- originally written Oct 30th, 2010-
Well, not really… This blog is very much in two dimensions only! Sorry if you feel cheated. That’s pretty much how I feel any time I’ve to pay over the odds to see a film in 3D! I know this is primarily a “wrestling” blog, but if you’ll just allow me this brief aside: I’m sick to death of 3D films. Call me a luddite if you will, but there really is no need to have most of these 3D films in three dimensions! Aside from Avatar- where the 3D effect DID actually add to the feel of the film- I haven’t seen a 3D film that genuinely made use of the concept effectively. My Bloody Valentine was a lot of fun, but I mainly enjoyed that for the actual story, and because it was a good horror film, not for the 3D. There was absolutely no need for Clash of the Titans to be in 3D, or Final Destination 4 (which was abominable). Even, recently, Saw VII (or “Saw 3D”, as it was released) could’ve been released as a 2D film easily enough. Bar one or two moments in the film, like a hacksaw flying off screen, there was little 3D action. Still unsure what I thought of Saw VII, incidentally; I’m a firm follower of the series, and have enjoyed the arc throughout the films, but I don't know if it was the finest way to end. That’s if it is, in fact, the last one. From the film’s conclusion, there’s plenty of room for a Saw VIII, if they decide to go down that road. Anyway, my main point: the 3D gimmick’s being done to death. I’m tired of it. That is all. On to the wrestling!
I wrapped up June at the end of the last blog, and had notched off the first of my three weekends in Scotland. The second weekend took me back to PBW, for their show on the Isle of Arran. I flew in to Prestwick Airport in Glasgow early on the Saturday morning, and got a ridiculously overpriced breakfast in Dublin airport beforehand; how sausages, beans and toast can come to over six Euro is beyond me! Needless to say, this was NOT a sensibly-priced meal, and will be the last time I eat in Dublin Airport! Anyway… Scottish worker Logan Storm picked me up from the Airport, we hung out for a few hours, and then caught the ferry to the Isle of Arran. It was my first time since my youth getting a boat anywhere (if you ignore the Strangford-Portaferry business I got myself into before April’s Newtownards show) and the trip was enjoyable. Logan’s a very nice guy; though we’d met a few times before at other shows, it was cool chatting with him a bit more at length.
Arriving on Arran reminded me of The Wicker Man, in a way; one of my favourite films. (The original film, that is, as opposed to the abysmal remake with Nicolas Cage. Ugh.) The sense of paranoia and distrust towards ‘mainlanders’ was palpable! The show was a matinée, and we arrived at the venue just as the doors had opened. I was originally due to face ‘The Highlander’ Colin McKay, but that got changed, and I ended up in an enjoyable three-way with Justin Thorn and Jamie Feerick, both exceptionally nice guys, and cool to work with. The turnout wasn’t phenomenal, but those in attendance seemed to enjoy the show, and made a sufficient amount of noise to provide a good atmosphere for proceedings.
Once the show wrapped up, we’d a few hours before the next ferry crossing back to the mainland, so twenty one of us headed for a bite to eat in a local restaurant. Yeah, twenty one… This was approximately three o’clock in the afternoon, and the management there were NOT happy to see us! Not one jot! I can understand that having such a large group descend on you without notice would be stressful but, at the same time, it would be a huge taking, money-wise, for the restaurant. As I say, I understand the stress—I worked in a very busy McDonald’s in Dublin city centre for three years—but the staff in this restaurant were very unprofessional, and brusque, and the food was the epitome of bland. Heh heh: “Bingo Ballance: Food Critic”! The only saving grace was a reasonably tasty chocolate brownie-type dessert. At any rate, not an especially pleasant dining experience. The ferry back was shortly after, and from there I went back to Colin McKay’s with Andy Wild, and we stayed there for the evening, along with an SPWA trainee named Jordan, getting a takeaway, and watching Family Guy.
The next day, I was taking a training seminar in the SPWA facility in East Kilbride. I like training, I have to say, as I think I touched on in one of my earlier blogs. Unfortunately, bar the odd seminar, I haven’t gotten to do a great deal of it regularly, since the IWW facility closed down in August 2008. Actually, just as I’m speaking about that, I’d like to share a couple of quick memories from IWW over the years training there; for amusement, if nothing else. *cue flashback*
Where to begin? How about with the trainee who got a bit… eh… “excited” during training, if you get me… Excited in his trousers, if you follow. Mm-hm. That’s right! Heh heh heh. That was memorable, certainly! I really pitied the poor guy who had to take a waistlock from him, on one occasion! What else…? Ah, yes. There was one other guy who was essentially a pathological liar, who lied about everything from his age to his wrestling experience—he had none, previously, but tried to convince us that he’d wrestled for IWA Mid South in a deathmatch, and got a dark match with Hustle, in Japan—to his childhood friendship with a current WWE wrestler, and so forth. I just don’t understand why people tell lies like these when they can be so easily rumbled. What, do they expect that people just won’t find out? I don’t get the psychology of it. He wasn’t a bad guy per se, but I don’t like being bullshitted. Bullshat? Whatever. You get what I mean! A regular reader of this blog also cut one of the most memorable promos in the history of training, showing an amazing amount of creativity for why he wanted to face his hypothetical opponent; the scurrilous rogue had stabbed this trainee’s horse in the neck with a screwdriver! Heh heh. Awesome! Another guy had an inexplicable inability to keep his pants up. I eventually became desensitised to the sight of his ass crack being on display! Manson, who’s thankfully a bit more upfront than I am when it comes to matters like this, told him to get his pants up during one class, leading to the guy wearing his pants way up, like a geriatric. Another amusing visual! My most lasting memory regarding that guy, however, would be giving him a bodyslam during one class, and him appearing to void his bowels! Ah, memories…! If I think of any other decent ones, I’ll include them in another blog. Anyway, back to 2010…
I’m surprised I actually made it to the session. I slept the previous night in the front room, where Andy & Jordan were also sleeping. The TV was on during the night, so I woke up with it on that morning. The lads were still sleeping, and the remote was on the coffee table. In order to reach the remote, I’d have to negotiate my way around them both, and risk waking them, which I didn’t want to do. I, thus, took one for the team, as they say, and suffered the Never-Ending Carousel of Misery that is the infomercial for the Ab-King Pro! *shudder* I considered just ending it all right there!
Anyway, around noon I think it was, we headed to the SPWA facility, and I began my class/seminar. To be honest, I was quite disappointed by it. I’ve definitely done better classes. The main problem was the huge variance in ages and standards. So, all in the one class were people as young as 10 or 11 up to those in their mid-twenties, and people who had a few years’ experience under their belts to those who’d never even bumped before. Trying to do things that would suit everyone was nigh-on impossible, and where I tried, I think, to do stuff that would suit both groups- both experienced and not- I don’t think either was sufficiently catered for. It was disappointing, personally, as I always hope that if I do a seminar, each person can take at least one thing away from it that could be of benefit to them. I remember attending guest seminars in the past where I felt that my money was completely wasted, so I definitely wouldn’t want anyone feeling that way going away from one of my classes. It was a shame, anyway, but thankfully wasn’t my last seminar this year.
Annoyingly, my flight back was hugely delayed from Prestwick. The flight was due to leave shortly after nine, but I don’t think took off until well after eleven. It was frustrating, especially as I’d have work early the next morning. I whiled away the additional time listening to the iPod, and reading—I think I was reading Harold Pinter’s play ‘The Hothouse’, which was very good. I eventually got home, got four hours’ sleep, and that was it for the second weekend. Two down, one to go.
The final weekend of the three was in Bathgate, again involving a flight to Prestwick. I was met by Calum, who I hadn’t seen since March. It was cool catching up with him. He was to make his début in two weeks' time, so was suitably stoked (as they say in the States.) We hung out at his place for the morning, playing some Guitar Hero. I am RUBBISH at Guitar Hero! Whether it was ‘The Kill’ by 30 Seconds to Mars or ‘Knights of Cydonia’ by Muse or ‘All these Things That I’ve Done’ by The Killers, I’d always invariably be booed off the stage! Why would they come to our concert just to boo us? It brought back to my mind the anecdote I’d heard where Morrissey (former lead singer of The Smiths) had been bottled off stage…. at his OWN concert! Heh heh. I think he was midway through one of his songs, and someone had thrown a bottle-cap onto the stage, and it hit him in the face. He took his guitar, and left the stage, as the punters rained boos down on him! Can’t really blame him, but anyway, I digress… Where was I…? Ah, yeah: I’m crap at Guitar Hero.
Calum & I headed to Bathgate in the afternoon, and hit the venue, figuratively-speaking, for the SSW show later on. Nice seeing a few familiar and friendly faces there, like Muzlem, Falcon, Ken Adams, BT Gunn, and Chris Rampage, who I’d seen the previous weekend at the show and seminar. I also met, for the first time, the oldest active wrestler in the UK: Dave Kidney, 79. I didn’t have a chance to see Dave wrestle, but he was a gent to talk to. Very nice chap. My match was a face-vs-face one with Ken Adams; a lovely guy and a very good worker, into the bargain. As much as I enjoyed the match, it was marred somewhat by the worst referee I’ve ever come across in 5+ years wrestling. (Even worse than a ref that fucked up the finish FOUR times in a match I had with Jay Knox in December of last year!)
To be honest, I should’ve known what I was in for. I’m a firm believer that a ref is an integral part of the match, and can definitely help build suspense and add fundamentally to the excitement of the finishing sequence through how he paces his counts, if you get me. If you hit a pretty big false finish and the ref counts slow, it’s kinda obvious that a kickout’s coming. If he counts just that little bit faster, it really, really amps up the suspense, and tension. It’s amazing how a tiny thing like that can make a difference, but any good ref that I’ve been in the ring with instinctively knows these things, and understands the psychology of how a faster count can help lead the fans to thinking the finish is coming. I’d be a little particular about that; if I want the ref to count a bit faster for a particular move to increase excitement, I’ll let him know in advance and, generally, it’s quite effective. I tried to explain to the ref in this match that I wanted him to count a bit faster when Ken hit the Code Red (a sunset flip powerbomb) and it wasn’t getting through to him. I explained the move, when it would be hit, and so forth, and he really didn’t seem to be understanding what I was asking of him. I left it, and sorta knew that he’d fuck it up somehow. Wasn’t a big deal. What I wasn’t counting on, if you’ll pardon the referee-based pun, is that the man would actually manage to fuck up the opening spot, too!
The opening spot involved Ken & I going back-and-forth a little bit, and would eventually lead to a fast-paced pinning sequence, where we’d trade pins back and forth. Essential to this spot is the ref jumping around the place, counting the pins, and wearing himself out! Done well, the spot gets a good pop, and the ref’s reaction can usually add to it. This guy didn’t even leave his feet! Several times, we had pins, and he just stood there. I had Ken pinned, and barked at him to count, then Ken reversed, and he just stood there again! Despite the ridiculousness of this, I again shouted at him to “COUNT!!” even though I was the one being pinned! The guy gave sporadic standing counts, as we traded the pins. All the pace had been drained from the spot, and I was quite pissed. Yelling “COUNT!” proved ineffective; I was more inclined at that point to just drop the ‘O’ from that word, but it was a family show…
The match nevertheless went on and, despite the appalling refereeing, I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was good fun. The show, too, was fun, and it was nice, atmosphere-wise, backstage. I like SSW, I must say… Went back to Calum’s post-show, and enjoyed some Family Guy, and a pizza pie! The flight back was the following morning, and Calum very kindly got me there in plenty of time. That was it for my Scottish trilogy, as it were.
