d met Tucker a few times before, on trips up north- and liked him- but we’d never worked together prior to this. It was an enjoyable experience and, though we had the difficult task of opening the show with a face-vs-face match, we had a pretty solid one, and got the crowd into it. I was rocking my new baby blue gear, and have to say I think it’s definitely one of my favourite pairs in the collection. Great work again from AWP, my Aussie gear suppliers. Very nice people.
I chilled backstage once we were done, and chatted awhile with some of the lads. It was nice catching up with Jennidee, too, who I hadn’t seen for quite a while. I’d be facing Vic in the semis, and talked with him once he’d finished his bloodbath of a match with John Jennings! Vic and I have worked together plenty of times, and I’ve had some very enjoyable matches with him down through the years, so putting together a match was a piece of piss. (Irish slang for "easy". Don't ask..) His manager Gerry Soul- or “Father Soul”, as he goes by now- had a few spots to remember, as well, but he’s a smart guy, knows his shit, and got them instantly. I’ve worked matches with valets/managers in the past, where the person would have, maybe, one spot to remember, but would still manage to mess it up; not the case with Gerry. He was perfectly in position when needed, and did a great job.
A bit of a ruckus was caused earlier in the show by some visiting British wrestlers, the Dunne Brothers and Ryan Smile, when they tore up the Irish flag for heat. It caused quite a bit of offense and anger, and the show’s MC ended up apologising for it during the intermission. I found it quite surprising that it caused such a furore. To be honest, I was offended not so much as an Irishman, but more as a worker, as it was a very lazy way of getting heat! Heh heh.
I had my match with Vic after intermission, and was happy with it. Unfortunately, we had to truncate the ending a little bit, so the match got a little cut off just as we were building to the finish. That was intended, though, as it was leading into an angle. I nailed Vic with a Codebreaker, and he rolled off to the outside. I dove onto him with my Superman plancha, but before I could capitalise, members of his faction (the Family Against Sinners) came out, and dragged me to the back, ‘kidnapping’ me. Unfortunately, rather than allow himself to be distracted by Vic, or Father Soul, the ref watched the whole thing, and just counted me out, so it came across as very hokey. Ah well. Shit happens. The kidnapping thing was developed to cover for the fact I’d be missing the next two DCW shows in April- as I’d committed to bookings for DPW and TAW- and hopefully, to give me a nice little angle to work with from May.
Post-show, I chatted to Brother Skelly for a while- a friend and former trainee of mine- and then headed on home, picking up a pizza pie on the way. (A ‘Buffalo’ from Apache Pizza: ham, chicken, pepperoni and bacon. Nice!) Enjoyable day. My next show for DCW is in my neck-of-the-woods next month, in the Artane/Beaumont Family Rec Centre. It’s a very nice place; hopefully, it’ll get a decent turnout on the night.
Before my second show of the month, for SSW in Scotland, I went to get my neck checked out. I’ve very luckily never had a serious injury so far- touch wood!- but I’ve had a bunch of niggling little things that have bugged me for a while, and my neck’s been one of them. It’s annoyed me on and off for a few years, but since a show in February of this year, it’s been stiff, and uncomfortable. If it were anything else, I’d have left it to heal itself- a process I’ve found successful with other previous niggles- but neck/spine stuff is serious business, so I thought it best to get it looked at, in case anything was messed up with it. Things came to a head when I was training with Skelly one evening; he gave me a standard (and perfectly safe) suplex variation on a crashmat, and I struggled to get back up. I was genuinely in a bad way. It was ridiculous. The following Tuesday, I headed to a physio. I was given the all-clear in terms of bone/disc damage, but the ol’ trap muscles around my neck were very tense, and getting worn down from being in an almost constant state of spasm. I was told there was nothing that could be done, really, apart from treating them with heat if it was bad. Disheartening to know this would recur, but at least it’s not that serious. Could be worse…
At the end of March, I headed over for SSW (Scottish School of Wrestling). I was over for them three times last year, but this was my first trip of 2011. I flew into Glasgow Prestwick fairly early, and got breakfast at the airport there. As I was chowing down, as it were, I got a call from Dave Power (of DCW) offering me a Trainer’s position in the new DCW training school he was opening. This sounded good to me, so I accepted. More on that later… I checked into a B&B near the Airport around 12:30, relaxed for just under an hour, then headed to Ayr train station, to begin my journey to Whitburn. I got a train from Ayr to Glasgow Central, walked to Glasgow Queen Street- which wasn’t signed very well, to be honest- and waited briefly before getting a connecting train to Bathgate. From Bathgate, I headed to Whitburn Academy, where I thought the show was on. (As the ‘Muscle ‘n’ Mayhem show I’d done for SSW last year had been there.) Alas, it was not. The venue was the Whitburn Legion- a pub/social club- a short 10-15 min walk from there. I made that journey, and eventually arrived, fairly tired from a day’s travel. (I was amused to discover, actually, that another guy advertised for the show wouldn’t be appearing as he expected door-to-door transport from where he was to the venue. Heh heh. He’ll go far…)
I was on second, I think, with G.I. Joe, a very nice guy who does an army gimmick, with a few masked commandoes (or ‘privates’) at his side. Joe was good to work with, the match went well, and the crowd got into it, suitably. They certainly didn’t appreciate his tainted victory, hitting me in the head with a spanner, as the ref’s attention was diverted! I also took part in a twelve-man tag match that closed the show.