I was expecting that to be that for July, but I got an unexpected offer to do a Wrestling.IE show later in the month, in Irvinestown, Fermanagh. Had it been on the same money as I’d been paid previously, I would’ve definitely turned it down on principle due to the messing around from earlier in the year, but since my full expenses and fee was going to be covered, I decided to head along. I worked Joe Cabray in a singles, which was quite good, and we also had a tag match, where he & Casey Owens faced me and Rachel Walker. That wasn’t so good. It was a bit of a mess, to be honest, as mixed tags can sometimes be, but what can you do? Casey, who’s one of Bonesaw’s trainees in the North, impressed me, though, and seems to be coming along well. My most enjoyable bit of the night was getting to cut the promo to challenge Joe & Casey to the tag; I don’t think I’d ever gotten a chance to take the mic in the promotion previously, but I was happy with the promo, and felt it got the job done quite nicely, getting the fans into it… I was actually paid a little bit more than what I’d asked for as a “thank you”, so that was quite sound of Steve, the promoter. Certainly, a nice gesture. The drive back to Dublin was grand, and my meal of choice once I was closer to home was some delicious fried chicken and chips from Hillbilly’s, a former IWW haunt, back in the day. They do some really nice food, particularly their gravy dip, which is simply outrageous. Heh heh.
And that’s it for July. That was a bit longer than I’d expected it to be! Heh heh. Thanks, as always, for reading, guys.
Ballance.
Thursday, 21 June 2012
The Ballance Sheet, Blog VI
- originally written Oct 15th, 2010-
Eh, it was the end of May I believe we left off at… I’d one more booking at the end of the month, and that was with PWU (Pro Wrestling Ulster) in Belfast.
The PWU show was on a Sunday. The Friday before, I’d taken part in a 5-a-side football blitz with some of my colleagues from work, at this astro turf place in Dublin. The pitches were absolute crap—like a thin layer of carpet, with a sand/gravel base, as opposed to some of the more modern pitches which, I believe, have a rubber base. At any rate, it was the first bit of actual competitive football I’d played in donkey’s years, and I was near-crippled by the end of it! Every- EVERY- muscle ached, and my knees and elbows were cut to ribbons by the crap playing surface. I was in bits on Saturday, and felt even worse on Sunday. I was moving like an arthritic 80 year old, and wasn’t exactly certain this was gonna help me make the best first impression in the promotion!
Atmosphere-wise, I really liked PWU. There were guys there that I’d previously interacted with a lot in Wrestling.IE (like Tron, Corvin, Vice, DJ Marshall) and other guys I was meeting for the first time (like Tucker, JDP and Brian Corr, amongst others) and nearly everyone there was sound, and nice to deal with. My match, on the night, was against JDP, who’s a fair bit taller and heavier than me, and I think we had a nice match, working with the size differential. JDP is surprisingly agile for a guy of his size, and I enjoyed our match. The only drawback- if there was one- was the roof height in the Balmoral Hotel, where the show was on. The height itself in the middle of the ring was fine, but there were these really weird ceiling fixtures above all four of the corners, so top rope stuff was essentially off-limits. Not a huge problem, and I still managed to hit a top-rope move, anyway; using the low ceiling, I managed to walk across the top rope, out of the way of the ceiling fixtures, and nail JDP with a frog splash. It was a really risky, really stupid thing to try- heh heh- but I wouldn’t have done it any differently! Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say.
The adrenaline carried me through, I must say—once it wore off later, I was back to feeling shattered, and I think it’s the worst state I’ve ever wrestled in, bar an 8-man tag a few years ago, when I had a bit of whiplash, and neck pain. It’s amazing what adrenaline can do! Heh heh. Nevertheless, a post-show pizza from Domino’s, when I got home, managed to pick up my spirits a little!
A week later, the first weekend in June, I was back to the north of England for IWF. Making it a two-for-two on flights to Newcastle (after last month’s), this journey was marred by morons, too. (If you recall, my flight last month had that raucous hen party on it.) This time around, there was this complete fucktard behind me, BELLOWING a running commentary to his seatmates as we were preparing to land: “OI DAZ, LOOK- THERE’S THE TOON!!” he roared at one point. I’ve never wanted so much to just reach over the seat behind me and rip out someone’s vocal chords! It amazes me how people can have such little consideration for those around them. Flying is difficult enough—particularly with the lack of space you’re afforded on a Ryanair flight—without having to listen to gobshites around you trying to outshout each other. Morons.
The show was decent but, if I’m honest, the venue was an absolute dive. It was the Dunston Mechanics Social Club; L-shaped, with a low-roof, and just generally not very pleasant. Along with that, we ended up having to get changed out the back of the venue, in this cramped, overgrown garden. It was lucky it was summer; otherwise, it would’ve been even more unpleasant. It was probably the worst backstage setup I’ve worked this year, and actually brought to mind some of the unique places and situations I’ve had to get changed in before. (*cue flashback*)
The IWW Gym Wars shows were some of the most fun shows I’ve ever worked on. They were held in the training school in Baldoyle, in north Dublin. The changing conditions were always interesting! For the majority of them, we were in the lane alongside the lock-up. In good weather, that was no bother at all. However, when Gym Wars 18 was held in January, 2007, it was a whole different kettle of fish. It was absolutely FREEZING; even INSIDE the gym it was cold! We had those outdoor heater things they have in pubs, but it was still very chilly. (ROH stars Daizee Haze and Lacey were over for that show, and were real troopers about it, as far as I recall. Never complained.) At Gym Wars 16, in autumn 2006, it was absolutely lashing rain, so that wasn’t the nicest either! Eventually, the prick of a landlord locked off the lane, so we had to get a bit more creative with how we set up the backstage. For one of the GW shows- 20, I think- we parked a van and a few cars across a section of the car park, blocking it off to the public, and allowing us a place to leave our gear, and plan our stuff. (That show I remember, though, mainly for being the bloodiest GW on record! I split my chin, and another guy- Skelly- got busted hardway, when his forehead was slammed into an exposed part of the apron, and he hit the corner of one of the boards. Ouch. He bled quite heavily, and needed stitches, himself.) In spite of the backstage conditions- which usually added to the atmosphere anyway- the shows were, as I say, a great deal of fun. Other novel backstage environments included getting changed in a caravan (for an outdoor IWW show in 2007), in a hotel room (IWW- 2009), in a corridor adjoining a room with a “DANGER- ASBESTOS” sign (WrestleZone- 2009) and in The Granby for 1PW. The Granby’s changing area was a very narrow stage, and I remember that mainly as they had Abyss over for that show. He was using a chair to climb up onto the stage, lost his footing, and nearly crushed this poor fella behind him! Abyss is massive in person, and I’m sure the fella’s life flashed before his eyes as he saw this behemoth tilting toward him, blocking out the sun!
Anyway, the backstage conditions aside, the match I was in went fairly well. It was a fourway match, with KATSU, Reece Jordan and Lewis Beardsley. Planning multi-person matches of this nature are a headache, I have to say, regardless of who’s in them. Things tend to get overcomplicated, and you’ve more people to worry about; you have to ensure everyone hits their cue, as it were, and give them reasons to be out of the match, if they’re not involved in the action. That said, I enjoyed the match for the most part, and think it went alright. The lads were very sound, and I enjoyed working with them.
A main highlight of the trip over was getting to meet John Hopper, a guy who designed my BingoBallance.com website a few years ago. We’d been in touch since about 2006, but had never met face-to-face. He’d seen some of my matches on The Wrestling Channel around that time and, very generously, offered to design a website for me. It was great to meet him for the first time, and though my own website hasn’t really been updated in quite some time, I’m glad to say it’s for a good reason, and John’s getting plenty of work in designing sites. He’s a good guy, and deserves it.
I was due to work a Wrestling.IE show the following weekend, but that was one of the ones I’d been cancelled from, in order to facilitate the new “NXT” movement the promotion was working towards. From what I’d heard, the show drew absolutely catastrophically, and the idea went down in flames. Ah, well… Having kept the 12th open anyway for Wrestling.IE, the late cancellation meant that organising another show for that date would be nigh-on impossible-- and it was-- so I had a few enjoyable weeks off for some relaxation; definitely needed since the last weekend in June would be the first of three weekends in a row where I’d be heading over to Scotland.
The original plan for the first weekend was to head over to WrestleZone (in Aberdeen) on the Friday, to do a training seminar, and then do a show on the Saturday. Unfortunately, the training venue was unavailable on the Friday, but I headed over, anyway, and hung out with the WZ guys for the day, which was nice. A few of us went to see ‘The Collector’, which was alright, but I was astonished by the amount of ads on before the film—at the very least, it was 25 mins. The film was listed as 12:30, but didn’t begin ‘til 12:55 or thereabouts. Madness. Unutterable madness! In the evening, a good few of us went out for a bite to eat in the Cocket Hat, a pub serving some rather tasty food. In the traditional Scottish fashion, all the main courses were served in a man’s hat. Well, maybe not, but wouldn’t that have been something! (I think The Cocket Hat was a Wetherspoon’s franchise.) It was a nice experience, and I found it very comfortable with the WZ guys and girls. Great people. (Scotty Swift gets a special mention for being able to polish off three desserts! At least I THINK it was three. Most impressive, anyhow.) I stayed over with Alan Stirling and his fiancée Cara (and their little boy, Jake.) Alan & Cara were really nice, and made me quite welcome; we got along very well. I’ve never been exactly used to dealing with small children, or babies, but Jake was a really nice kid, and eventually warmed up to the strange Irish man occupying the family’s front room!
Saturday morning was spent chilling in front of the TV. It was in this capacity that I heard- for the first time- a song that I’d later use as entrance music: ‘Closer to the Edge’ by 30 Seconds to Mars. I wouldn’t be a huge fan of theirs, per se—I like a few of their songs, like ‘The Kill’, ‘Kings and Queens’ and ‘From Yesterday’—but this song immediately grabbed me. Entrance music is, for me, an essential part of the character. Everyone approaches a match, or a show, in their own way, but ideally, I like to know what music I’m coming out to, and when to make my entrance. It helps me focus. Whether it was Plug-in Baby (Muse), Map of the Problematique (Muse), Spitfire (The Prodigy), Everyday Combat (Lostprophets) or Switch On (Oakenfold and Ryan), I’ve always had my cue for when to head out, and switch into “Bingo Ballance" mode. It helps; especially for a babyface, when you need something to amp you up, as it were, before you head out. I find it quite fascinating, the varied ways in which people prepare themselves to head out and perform. Down the years, I’ve seen some guys say a prayer before they go out, others will joke with the lads to settle their nerves, others may spend a quiet moment to make sure the match is ‘in their head.’ Everyone approaches ‘the performance’ in their own way. Personally- as cheesy as it sounds- I take a moment (as my music is kicking in) to remind myself that I’m doing something I love, that I’m not gonna be able to do it forever, and to simply enjoy the moment, and what it brings. That gets me psyched, and in ‘The Zone.’ Having my own entrance music- as opposed to some random, generic track someone else has picked out- is a big help, and I can time my “enjoy the moment” bullshit with the track’s intro!
Saturday afternoon was a busy one, and I had two training sessions in the Summerhill Hotel, in Aberdeen, for WZ. The first one was with some of their more experienced trainees; while the session went alright, I wasn’t 100% happy with it. I was a bit pushed for time, and the disparity in levels and experience made it a little difficult to do stuff suitable for everyone in the session. (I got a chance to avenge this, however, two months later, when I took another seminar which, I felt, went better.) The second session, with two of the newer trainees, James and Fraser, was much better, and I was satisfied that I’d gone over enough stuff with them, and helped them along. The show, too, went very well, and drew a great crowd. I tagged with Bryan Tucker to face the WZ tag champs Sterling Oil, in a very enjoyable match, and later won a battle royal (or “regal rumble”, to avoid copyright infringement!) Fun times.
In a rare bit of “going out after the show”, we headed out to The Basement in Aberdeen afterward. Despite the very loud music, I had a good evening, chatting away to Andy Anderson, who was also on the show, and had travelled from Glasgow. I’d met Andy on previous trips to PBW, and he actually reffed my match with Wolfgang back in March. Nice to see him on a show, in a wrestling capacity. While most of the WZ guys headed next door to a nightclub, once last orders were called, we headed back to Cara & Alan’s. Considering the fact that I’m not familiar with Aberdeen, it was nice having Andy there, too, especially since I was a little buzzed after three or four pints! (I don’t drink much, really, and when I do, I don’t do so to excess; I prefer to be in control of myself. I was a little buzzed, alright, but thankfully still in possession of most of my mental faculties, as it were!) We headed back, anyway, and played a little Mario Kart on the Wii, with Cara. I came to the sobering realisation that I’m crap at Mario Kart. Heh heh.
My flight back to Dublin- and Andy’s train back to Glasgow- wasn’t until Sunday afternoon, so we spent the morning chilling out, and playing the Wii. Eventually, I said my goodbyes to Cara, Alan and Jake, and headed to Aberdeen Airport. My flight back was grand, and that was that for the first of my three Scottish weekends; a very enjoyable way to start off, with the WZ folk.
And that’s June. Thanks for reading, guys.
Eh, it was the end of May I believe we left off at… I’d one more booking at the end of the month, and that was with PWU (Pro Wrestling Ulster) in Belfast.
The PWU show was on a Sunday. The Friday before, I’d taken part in a 5-a-side football blitz with some of my colleagues from work, at this astro turf place in Dublin. The pitches were absolute crap—like a thin layer of carpet, with a sand/gravel base, as opposed to some of the more modern pitches which, I believe, have a rubber base. At any rate, it was the first bit of actual competitive football I’d played in donkey’s years, and I was near-crippled by the end of it! Every- EVERY- muscle ached, and my knees and elbows were cut to ribbons by the crap playing surface. I was in bits on Saturday, and felt even worse on Sunday. I was moving like an arthritic 80 year old, and wasn’t exactly certain this was gonna help me make the best first impression in the promotion!
Atmosphere-wise, I really liked PWU. There were guys there that I’d previously interacted with a lot in Wrestling.IE (like Tron, Corvin, Vice, DJ Marshall) and other guys I was meeting for the first time (like Tucker, JDP and Brian Corr, amongst others) and nearly everyone there was sound, and nice to deal with. My match, on the night, was against JDP, who’s a fair bit taller and heavier than me, and I think we had a nice match, working with the size differential. JDP is surprisingly agile for a guy of his size, and I enjoyed our match. The only drawback- if there was one- was the roof height in the Balmoral Hotel, where the show was on. The height itself in the middle of the ring was fine, but there were these really weird ceiling fixtures above all four of the corners, so top rope stuff was essentially off-limits. Not a huge problem, and I still managed to hit a top-rope move, anyway; using the low ceiling, I managed to walk across the top rope, out of the way of the ceiling fixtures, and nail JDP with a frog splash. It was a really risky, really stupid thing to try- heh heh- but I wouldn’t have done it any differently! Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say.
The adrenaline carried me through, I must say—once it wore off later, I was back to feeling shattered, and I think it’s the worst state I’ve ever wrestled in, bar an 8-man tag a few years ago, when I had a bit of whiplash, and neck pain. It’s amazing what adrenaline can do! Heh heh. Nevertheless, a post-show pizza from Domino’s, when I got home, managed to pick up my spirits a little!
A week later, the first weekend in June, I was back to the north of England for IWF. Making it a two-for-two on flights to Newcastle (after last month’s), this journey was marred by morons, too. (If you recall, my flight last month had that raucous hen party on it.) This time around, there was this complete fucktard behind me, BELLOWING a running commentary to his seatmates as we were preparing to land: “OI DAZ, LOOK- THERE’S THE TOON!!” he roared at one point. I’ve never wanted so much to just reach over the seat behind me and rip out someone’s vocal chords! It amazes me how people can have such little consideration for those around them. Flying is difficult enough—particularly with the lack of space you’re afforded on a Ryanair flight—without having to listen to gobshites around you trying to outshout each other. Morons.
The show was decent but, if I’m honest, the venue was an absolute dive. It was the Dunston Mechanics Social Club; L-shaped, with a low-roof, and just generally not very pleasant. Along with that, we ended up having to get changed out the back of the venue, in this cramped, overgrown garden. It was lucky it was summer; otherwise, it would’ve been even more unpleasant. It was probably the worst backstage setup I’ve worked this year, and actually brought to mind some of the unique places and situations I’ve had to get changed in before. (*cue flashback*)
The IWW Gym Wars shows were some of the most fun shows I’ve ever worked on. They were held in the training school in Baldoyle, in north Dublin. The changing conditions were always interesting! For the majority of them, we were in the lane alongside the lock-up. In good weather, that was no bother at all. However, when Gym Wars 18 was held in January, 2007, it was a whole different kettle of fish. It was absolutely FREEZING; even INSIDE the gym it was cold! We had those outdoor heater things they have in pubs, but it was still very chilly. (ROH stars Daizee Haze and Lacey were over for that show, and were real troopers about it, as far as I recall. Never complained.) At Gym Wars 16, in autumn 2006, it was absolutely lashing rain, so that wasn’t the nicest either! Eventually, the prick of a landlord locked off the lane, so we had to get a bit more creative with how we set up the backstage. For one of the GW shows- 20, I think- we parked a van and a few cars across a section of the car park, blocking it off to the public, and allowing us a place to leave our gear, and plan our stuff. (That show I remember, though, mainly for being the bloodiest GW on record! I split my chin, and another guy- Skelly- got busted hardway, when his forehead was slammed into an exposed part of the apron, and he hit the corner of one of the boards. Ouch. He bled quite heavily, and needed stitches, himself.) In spite of the backstage conditions- which usually added to the atmosphere anyway- the shows were, as I say, a great deal of fun. Other novel backstage environments included getting changed in a caravan (for an outdoor IWW show in 2007), in a hotel room (IWW- 2009), in a corridor adjoining a room with a “DANGER- ASBESTOS” sign (WrestleZone- 2009) and in The Granby for 1PW. The Granby’s changing area was a very narrow stage, and I remember that mainly as they had Abyss over for that show. He was using a chair to climb up onto the stage, lost his footing, and nearly crushed this poor fella behind him! Abyss is massive in person, and I’m sure the fella’s life flashed before his eyes as he saw this behemoth tilting toward him, blocking out the sun!
Anyway, the backstage conditions aside, the match I was in went fairly well. It was a fourway match, with KATSU, Reece Jordan and Lewis Beardsley. Planning multi-person matches of this nature are a headache, I have to say, regardless of who’s in them. Things tend to get overcomplicated, and you’ve more people to worry about; you have to ensure everyone hits their cue, as it were, and give them reasons to be out of the match, if they’re not involved in the action. That said, I enjoyed the match for the most part, and think it went alright. The lads were very sound, and I enjoyed working with them.
A main highlight of the trip over was getting to meet John Hopper, a guy who designed my BingoBallance.com website a few years ago. We’d been in touch since about 2006, but had never met face-to-face. He’d seen some of my matches on The Wrestling Channel around that time and, very generously, offered to design a website for me. It was great to meet him for the first time, and though my own website hasn’t really been updated in quite some time, I’m glad to say it’s for a good reason, and John’s getting plenty of work in designing sites. He’s a good guy, and deserves it.
I was due to work a Wrestling.IE show the following weekend, but that was one of the ones I’d been cancelled from, in order to facilitate the new “NXT” movement the promotion was working towards. From what I’d heard, the show drew absolutely catastrophically, and the idea went down in flames. Ah, well… Having kept the 12th open anyway for Wrestling.IE, the late cancellation meant that organising another show for that date would be nigh-on impossible-- and it was-- so I had a few enjoyable weeks off for some relaxation; definitely needed since the last weekend in June would be the first of three weekends in a row where I’d be heading over to Scotland.
The original plan for the first weekend was to head over to WrestleZone (in Aberdeen) on the Friday, to do a training seminar, and then do a show on the Saturday. Unfortunately, the training venue was unavailable on the Friday, but I headed over, anyway, and hung out with the WZ guys for the day, which was nice. A few of us went to see ‘The Collector’, which was alright, but I was astonished by the amount of ads on before the film—at the very least, it was 25 mins. The film was listed as 12:30, but didn’t begin ‘til 12:55 or thereabouts. Madness. Unutterable madness! In the evening, a good few of us went out for a bite to eat in the Cocket Hat, a pub serving some rather tasty food. In the traditional Scottish fashion, all the main courses were served in a man’s hat. Well, maybe not, but wouldn’t that have been something! (I think The Cocket Hat was a Wetherspoon’s franchise.) It was a nice experience, and I found it very comfortable with the WZ guys and girls. Great people. (Scotty Swift gets a special mention for being able to polish off three desserts! At least I THINK it was three. Most impressive, anyhow.) I stayed over with Alan Stirling and his fiancée Cara (and their little boy, Jake.) Alan & Cara were really nice, and made me quite welcome; we got along very well. I’ve never been exactly used to dealing with small children, or babies, but Jake was a really nice kid, and eventually warmed up to the strange Irish man occupying the family’s front room!
Saturday morning was spent chilling in front of the TV. It was in this capacity that I heard- for the first time- a song that I’d later use as entrance music: ‘Closer to the Edge’ by 30 Seconds to Mars. I wouldn’t be a huge fan of theirs, per se—I like a few of their songs, like ‘The Kill’, ‘Kings and Queens’ and ‘From Yesterday’—but this song immediately grabbed me. Entrance music is, for me, an essential part of the character. Everyone approaches a match, or a show, in their own way, but ideally, I like to know what music I’m coming out to, and when to make my entrance. It helps me focus. Whether it was Plug-in Baby (Muse), Map of the Problematique (Muse), Spitfire (The Prodigy), Everyday Combat (Lostprophets) or Switch On (Oakenfold and Ryan), I’ve always had my cue for when to head out, and switch into “Bingo Ballance" mode. It helps; especially for a babyface, when you need something to amp you up, as it were, before you head out. I find it quite fascinating, the varied ways in which people prepare themselves to head out and perform. Down the years, I’ve seen some guys say a prayer before they go out, others will joke with the lads to settle their nerves, others may spend a quiet moment to make sure the match is ‘in their head.’ Everyone approaches ‘the performance’ in their own way. Personally- as cheesy as it sounds- I take a moment (as my music is kicking in) to remind myself that I’m doing something I love, that I’m not gonna be able to do it forever, and to simply enjoy the moment, and what it brings. That gets me psyched, and in ‘The Zone.’ Having my own entrance music- as opposed to some random, generic track someone else has picked out- is a big help, and I can time my “enjoy the moment” bullshit with the track’s intro!