I had the first leg of my train journey back uncomfortably close to the end of the show, but just finished up my part in the match, rushed backstage, took off my wrestling pants and kickpad covers, and threw on a T-shirt and jeans. A very kind lady named Jenny ran me back up to Bathgate train station, leaving me with ten minutes to relax- and take off my kickpads and kneepads!- before the train arrived. Not the first time I’ve gone to/from a show in gear. I’m sure every worker has experienced that at some point. Back in 2007, I caught a train straight from work on a Friday evening to Waterford, where there was an IWW show on, in the Forum. (The Forum was an awesome venue, incidentally, back in the day.) Anyway, once I arrived, it would be after doors had opened, so as we approached Waterford on the train, I changed into my gear. The carriage was fairly empty, so it wasn’t some smutty peep show! Got a few looks for being the guy walking through the streets of Waterford in the bright silver pants, but what can you do? Heh heh.
The train journeys back allowed me the first time in the day to genuinely unwind, and just chill. On the way to the show, I was thinking of stuff for the match, along with ensuring I got the right connections, and so forth. On the way back, I could just relax, and had on Extras, on my portable DVD. (Damn good series.) Finally got a chance to get a decent bite to eat, once I got back into Glasgow, and was going from Queen St. to Central. Stopped off for a nice chicken pizziola in Subway, and polished that off before the final leg of my journey, back to Ayr. (I think I mentioned it in an earlier blog, but I generally don’t like to eat that much the day of a show, preferring instead to wait ‘til afterwards. Everyone has their weird rituals.) The walk back from Ayr to my B&B wasn’t fun. I’d gotten a dead leg during my match with Joe, as he’d accidentally landed on it when I was giving him my B-84 move. (The swingy X-Factor thingamajig.) A few weeks previous, I’d gotten a knock on that leg during a game of football. It had since healed up, but this set it back again! This year has been a collection of silly knocks and niggling injuries—stupid body! Heh heh. Eventually got back to my B&B, and managed to get, I think, four or five hours’ sleep before I was up again for my flight home to Dublin, which was alright except for a loud stag party screaming and shouting, and generally showing no consideration for anyone else on the flight. Eurgh.
Anyway, that was it for shows but, as I mentioned earlier, I accepted the Trainer position with DCW. I’ve since taken my first class with the School, and it was quite encouraging. I got a lot from training in IWW for three years, and I’m looking forward to teaching a new group of guys and girls, and showing them the ropes, figuratively speaking!
Other random crap: really looking forward to Scream 4, which is out at the end of next week. I’m quite a fan of the series, and have been impressed by what I’ve seen of it thus far. Hope it delivers… I finished off Dollhouse in March, and was very impressed by it. Shame the networks in the US didn’t warm to it, but I think it told its story well in the two seasons it was on. I’ve now moved on to Season 2 of Lie to Me, which I’m liking so far, and will probably watch Firefly after that. (That was Joss Whedon’s other series that got cut down in its prime, apparently)… Had the ‘pleasure’ of witnessing a woman squatting down and going to the bathroom in a phone box recently. Really quite charming. Great visual for Irish tourism, I’m sure you’d agree… Wes Craven’s latest effort- My Soul to Take- got a critical panning in the US. I saw it recently, myself, and thought it was pretty good. A little bit incoherent, but mainly good, and well-acted. I liked it, personally, but to each their own…
That’s it for the moment, guys. Thanks for reading, as always. Hoping there won’t be as long a gap between this blog and the next. Until then, take care.
- Ballance
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