Saturday afternoon was a busy one, and I had two training sessions in the Summerhill Hotel, in Aberdeen, for WZ. The first one was with some of their more experienced trainees; while the session went alright, I wasn’t 100% happy with it. I was a bit pushed for time, and the disparity in levels and experience made it a little difficult to do stuff suitable for everyone in the session. (I got a chance to avenge this, however, two months later, when I took another seminar which, I felt, went better.) The second session, with two of the newer trainees, James and Fraser, was much better, and I was satisfied that I’d gone over enough stuff with them, and helped them along. The show, too, went very well, and drew a great crowd. I tagged with Bryan Tucker to face the WZ tag champs Sterling Oil, in a very enjoyable match, and later won a battle royal (or “regal rumble”, to avoid copyright infringement!) Fun times.
In a rare bit of “going out after the show”, we headed out to The Basement in Aberdeen afterward. Despite the very loud music, I had a good evening, chatting away to Andy Anderson, who was also on the show, and had travelled from Glasgow. I’d met Andy on previous trips to PBW, and he actually reffed my match with Wolfgang back in March. Nice to see him on a show, in a wrestling capacity. While most of the WZ guys headed next door to a nightclub, once last orders were called, we headed back to Cara & Alan’s. Considering the fact that I’m not familiar with Aberdeen, it was nice having Andy there, too, especially since I was a little buzzed after three or four pints! (I don’t drink much, really, and when I do, I don’t do so to excess; I prefer to be in control of myself. I was a little buzzed, alright, but thankfully still in possession of most of my mental faculties, as it were!) We headed back, anyway, and played a little Mario Kart on the Wii, with Cara. I came to the sobering realisation that I’m crap at Mario Kart. Heh heh.
My flight back to Dublin- and Andy’s train back to Glasgow- wasn’t until Sunday afternoon, so we spent the morning chilling out, and playing the Wii. Eventually, I said my goodbyes to Cara, Alan and Jake, and headed to Aberdeen Airport. My flight back was grand, and that was that for the first of my three Scottish weekends; a very enjoyable way to start off, with the WZ folk.
And that’s June. Thanks for reading, guys.
The Ballance Sheet, Blog V
- originally written Oct 9th, 2010-
Right: May! Off we go…
My first show of the month took me to Carrickfergus in the North for Wrestling.IE. I made the trip up with JC Williams, and we engaged in enjoyable conversation slash banter for the two-and-a-half hours on the road. Once we got there, and everything was set up, I managed to get a bit of in-ring time with Bonesaw/Machine, which was fun. Always enjoy going through a bit of chain before a show if the opportunity arises. My match was a singles with Maxer, and I liked it. It was solid, it was fun, and got the job done nicely. That opinion wasn’t shared by the promoter, though, who disparagingly described most of the matches on the card as “shit.” Heh heh—can’t please everyone! I do, however, put this summation down to the fact that he was probably in a bit of a huff; he had asked all the workers on the show to donate their wage to the funding of a local Northern Irish Olympic wrestling team, and no one did, to my knowledge. From my own standpoint, I incur petrol costs every time I drive up north and I can’t afford to give up a wage and work for free. If it were a good cause like cancer research, MS, or for an animal shelter or something like that, I wouldn’t mind in the slightest and would take the hit, but this, in my opinion, wasn’t a worthy cause. I’d wish the team every success, but I’m sure they’re well looked after funds-wise by the Northern Irish government.
The whole Wrestling.IE experience was a peculiar one, if I’m to be honest. That’s not to imply that it was a bad experience; I have plenty of fond memories from my year or so there. I would have a few criticisms, though, about some of the stuff that went down; I covered some of them in a previous blog, I think. I started working for Wrestling.IE (“W.IE” hereafter, for the sake of brevity) in June 2009, literally a week after I’d left IWW. If you worked for IWW, you worked for them, and them only, and no other promotion in Ireland or Northern Ireland. Starting for a new promotion was daunting, but I was happy to face a new challenge, and work with new people. I needed to. A lot of my friends and trainees had left or been forced out of Irish Whip, and I was working with the same guys on every show; good as they were, it was killing my passion, doing the same thing every time. I was bored, and mired in apathy. Mired, for goodness’ sake! I needed a spark, and something to get me going again; a rebirth, in a sense, and a fresh start, and that’s what W.IE represented. Though I had UK shows, having regular work domestically as well would be a major boost, and certainly more favourable that hopping on a plane every weekend!
My first show with them- in Cookstown, Tyrone- was amazing. A crowd of almost 500 people turned out to see it; this was a stark contrast to wrestling in front of double digit crowds, as I had been for the first half of 2009. I worked Machine/Bonesaw, in my W.IE début (and our first ever match together) and was very happy with it, and confident that I’d given a good account of myself, and what I could do. (Bonesaw- who I’d met previously, down south in Irish Whip- had put in a good word for me, and ensured that I got in all my best stuff. It was a really selfless, nice thing to do, and helped get my foot in the door, and I really appreciated it.) I’d chatted with Steve, the promoter, after, and he seemed to be a fairly nice, respectful guy, with a good, sensible head for business. I liked him, and was very impressed with his setup. He offered me another show with him shortly after, and I began to work regularly there, even ‘going over’ in a king of the ring tournament at the beginning of August. The shows were exciting, the atmosphere (or “craic”) was good, attendances were high, and I was having fun again. Things seemed good as W.IE wrapped up its season at the end of October. Then, 2010 rolled around, and the landscape changed radically.
I have no idea what happened in the intervening months between November and February of this year, but my theory is that someone was giving promoting advice; advice which focused more on the pure money-side of things for the promoter, and less on the “employee relations” side of things. At the end of the day, the promoter is out to make money; that’s his raison d’etre, as it were, and is completely understandable. It’s business. That said, you need to treat the talent well, too. There needs to be a middle ground. You can’t, hypothetically, treat your workers like crap, and not pay them (or pay them peanuts, figuratively-speaking, or literally if you have some sort of pro wrestling elephant working on your shows), and expect their loyalty, and for them to stick around forever. At the same time, if you treat your workers like rock stars, it will breed egotism and avarice, and you’re gonna lose a lot of money trying to keep them happy. As I say: middle ground. Pay a sensible wage and show appreciation for people’s hard work, and generally they’ll be happy. It’s not a magic formula- it’s common sense. Though, I have to admit, there’s nothing straightforward about promoting, so perhaps that’s a little cut-and-dry. At any rate, things changed this year, and a lot of guys were unhappy, pissed-off and frustrated. Attendances were dropping too, into the bargain. It’s just the nature of wrestling- ebb and flow, high and low.
Carrickfergus was my last W.IE show for a while and, genuinely, I thought it’d be my last, full-stop. Shortly after this show, I was cancelled from a few upcoming shows for being “too expensive”, which is crap, since I really don’t charge that much; certainly, not extortionate amounts. I appreciate realistically what I bring to a show, and what my contribution is, and charge a fee on that basis. Anyway, having kept those dates free for W.IE shows, I was quite vexed to be messed around; I could’ve accepted bookings elsewhere for those dates, instead. Despite being told that it was “out of [Steve’s] hands”, I was well aware that he’d been planning to get rid of most of his roster in order to facilitate this NXT-like idea, and had been telling this to people who’d never worked for him before, all the while keeping his actual workers in the dark. Having busted my ass on shows for close to a year for him at this point, helped out with lifts and such, and worked for very fair amounts (fair more for him than for me, to be honest), I believe I deserved better; he obviously disagreed. At this point, anyway, I knew that the sensible head for business I first acknowledged was gone, and I was content to move on.
As I say, it wasn’t all bad, and I don’t want the experience to come across as very negative because it wasn’t. I had the chance to work with a lot of great talent, meet a lot of cool guys and girls I’d never had the chance to meet before, see Northern Ireland, and experience the promotion itself, as it did absolutely super business at one point. If there was one failing- aside from alienating and dividing the roster- it was doing too much, too soon; trying to run too many shows in a short period of time, and hitting the same town too many times within a year. I sympathise with Steve, in a way; he obviously put a lot of his time, money and effort into the venture, and spared little expense. I’m sure trying to promote a load of shows on his own, too, must have been incredibly stressful. Promoting is something I very strongly considered, myself, at one point, but decided against, as I was concerned about the cost, and I didn’t want the headache. I just wanted- and want- to wrestle. Having looked into setup costs and the paperwork involved, I can appreciate the enormity of legitimately establishing a promotion, though, so I do have respect for Steve for having set up W.IE in the first place. He may have burned out the market somewhat, but with a little time, he could easily run again a little less regularly, and still enjoy success. I have no doubt. I would hope that if he does decide to run again somewhere down the line, though, he’ll recognise the importance of valuing the people that work for him, as they’re the ones who wake up the next morning with a catalogue of aches and injuries.
If my tone comes across as a little- or even “a lot”- self-righteous, I don’t intend it to. My opinions on booking- and wrestling, in general- that appear in these things are simply that: my opinion. The opinion of one guy. They’re not a “How To” manual, or anything like that! I don’t want to come off as preachy—it’s just opinion. Opinion that might be a load of Hollywood hogwash, anyhow…! Heh heh.
The day after, I’d a show in Dublin for AWS (American Wrestling Superstars, a sister promotion to American Wrestling Rampage), in Drimnagh. I worked with Bonesaw in the opening match, and (again) enjoyed it thoroughly. It was a little weird working in a 20x20 ring, actually! The extra few steps as you run rope-to-rope or corner-to-corner kinda throw you a little, but you get used to it. It was a fun show, anyway, and my ‘missus’ went along to check it out; her first time seeing me wrestle in quite a while. I finished off the evening with a nice chicken fried rice from my local Chinese take-away.
The following weekend, I was in Newcastle for a show for IWF (the Independent Wrestling Federation.) I should first reference my flight over to that neck of the woods: the flight wasn’t exactly full, but you’d swear it was from the absolute cacophony being created by this hen party down the back of the plane! Absolute knackers, they were. Hound dogs, they were! They were half-cut at about 8am, talking very loudly- even shouting across to each other- and dying for the “bullseye baggies” that Ryanair sell on their flights. (A bullseye baggy- if you’re not familiar with them- is essentially a sachet of alcohol. It’s a plastic bag of vodka, or gin, or eh… Schnapp’s. Stuff like that.) They were talking utter shite and, unfortunately, I had to listen to them for about twenty minutes, as you can’t listen to electronic devices, like iPods, roughly ten mins either side of take-off or landing. Bad start to the trip over, anyway…! I’d a bit of time to myself in the morning once I arrived, so I spent a bit of time in Newcastle city centre, and had a look around. It was a cool experience—Newcastle’s a nice place. That balanced things out, if you’ll pardon the pun… I met up with some of the IWF guys in the early afternoon, and we went to the venue. The ‘Geordie’ accent was a little bit difficult to understand at first! Just a little. (I was reminded of that scene in ‘One Foot in the Grave’- one of my favourite sitcoms, incidentally- where Victor Meldrew is confronted by a Geordie binman on his doorstep, and hasn’t the faintest idea what he’s talking about! He ended up misunderstanding him, and receiving a box of alligator eggs!)
The IWF folk were very nice, and very welcoming, and it was a nice setup to be a part of. They got a good crowd for their show, and I had an enjoyable match with Pauly C. I got to cut a promo, too; I was happy with the content and delivery, but there’d been a load of promos already on the show, so the impact I thought it might have was diluted. Good match, anyhow, and another heel outing for yours truly. The only drawback of the show was that the backstage dressing area was ridiculously cramped.
After the show, I headed to the bar in the venue. “What’ll it be, pal?”, the barman enquired. “Jack”, I growled, and he reached for a bottle of JD behind the bar. “Uh-uh”, I warned as he placed a glass tumbler on the bar in front of me. “Leave the bottle.” Ok, maybe that’s not true… Well, it’s definitely not true, though I did head to the bar for a glass of water. This frivolous act, however, is a mere prelude to the anecdote that follows. I was accosted at the bar by a gentleman in his late twenties or early thirties who had attended the show, and he engaged me in conversation. Things seemed relatively normal to begin with, as we discussed the show, and then things took an interesting turn. He claimed he’d just returned from the States, as he’d been wrestling for ROH, and in two weeks’ time, he’d be wrestling in the Grimsby Auditorium for the WWF Tag Team Titles. He didn’t exhibit any of the hallmark ‘tells’ of lying (if ‘Lie to Me’ is to be believed!) The guy was obviously severely deluded as there was absolutely no chance he was a wrestler. As many absolutely wonderful people there are that I’ve had the chance to meet through wrestling, there are a lot of weirdos out there that wrestling seems to attract! I wrapped up the conversation fairly quickly, then turned to the barman. “Bacardi. Leave the bottle.”
I wrestled for PWU in Belfast at the end of May, and enjoyed myself, but this blog is running long as it is, so I’ll include that in my next one.
Thanks for reading, folks.
- Ballance
Right: May! Off we go…
My first show of the month took me to Carrickfergus in the North for Wrestling.IE. I made the trip up with JC Williams, and we engaged in enjoyable conversation slash banter for the two-and-a-half hours on the road. Once we got there, and everything was set up, I managed to get a bit of in-ring time with Bonesaw/Machine, which was fun. Always enjoy going through a bit of chain before a show if the opportunity arises. My match was a singles with Maxer, and I liked it. It was solid, it was fun, and got the job done nicely. That opinion wasn’t shared by the promoter, though, who disparagingly described most of the matches on the card as “shit.” Heh heh—can’t please everyone! I do, however, put this summation down to the fact that he was probably in a bit of a huff; he had asked all the workers on the show to donate their wage to the funding of a local Northern Irish Olympic wrestling team, and no one did, to my knowledge. From my own standpoint, I incur petrol costs every time I drive up north and I can’t afford to give up a wage and work for free. If it were a good cause like cancer research, MS, or for an animal shelter or something like that, I wouldn’t mind in the slightest and would take the hit, but this, in my opinion, wasn’t a worthy cause. I’d wish the team every success, but I’m sure they’re well looked after funds-wise by the Northern Irish government.
The whole Wrestling.IE experience was a peculiar one, if I’m to be honest. That’s not to imply that it was a bad experience; I have plenty of fond memories from my year or so there. I would have a few criticisms, though, about some of the stuff that went down; I covered some of them in a previous blog, I think. I started working for Wrestling.IE (“W.IE” hereafter, for the sake of brevity) in June 2009, literally a week after I’d left IWW. If you worked for IWW, you worked for them, and them only, and no other promotion in Ireland or Northern Ireland. Starting for a new promotion was daunting, but I was happy to face a new challenge, and work with new people. I needed to. A lot of my friends and trainees had left or been forced out of Irish Whip, and I was working with the same guys on every show; good as they were, it was killing my passion, doing the same thing every time. I was bored, and mired in apathy. Mired, for goodness’ sake! I needed a spark, and something to get me going again; a rebirth, in a sense, and a fresh start, and that’s what W.IE represented. Though I had UK shows, having regular work domestically as well would be a major boost, and certainly more favourable that hopping on a plane every weekend!
My first show with them- in Cookstown, Tyrone- was amazing. A crowd of almost 500 people turned out to see it; this was a stark contrast to wrestling in front of double digit crowds, as I had been for the first half of 2009. I worked Machine/Bonesaw, in my W.IE début (and our first ever match together) and was very happy with it, and confident that I’d given a good account of myself, and what I could do. (Bonesaw- who I’d met previously, down south in Irish Whip- had put in a good word for me, and ensured that I got in all my best stuff. It was a really selfless, nice thing to do, and helped get my foot in the door, and I really appreciated it.) I’d chatted with Steve, the promoter, after, and he seemed to be a fairly nice, respectful guy, with a good, sensible head for business. I liked him, and was very impressed with his setup. He offered me another show with him shortly after, and I began to work regularly there, even ‘going over’ in a king of the ring tournament at the beginning of August. The shows were exciting, the atmosphere (or “craic”) was good, attendances were high, and I was having fun again. Things seemed good as W.IE wrapped up its season at the end of October. Then, 2010 rolled around, and the landscape changed radically.
I have no idea what happened in the intervening months between November and February of this year, but my theory is that someone was giving promoting advice; advice which focused more on the pure money-side of things for the promoter, and less on the “employee relations” side of things. At the end of the day, the promoter is out to make money; that’s his raison d’etre, as it were, and is completely understandable. It’s business. That said, you need to treat the talent well, too. There needs to be a middle ground. You can’t, hypothetically, treat your workers like crap, and not pay them (or pay them peanuts, figuratively-speaking, or literally if you have some sort of pro wrestling elephant working on your shows), and expect their loyalty, and for them to stick around forever. At the same time, if you treat your workers like rock stars, it will breed egotism and avarice, and you’re gonna lose a lot of money trying to keep them happy. As I say: middle ground. Pay a sensible wage and show appreciation for people’s hard work, and generally they’ll be happy. It’s not a magic formula- it’s common sense. Though, I have to admit, there’s nothing straightforward about promoting, so perhaps that’s a little cut-and-dry. At any rate, things changed this year, and a lot of guys were unhappy, pissed-off and frustrated. Attendances were dropping too, into the bargain. It’s just the nature of wrestling- ebb and flow, high and low.
Carrickfergus was my last W.IE show for a while and, genuinely, I thought it’d be my last, full-stop. Shortly after this show, I was cancelled from a few upcoming shows for being “too expensive”, which is crap, since I really don’t charge that much; certainly, not extortionate amounts. I appreciate realistically what I bring to a show, and what my contribution is, and charge a fee on that basis. Anyway, having kept those dates free for W.IE shows, I was quite vexed to be messed around; I could’ve accepted bookings elsewhere for those dates, instead. Despite being told that it was “out of [Steve’s] hands”, I was well aware that he’d been planning to get rid of most of his roster in order to facilitate this NXT-like idea, and had been telling this to people who’d never worked for him before, all the while keeping his actual workers in the dark. Having busted my ass on shows for close to a year for him at this point, helped out with lifts and such, and worked for very fair amounts (fair more for him than for me, to be honest), I believe I deserved better; he obviously disagreed. At this point, anyway, I knew that the sensible head for business I first acknowledged was gone, and I was content to move on.
As I say, it wasn’t all bad, and I don’t want the experience to come across as very negative because it wasn’t. I had the chance to work with a lot of great talent, meet a lot of cool guys and girls I’d never had the chance to meet before, see Northern Ireland, and experience the promotion itself, as it did absolutely super business at one point. If there was one failing- aside from alienating and dividing the roster- it was doing too much, too soon; trying to run too many shows in a short period of time, and hitting the same town too many times within a year. I sympathise with Steve, in a way; he obviously put a lot of his time, money and effort into the venture, and spared little expense. I’m sure trying to promote a load of shows on his own, too, must have been incredibly stressful. Promoting is something I very strongly considered, myself, at one point, but decided against, as I was concerned about the cost, and I didn’t want the headache. I just wanted- and want- to wrestle. Having looked into setup costs and the paperwork involved, I can appreciate the enormity of legitimately establishing a promotion, though, so I do have respect for Steve for having set up W.IE in the first place. He may have burned out the market somewhat, but with a little time, he could easily run again a little less regularly, and still enjoy success. I have no doubt. I would hope that if he does decide to run again somewhere down the line, though, he’ll recognise the importance of valuing the people that work for him, as they’re the ones who wake up the next morning with a catalogue of aches and injuries.
If my tone comes across as a little- or even “a lot”- self-righteous, I don’t intend it to. My opinions on booking- and wrestling, in general- that appear in these things are simply that: my opinion. The opinion of one guy. They’re not a “How To” manual, or anything like that! I don’t want to come off as preachy—it’s just opinion. Opinion that might be a load of Hollywood hogwash, anyhow…! Heh heh.
The day after, I’d a show in Dublin for AWS (American Wrestling Superstars, a sister promotion to American Wrestling Rampage), in Drimnagh. I worked with Bonesaw in the opening match, and (again) enjoyed it thoroughly. It was a little weird working in a 20x20 ring, actually! The extra few steps as you run rope-to-rope or corner-to-corner kinda throw you a little, but you get used to it. It was a fun show, anyway, and my ‘missus’ went along to check it out; her first time seeing me wrestle in quite a while. I finished off the evening with a nice chicken fried rice from my local Chinese take-away.
The following weekend, I was in Newcastle for a show for IWF (the Independent Wrestling Federation.) I should first reference my flight over to that neck of the woods: the flight wasn’t exactly full, but you’d swear it was from the absolute cacophony being created by this hen party down the back of the plane! Absolute knackers, they were. Hound dogs, they were! They were half-cut at about 8am, talking very loudly- even shouting across to each other- and dying for the “bullseye baggies” that Ryanair sell on their flights. (A bullseye baggy- if you’re not familiar with them- is essentially a sachet of alcohol. It’s a plastic bag of vodka, or gin, or eh… Schnapp’s. Stuff like that.) They were talking utter shite and, unfortunately, I had to listen to them for about twenty minutes, as you can’t listen to electronic devices, like iPods, roughly ten mins either side of take-off or landing. Bad start to the trip over, anyway…! I’d a bit of time to myself in the morning once I arrived, so I spent a bit of time in Newcastle city centre, and had a look around. It was a cool experience—Newcastle’s a nice place. That balanced things out, if you’ll pardon the pun… I met up with some of the IWF guys in the early afternoon, and we went to the venue. The ‘Geordie’ accent was a little bit difficult to understand at first! Just a little. (I was reminded of that scene in ‘One Foot in the Grave’- one of my favourite sitcoms, incidentally- where Victor Meldrew is confronted by a Geordie binman on his doorstep, and hasn’t the faintest idea what he’s talking about! He ended up misunderstanding him, and receiving a box of alligator eggs!)
The IWF folk were very nice, and very welcoming, and it was a nice setup to be a part of. They got a good crowd for their show, and I had an enjoyable match with Pauly C. I got to cut a promo, too; I was happy with the content and delivery, but there’d been a load of promos already on the show, so the impact I thought it might have was diluted. Good match, anyhow, and another heel outing for yours truly. The only drawback of the show was that the backstage dressing area was ridiculously cramped.
After the show, I headed to the bar in the venue. “What’ll it be, pal?”, the barman enquired. “Jack”, I growled, and he reached for a bottle of JD behind the bar. “Uh-uh”, I warned as he placed a glass tumbler on the bar in front of me. “Leave the bottle.” Ok, maybe that’s not true… Well, it’s definitely not true, though I did head to the bar for a glass of water. This frivolous act, however, is a mere prelude to the anecdote that follows. I was accosted at the bar by a gentleman in his late twenties or early thirties who had attended the show, and he engaged me in conversation. Things seemed relatively normal to begin with, as we discussed the show, and then things took an interesting turn. He claimed he’d just returned from the States, as he’d been wrestling for ROH, and in two weeks’ time, he’d be wrestling in the Grimsby Auditorium for the WWF Tag Team Titles. He didn’t exhibit any of the hallmark ‘tells’ of lying (if ‘Lie to Me’ is to be believed!) The guy was obviously severely deluded as there was absolutely no chance he was a wrestler. As many absolutely wonderful people there are that I’ve had the chance to meet through wrestling, there are a lot of weirdos out there that wrestling seems to attract! I wrapped up the conversation fairly quickly, then turned to the barman. “Bacardi. Leave the bottle.”
I wrestled for PWU in Belfast at the end of May, and enjoyed myself, but this blog is running long as it is, so I’ll include that in my next one.
Thanks for reading, folks.
- Ballance
The Ballance Sheet, Blog IV
- originally written Sept 25th, 2010-
My first show in April was a very, very trying experience! My old nemesis The Evil SatNav struck again! I was driving up to a Wrestling.IE show in Newtownards, but the bloody thing took me all over the place! I should’ve just followed the map from the AA. I was on my own, it was LASHING rain, and I had to make several diversions, but the main “highlight” of the trip was when my evil navigation companion took me to the small town of Strangford, and uttered the following: “In 200 yards, turn right and board ferry.” BOARD FERRY??!!!” Yes, that’s right. If I’d followed the AA map, I could’ve ultimately gone around the lake/body of water I now had to cross, but I relied on this malevolent contraption, and would’ve had to go back the way I came (extending my driving time by an hour) so I ended up having to get the ferry across from Strangford to Portaferry. I was already a little behind schedule as it was, but I had to drop by my B&B for the evening, and get my key, and finding that of itself proved difficult!
The trip from Dublin to Newtownards should’ve only taken two and a half hours. Heh heh… Yeah… I left my house at 1:20pm, and got to the venue there at 6:10! Needless to say, that was the worst journey I’ve ever had in five years! AND I still had a match to wrestle! Heh heh—“Good Friday”, indeed!
The show, itself, threw up its own set of problems. For one, a mix-up with the venue staff meant that the show had to run to 90 mins at an ABSOLUTE maximum, including intermission, and pre bell-time. Thus the card was severely re-jigged, and a few of us got chucked into a six-man tag, which was a fun one, albeit a tad short. I teamed with Jordan Devlin and Tron to face Maxer, Joe Cabray and Corvin. It was enjoyable. There was one other problem (apart from the return of that obnoxiously arrogant fella from last month) and that was the dressing room was visible from the public toilets; if you were going to the toilet, a quick glance to the left into the changing area would completely give up the game, as it were. Thus, the two guys who were just pounding the shite out of each other could be seen laughing and joking about… well, whatever guys talk about… beer, I suppose. Beer, gambling, avoiding housework, pornography and so forth. You know men…! Anyway, the potential kayfabe-breakage was an unfortunate oversight that might’ve been avoided. Most people know the craic with wrestling; it’s just a bit of a shame when it’s so obvious! Regardless, in spite of these things, it turned out to be a decent enough show.
The afters proved quite interesting, too. Steve, the promoter, asked me if I minded bringing Maxer and Joe [Cabray] to their B&B nearby, which was no problem. We had a nice Chinese nearby, then I tried in vain to find their accommodation for the evening. The house was on a very quiet country road, with no lighting whatsoever, and it was after midnight at this stage. I must’ve driven up and down the road about three or four times looking for the address, but there was nowhere that appeared to be a B&B; all the while we were cursing Steve for picking such a remote B&B! Heh heh. I don’t know how in the name of sanity he found it! (Speaking to the proprietors the following morning, it transpired that they’d only begun operating two weeks previous.) I stopped the car for a three-point turn, and noticed a house at the end of a very long driveway; it was darkened, but it seemed quite large, and had the appearance of being a B&B, or some sort of paid accommodation. I headed down the drive, and it took about three or four minutes to reach the house at the end of the drive. It was pitch black, apart from a lamp on in the front room. My headlights attracted the attention of the people in the house, and they looked fairly worried, to put it mildly! It was a couple, in their thirties; the woman seemed very frightened, while the guy had the appearance of being ready to take action. (Maxer said that when I got out of the car to approach the front door, he could see the guy reaching for something!) I made myself as non-threatening as I could, and politely asked if they were a B&B, or if they knew if there was one nearby. He hurriedly answered that he didn’t know; he wanted us out of there as soon as possible! It wasn’t said, but it was definitely “between the lines”, as it were. I apologised for having disturbed them, and drove off fairly swiftly. The days of “The Troubles” are fairly far behind us, but I suppose the sight of a “Dublin” car registration in a very Protestant area- after midnight on a property that’s very remote and gets very little traffic- is still likely to inspire terror! We managed to dig out the phone number for the B&B eventually, and they managed to guide us towards them. I dropped off Maxer and Joe, and headed back to my own B&B, about 15 mins away. It was a very nice one, incidentally—Drumcree House, run by the very hospitable Ben & Lily Forde. Damn good breakfast (if I can channel my inner Agent Dale Cooper!)
The following day, we were off to Newry for another Wrestling.IE show. Newry is on the way back to Dublin, so that was quite handy. I made the trip with Joe, Maxer and Northern Irish worker Vice, and worked with Joe on the show; our first match together and- I believe- our best. Everything went as planned, and the crowd of about 200 or so were really into the match, which really added nicely to proceedings. Joe likes his suplexes, and I love being thrown around the place (heh heh) so it was a nice fit; I was happy with it. Another highlight of the show was of the backstage variety- at the meet ‘n’ greet, I caught up with a guy called John, who had been a key fixture at a load of IWW shows between 2007 and 2008. John’s a very sound, very genuine guy, and it was cool getting to catch up with him, as I hadn’t seen him for about two years or so… On the “potential heart attack” side of things- heh heh- it’s probably worth noting that Newry Town Hall (where we were doing the show) is up a few flights of stairs, and a winch was needed to lift up all the bars/boards/corner posts, etc. to where they were needed. Why the potential heart attack? Well, mainly because I had earlier parked my car in the cordoned-off parking area just below and- had the ratchet come loose- then my baby would’ve been impaled with all the ring-support beams! (Cue me on my knees in the pouring rain outside, yelling “WHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????!!!!!”) Thankfully, though, that didn’t come to pass, and I made the trip home without incident.
There was another show later in the month, but before I get to that, there was one other thing in April that irked me a little. A mate of mine had run into a former IWW trainee who had spent some time bitching and moaning about me to him. This was a guy who I had given a lot of time to; I had given him private classes over a long period of time (on weeknights, when I had work the next morning), recommended him to Simon (the IWW promoter), given him plenty of advice to help him advance and- in general- just hadn’t been a prick to him. There seems to be this tradition in wrestling that in order to train someone, you have to rib them, stiff them, and stretch them. Like a lot of other “traditions” in wrestling, it’s bollocks. You don’t get this kind of crap in other disciplines like martial arts, and I don’t believe in it. Wrestling is a cooperative practice—you’re giving someone your body in the trust and understanding that you’re working together for a common goal, and that the other person isn’t going to abuse that trust. Along with that, being a trainer is a position of trust—if I were to shoot on a trainee, who was giving me their body anyway, I’d be a bully. It’s not who I am, and it’s not my policy. If someone stepped out of line in one of my classes- which was exceptionally rare- they’d generally just end up taking a shitload of bumps—at least, they’d be learning as they were punished! My point, anyway, is that I treated my trainees fairly, and wasn’t in the habit of being a prick. In spite of this, stuff like this just goes to show the mentality of some people; rather than take responsibility for their own lack of success, or shortcomings, they blame other people. I have no doubt that this guy probably isn’t the first to assign blame on yours truly; it’s irritating, sure, but at the end of the day, it’s not something I’m gonna lose any sleep over. I know that me sticking this in my blog probably gives the opposite impression, but it’s just something I wanted to share with you guys. I personally feel I did right by the folks I helped, and that’s all I’m concerned with. That’s what helps me sleep at night, in my sleeping mask and Aquaman PJs… (Heh heh..Is he joking?) For every Keith, Seán, Hynesie or Colin there’s probably ten or twenty guys who didn’t have what it takes. I certainly don’t think any less of the guys who couldn’t hack it—not at all—but when it comes down to it, I don’t shoulder any of the blame for that. None. Anyway, rant over…
Naas, in Kildare, is an absolute bitch to get to, especially with an evil SatNav! The last few times I headed there, I’ve gotten lost along the way! On Patrick’s Day in 2009, I was on the way to Naas for an IWW show with the Ballymun Bruiser, and almost ran out of petrol—it was a very, very close call, especially with the prospect of a lot of petrol stations being closed for the day. For the NLW show earlier in the year, I ended up on the N4 with JC Williams, rather than the N7, which got us a bit lost, and involved a lengthy detour. This time around- again- I ended up on the N4 (somehow) but got turned around fairly quickly, and back onto the N7. I’ve dubbed it the “Naas Curse”, but I’m more hopeful that I’d be able to get there hassle-free on another occasion, if it ever arose. (Incidentally, just for any non-Irish readers of this blog, Naas rhymes with “mace.”) Anyhow, I was in Naas for another NLW show. Surprisingly, I ran into Vic Viper there; he and I had been friends for a good few years in IWW, and I hadn’t seen him in a long while. It was good catching up with him. I worked with Joe again on this show; I was very happy with the in-ring stuff for our match. It was just the crowd that was a bit lacking. They were into it, but attendance was just down a tiny bit from the previous show, which was a shame.
Made the trip home solo, and stopped off for a pizza pie on the way; a delicious Apache Pizza with sausage, sweetcorn and chicken. I put it away like some sort of wild animal with impeccable table manners! Gotta treat yourself occasionally!
Thanks for reading, guys. That’s it for April. Until next time.
- Ballance.
My first show in April was a very, very trying experience! My old nemesis The Evil SatNav struck again! I was driving up to a Wrestling.IE show in Newtownards, but the bloody thing took me all over the place! I should’ve just followed the map from the AA. I was on my own, it was LASHING rain, and I had to make several diversions, but the main “highlight” of the trip was when my evil navigation companion took me to the small town of Strangford, and uttered the following: “In 200 yards, turn right and board ferry.” BOARD FERRY??!!!” Yes, that’s right. If I’d followed the AA map, I could’ve ultimately gone around the lake/body of water I now had to cross, but I relied on this malevolent contraption, and would’ve had to go back the way I came (extending my driving time by an hour) so I ended up having to get the ferry across from Strangford to Portaferry. I was already a little behind schedule as it was, but I had to drop by my B&B for the evening, and get my key, and finding that of itself proved difficult!
The trip from Dublin to Newtownards should’ve only taken two and a half hours. Heh heh… Yeah… I left my house at 1:20pm, and got to the venue there at 6:10! Needless to say, that was the worst journey I’ve ever had in five years! AND I still had a match to wrestle! Heh heh—“Good Friday”, indeed!
The show, itself, threw up its own set of problems. For one, a mix-up with the venue staff meant that the show had to run to 90 mins at an ABSOLUTE maximum, including intermission, and pre bell-time. Thus the card was severely re-jigged, and a few of us got chucked into a six-man tag, which was a fun one, albeit a tad short. I teamed with Jordan Devlin and Tron to face Maxer, Joe Cabray and Corvin. It was enjoyable. There was one other problem (apart from the return of that obnoxiously arrogant fella from last month) and that was the dressing room was visible from the public toilets; if you were going to the toilet, a quick glance to the left into the changing area would completely give up the game, as it were. Thus, the two guys who were just pounding the shite out of each other could be seen laughing and joking about… well, whatever guys talk about… beer, I suppose. Beer, gambling, avoiding housework, pornography and so forth. You know men…! Anyway, the potential kayfabe-breakage was an unfortunate oversight that might’ve been avoided. Most people know the craic with wrestling; it’s just a bit of a shame when it’s so obvious! Regardless, in spite of these things, it turned out to be a decent enough show.
The afters proved quite interesting, too. Steve, the promoter, asked me if I minded bringing Maxer and Joe [Cabray] to their B&B nearby, which was no problem. We had a nice Chinese nearby, then I tried in vain to find their accommodation for the evening. The house was on a very quiet country road, with no lighting whatsoever, and it was after midnight at this stage. I must’ve driven up and down the road about three or four times looking for the address, but there was nowhere that appeared to be a B&B; all the while we were cursing Steve for picking such a remote B&B! Heh heh. I don’t know how in the name of sanity he found it! (Speaking to the proprietors the following morning, it transpired that they’d only begun operating two weeks previous.) I stopped the car for a three-point turn, and noticed a house at the end of a very long driveway; it was darkened, but it seemed quite large, and had the appearance of being a B&B, or some sort of paid accommodation. I headed down the drive, and it took about three or four minutes to reach the house at the end of the drive. It was pitch black, apart from a lamp on in the front room. My headlights attracted the attention of the people in the house, and they looked fairly worried, to put it mildly! It was a couple, in their thirties; the woman seemed very frightened, while the guy had the appearance of being ready to take action. (Maxer said that when I got out of the car to approach the front door, he could see the guy reaching for something!) I made myself as non-threatening as I could, and politely asked if they were a B&B, or if they knew if there was one nearby. He hurriedly answered that he didn’t know; he wanted us out of there as soon as possible! It wasn’t said, but it was definitely “between the lines”, as it were. I apologised for having disturbed them, and drove off fairly swiftly. The days of “The Troubles” are fairly far behind us, but I suppose the sight of a “Dublin” car registration in a very Protestant area- after midnight on a property that’s very remote and gets very little traffic- is still likely to inspire terror! We managed to dig out the phone number for the B&B eventually, and they managed to guide us towards them. I dropped off Maxer and Joe, and headed back to my own B&B, about 15 mins away. It was a very nice one, incidentally—Drumcree House, run by the very hospitable Ben & Lily Forde. Damn good breakfast (if I can channel my inner Agent Dale Cooper!)
The following day, we were off to Newry for another Wrestling.IE show. Newry is on the way back to Dublin, so that was quite handy. I made the trip with Joe, Maxer and Northern Irish worker Vice, and worked with Joe on the show; our first match together and- I believe- our best. Everything went as planned, and the crowd of about 200 or so were really into the match, which really added nicely to proceedings. Joe likes his suplexes, and I love being thrown around the place (heh heh) so it was a nice fit; I was happy with it. Another highlight of the show was of the backstage variety- at the meet ‘n’ greet, I caught up with a guy called John, who had been a key fixture at a load of IWW shows between 2007 and 2008. John’s a very sound, very genuine guy, and it was cool getting to catch up with him, as I hadn’t seen him for about two years or so… On the “potential heart attack” side of things- heh heh- it’s probably worth noting that Newry Town Hall (where we were doing the show) is up a few flights of stairs, and a winch was needed to lift up all the bars/boards/corner posts, etc. to where they were needed. Why the potential heart attack? Well, mainly because I had earlier parked my car in the cordoned-off parking area just below and- had the ratchet come loose- then my baby would’ve been impaled with all the ring-support beams! (Cue me on my knees in the pouring rain outside, yelling “WHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????!!!!!”) Thankfully, though, that didn’t come to pass, and I made the trip home without incident.
There was another show later in the month, but before I get to that, there was one other thing in April that irked me a little. A mate of mine had run into a former IWW trainee who had spent some time bitching and moaning about me to him. This was a guy who I had given a lot of time to; I had given him private classes over a long period of time (on weeknights, when I had work the next morning), recommended him to Simon (the IWW promoter), given him plenty of advice to help him advance and- in general- just hadn’t been a prick to him. There seems to be this tradition in wrestling that in order to train someone, you have to rib them, stiff them, and stretch them. Like a lot of other “traditions” in wrestling, it’s bollocks. You don’t get this kind of crap in other disciplines like martial arts, and I don’t believe in it. Wrestling is a cooperative practice—you’re giving someone your body in the trust and understanding that you’re working together for a common goal, and that the other person isn’t going to abuse that trust. Along with that, being a trainer is a position of trust—if I were to shoot on a trainee, who was giving me their body anyway, I’d be a bully. It’s not who I am, and it’s not my policy. If someone stepped out of line in one of my classes- which was exceptionally rare- they’d generally just end up taking a shitload of bumps—at least, they’d be learning as they were punished! My point, anyway, is that I treated my trainees fairly, and wasn’t in the habit of being a prick. In spite of this, stuff like this just goes to show the mentality of some people; rather than take responsibility for their own lack of success, or shortcomings, they blame other people. I have no doubt that this guy probably isn’t the first to assign blame on yours truly; it’s irritating, sure, but at the end of the day, it’s not something I’m gonna lose any sleep over. I know that me sticking this in my blog probably gives the opposite impression, but it’s just something I wanted to share with you guys. I personally feel I did right by the folks I helped, and that’s all I’m concerned with. That’s what helps me sleep at night, in my sleeping mask and Aquaman PJs… (Heh heh..Is he joking?) For every Keith, Seán, Hynesie or Colin there’s probably ten or twenty guys who didn’t have what it takes. I certainly don’t think any less of the guys who couldn’t hack it—not at all—but when it comes down to it, I don’t shoulder any of the blame for that. None. Anyway, rant over…
Naas, in Kildare, is an absolute bitch to get to, especially with an evil SatNav! The last few times I headed there, I’ve gotten lost along the way! On Patrick’s Day in 2009, I was on the way to Naas for an IWW show with the Ballymun Bruiser, and almost ran out of petrol—it was a very, very close call, especially with the prospect of a lot of petrol stations being closed for the day. For the NLW show earlier in the year, I ended up on the N4 with JC Williams, rather than the N7, which got us a bit lost, and involved a lengthy detour. This time around- again- I ended up on the N4 (somehow) but got turned around fairly quickly, and back onto the N7. I’ve dubbed it the “Naas Curse”, but I’m more hopeful that I’d be able to get there hassle-free on another occasion, if it ever arose. (Incidentally, just for any non-Irish readers of this blog, Naas rhymes with “mace.”) Anyhow, I was in Naas for another NLW show. Surprisingly, I ran into Vic Viper there; he and I had been friends for a good few years in IWW, and I hadn’t seen him in a long while. It was good catching up with him. I worked with Joe again on this show; I was very happy with the in-ring stuff for our match. It was just the crowd that was a bit lacking. They were into it, but attendance was just down a tiny bit from the previous show, which was a shame.
Made the trip home solo, and stopped off for a pizza pie on the way; a delicious Apache Pizza with sausage, sweetcorn and chicken. I put it away like some sort of wild animal with impeccable table manners! Gotta treat yourself occasionally!
Thanks for reading, guys. That’s it for April. Until next time.
- Ballance.
The Ballance Sheet, Blog III
- originally written Sept 11th, 2010-
Now! Where was I….? Ah yes. March…
March was probably my busiest month, wrestling-wise, this year, and continued with another Wrestling.IE show, this time in Strabane, Co. Tyrone. The trip up to Tyrone was a very enjoyable one, travelling with Seán South, and a media student called Hugh, who was compiling footage for a college documentary on pro wrestling in Ireland. Some people doing documentaries on wrestling approach the subject matter with preconceived notions about what wrestling is, or what their idea of it is, but Hugh was very open-minded, happy to listen, and very respectful regarding the effort involved. He was also an extremely nice guy, into the bargain. In bad company, even an hour on the road can be utterly, utterly interminable, but this two-and-a-half hour journey flew by, and was a lot of fun, with plenty of banter about music, films and The Simpsons. When we arrived, we had a bit of time to have a kickabout outside the venue, which was a laugh. What amazes me sometimes about wrestlers is, considering the coordination needed to wrestle well, how so few are actually good at playing football! Maxer’s a good player, as is Manson (anytime I’ve seen him play), and I’m not too bad, myself, but a lot of guys I’ve seen play are hopeless! But, I digress… I worked with Bonesaw again on the show, and had a good match with him. The only drawback of the show was the backstage presence of a rather arrogant chap. I hate arrogance, I have to say—it’s probably the most irritating trait anyone can have and, in wrestling, this is doubly amplified. Why this guy was brought in, I’ll honestly never know, as his work was really nothing to write home about. The trip home took a TINY bit longer; I have an Evil SatNAV, you see… Yeah, that’s right- an EVIL SatNav! For some reason, this Device of Pure Malevolence always seems to want to take me down these horribly-deserted, one-way country roads in the dead of night, leading to some rather sketchy moments! I would’ve much rather just stuck to the motorways, though I’ve learned since to just follow the road signs back to Dublin! Damn, evil SatNav!
I made my first trip of the year to Scotland the following weekend, and had a great time. I was picked up by Seán South (who’d flown over from Dublin the previous morning) and a very, very sound guy called Calum, who’s a trainee of the Scottish Pro Wrestling Academy over there. It was quite an eventful day. Calum, South and I dropped by East Kilbride for the setup of a BCW show that South was due to work on. We did a bit of training with the lads who were there, then Calum & I headed off to Bathgate for the SSW (Scottish School of Wrestling) show that I was due to wrestle on. I really enjoyed the SSW setup—it was a very relaxed atmosphere, and everyone seemed to be having a bit of fun, which is always refreshing. I was due to work with Falcon in a singles match, but a last minute change had Rob Cage chucked into the mix, making it a three-way, which was cool; Rob’s a very nice guy, and the addition of a heel would make it easier playing the face/face dynamic. Falcon’s a lovely guy, too, so planning with him and Rob was very laid-back, and enjoyable. (For some reason, though, he thinks I look like JD’s older brother, from ‘Scrubs.’ Can’t see it personally, but there ya go!) The show drew well, the crowd were into it, and the match turned out pretty much as I’d hoped, so I was very happy with the SSW experience.
After the show had ended, Calum & I went back to his, for some pizza and ‘Family Guy’, capping off the night nicely. I’ve never been a huge fan of going out after a show; truthfully, I detest nightclubs with an absolute passion, and that’s usually where everyone ends up so, boring as it sounds, I prefer to just go back somewhere, have a shower, get something to eat, and watch some TV. Not everyone’s idea of fun, but that’s what I like! I’m usually a little bit battered after a show, anyway, so the idea of standing in an overcrowded sweatbox, shouting barely-audible conversation to people over the latest rubbish in the charts, swilling overpriced alcohol, and being intimidated into tipping toilet attendants (which I don’t anyway—no offence, but get a real fucking job) is not my idea of a good time! Each to their own, though, as they say….
The following morning, I got a nice, early wake-up call from Calum, as we had to head off to pick up another Irishman from Prestwick Airport: Paul Tracey. Paul & I worked for different promotions for a number of years; he worked for NWA Ireland, and I worked for IWW, so I’d never met him before I’d left Irish Whip last year. Some people took the whole “rival promotions” thing very seriously, and there was bad blood, while others focused on their own thing, and didn’t get bogged down in silly, pointless political games. I’d be in the latter camp as, I believe, would Paul. In fact, the majority of guys I’ve since met from NWA or anywhere else- majority, not all- have been fine; I’m not naïve enough to think we’re friends, or anything like that, but we’re all professionals, and make the effort to get along, and that’s all I want. Paul, himself, is a nice guy; reserved, polite, and intelligent, and he’s a good worker, as well. He would be on the PBW show later in the day, along with me, and South.
We ended up at the venue- the Barrhead Sports Centre- hours before, and ended up sitting around for a while, always a bit uncomfortable, when you’re sitting with a group a people you really don’t know that well. That said, we eventually got in, and kicked the old spherical piece of leather around for a while. Michael Knight (a German worker) can certainly be added to the small group of wrestlers who can also play football! He and Marcus (promoter of German promotion CWN) both showed some mad skillz, yo! (See? I’m hip!) Anyway, moving swiftly on….!
The show drew quite well, and I worked with Wolfgang, in the first match after intermission. I’d met him a few years earlier in IWW (in 2005), and met him a few times since then on trips over to Scotland, but this was our first time working together. I, personally, enjoyed it very much, and felt it was a very solid match, and appropriate for its place on the card. It was a rare “heel” appearance for me—typically, a guy with a name like “Bingo” and a relatively youthful-looking face would be a babyface, but it’s fun to work heel occasionally, and try something different. Wolfgang, as well as being a very, very nice guy is also a great worker, and it was cool working with him. The only negative per se was that I cut myself open early into the match with my neck chain—the pendant had sharp corners, and it cut me just above my eye when I was taking a bump; didn’t mind, though. Blood always adds a little something…, even if it’s through your own stupidity! Heh heh. I’ve never had cause to blade/juice/gig in my five years wrestling thus far, but I’ve ended up bleeding “hardway” a few times, once off (of all things) a mistimed swinging neckbreaker that I was taking! My opponent’s head hit my chin, and split it nicely—the scar’s still there, actually, since I had to have it stitched. Anyway, long story short: good match, good show, good time.
Calum, South & I went back to Calum’s, we had Chinese food (a delicious chicken fried rice) and watched Family Guy—the Star Wars one, if memory serves… Having spent previous Scottish trips sleeping on a floor/armchair- appreciated, regardless of the lack of comfort- it was really nice to have a bed to sleep in this time, and to have a bit of space; Calum was a great host, and is a great guy. Having spent a few days driving people to and from Prestwick Airport, putting up a pair of Irish rogues in his home, and looking after us, he should be sainted! Thankfully, his hard work and effort has since been rewarded, and he made his début in July at an SPWA show, so good for him.
The trip to the Airport the following morning was way, way, WAAAAAYYYYY too close for comfort, and we BARELY made it onto the plane in time for the flight back to Dublin. I make a point of being ridiculously early/organised when I’m travelling, so for once to be the jerk that holds up the entire flight was quite humbling! That said, we (South & I) made it back to Dublin without any hassle, and that was that for March.
As always, folks, thanks for reading…
- Ballance.
Now! Where was I….? Ah yes. March…
March was probably my busiest month, wrestling-wise, this year, and continued with another Wrestling.IE show, this time in Strabane, Co. Tyrone. The trip up to Tyrone was a very enjoyable one, travelling with Seán South, and a media student called Hugh, who was compiling footage for a college documentary on pro wrestling in Ireland. Some people doing documentaries on wrestling approach the subject matter with preconceived notions about what wrestling is, or what their idea of it is, but Hugh was very open-minded, happy to listen, and very respectful regarding the effort involved. He was also an extremely nice guy, into the bargain. In bad company, even an hour on the road can be utterly, utterly interminable, but this two-and-a-half hour journey flew by, and was a lot of fun, with plenty of banter about music, films and The Simpsons. When we arrived, we had a bit of time to have a kickabout outside the venue, which was a laugh. What amazes me sometimes about wrestlers is, considering the coordination needed to wrestle well, how so few are actually good at playing football! Maxer’s a good player, as is Manson (anytime I’ve seen him play), and I’m not too bad, myself, but a lot of guys I’ve seen play are hopeless! But, I digress… I worked with Bonesaw again on the show, and had a good match with him. The only drawback of the show was the backstage presence of a rather arrogant chap. I hate arrogance, I have to say—it’s probably the most irritating trait anyone can have and, in wrestling, this is doubly amplified. Why this guy was brought in, I’ll honestly never know, as his work was really nothing to write home about. The trip home took a TINY bit longer; I have an Evil SatNAV, you see… Yeah, that’s right- an EVIL SatNav! For some reason, this Device of Pure Malevolence always seems to want to take me down these horribly-deserted, one-way country roads in the dead of night, leading to some rather sketchy moments! I would’ve much rather just stuck to the motorways, though I’ve learned since to just follow the road signs back to Dublin! Damn, evil SatNav!
I made my first trip of the year to Scotland the following weekend, and had a great time. I was picked up by Seán South (who’d flown over from Dublin the previous morning) and a very, very sound guy called Calum, who’s a trainee of the Scottish Pro Wrestling Academy over there. It was quite an eventful day. Calum, South and I dropped by East Kilbride for the setup of a BCW show that South was due to work on. We did a bit of training with the lads who were there, then Calum & I headed off to Bathgate for the SSW (Scottish School of Wrestling) show that I was due to wrestle on. I really enjoyed the SSW setup—it was a very relaxed atmosphere, and everyone seemed to be having a bit of fun, which is always refreshing. I was due to work with Falcon in a singles match, but a last minute change had Rob Cage chucked into the mix, making it a three-way, which was cool; Rob’s a very nice guy, and the addition of a heel would make it easier playing the face/face dynamic. Falcon’s a lovely guy, too, so planning with him and Rob was very laid-back, and enjoyable. (For some reason, though, he thinks I look like JD’s older brother, from ‘Scrubs.’ Can’t see it personally, but there ya go!) The show drew well, the crowd were into it, and the match turned out pretty much as I’d hoped, so I was very happy with the SSW experience.
After the show had ended, Calum & I went back to his, for some pizza and ‘Family Guy’, capping off the night nicely. I’ve never been a huge fan of going out after a show; truthfully, I detest nightclubs with an absolute passion, and that’s usually where everyone ends up so, boring as it sounds, I prefer to just go back somewhere, have a shower, get something to eat, and watch some TV. Not everyone’s idea of fun, but that’s what I like! I’m usually a little bit battered after a show, anyway, so the idea of standing in an overcrowded sweatbox, shouting barely-audible conversation to people over the latest rubbish in the charts, swilling overpriced alcohol, and being intimidated into tipping toilet attendants (which I don’t anyway—no offence, but get a real fucking job) is not my idea of a good time! Each to their own, though, as they say….
The following morning, I got a nice, early wake-up call from Calum, as we had to head off to pick up another Irishman from Prestwick Airport: Paul Tracey. Paul & I worked for different promotions for a number of years; he worked for NWA Ireland, and I worked for IWW, so I’d never met him before I’d left Irish Whip last year. Some people took the whole “rival promotions” thing very seriously, and there was bad blood, while others focused on their own thing, and didn’t get bogged down in silly, pointless political games. I’d be in the latter camp as, I believe, would Paul. In fact, the majority of guys I’ve since met from NWA or anywhere else- majority, not all- have been fine; I’m not naïve enough to think we’re friends, or anything like that, but we’re all professionals, and make the effort to get along, and that’s all I want. Paul, himself, is a nice guy; reserved, polite, and intelligent, and he’s a good worker, as well. He would be on the PBW show later in the day, along with me, and South.
We ended up at the venue- the Barrhead Sports Centre- hours before, and ended up sitting around for a while, always a bit uncomfortable, when you’re sitting with a group a people you really don’t know that well. That said, we eventually got in, and kicked the old spherical piece of leather around for a while. Michael Knight (a German worker) can certainly be added to the small group of wrestlers who can also play football! He and Marcus (promoter of German promotion CWN) both showed some mad skillz, yo! (See? I’m hip!) Anyway, moving swiftly on….!
The show drew quite well, and I worked with Wolfgang, in the first match after intermission. I’d met him a few years earlier in IWW (in 2005), and met him a few times since then on trips over to Scotland, but this was our first time working together. I, personally, enjoyed it very much, and felt it was a very solid match, and appropriate for its place on the card. It was a rare “heel” appearance for me—typically, a guy with a name like “Bingo” and a relatively youthful-looking face would be a babyface, but it’s fun to work heel occasionally, and try something different. Wolfgang, as well as being a very, very nice guy is also a great worker, and it was cool working with him. The only negative per se was that I cut myself open early into the match with my neck chain—the pendant had sharp corners, and it cut me just above my eye when I was taking a bump; didn’t mind, though. Blood always adds a little something…, even if it’s through your own stupidity! Heh heh. I’ve never had cause to blade/juice/gig in my five years wrestling thus far, but I’ve ended up bleeding “hardway” a few times, once off (of all things) a mistimed swinging neckbreaker that I was taking! My opponent’s head hit my chin, and split it nicely—the scar’s still there, actually, since I had to have it stitched. Anyway, long story short: good match, good show, good time.
Calum, South & I went back to Calum’s, we had Chinese food (a delicious chicken fried rice) and watched Family Guy—the Star Wars one, if memory serves… Having spent previous Scottish trips sleeping on a floor/armchair- appreciated, regardless of the lack of comfort- it was really nice to have a bed to sleep in this time, and to have a bit of space; Calum was a great host, and is a great guy. Having spent a few days driving people to and from Prestwick Airport, putting up a pair of Irish rogues in his home, and looking after us, he should be sainted! Thankfully, his hard work and effort has since been rewarded, and he made his début in July at an SPWA show, so good for him.
The trip to the Airport the following morning was way, way, WAAAAAYYYYY too close for comfort, and we BARELY made it onto the plane in time for the flight back to Dublin. I make a point of being ridiculously early/organised when I’m travelling, so for once to be the jerk that holds up the entire flight was quite humbling! That said, we (South & I) made it back to Dublin without any hassle, and that was that for March.
As always, folks, thanks for reading…
- Ballance.
The Ballance Sheet, Blog II
- 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.
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.
The Ballance Sheet, Blog I
-originally written Aug 30, 2010-
I'm not much of a blogger, to be completely honest. I don't tweet, rarely use the old FB "status" thingie, and genuinely don't think my life is interesting enough that folks care what I'm doing every second of the day, what brand of toothpaste I buy, what I do to relax or anything like that. I don't generally write a whole lot about wrestling, either. I've always felt a bit weird writing about it. Though the cat is well and truly out of the bag as regards to kayfabe, and so forth, I'm still somewhat reticent about writing about what I do. That said, I'm a strong believer that writing is therapeutic, and helps one to get their head sorted, and gather their thoughts. I also know "sharing is caring" or some crap like that (heh heh) and since you guys "cared" enough to like/join this page, I thought I'd "share" with you a bit about my experiences this year. Eh? See what I did there? Eh? Eh?? Ah, forget it... Anyway, if you can stomach my casual writing tone, and self-perpetuating egotism, please read on, and enjoy... Perhaps you might like to help yourself to a warm beverage, or some sort of modified pasty (Cornish, maybe), as a nice accompaniment, but let me not overstep my bounds...
JANUARY: 2010 kicked off for me in a quite unusual fashion in that my first booking took me all the way to Osnabruck, in Germany. An early morning flight had me in Berlin’s Schonefeld airport around 10 o’clock, or thereabouts, where I was met by Alpha Pro Wrestling ref Roberto, Ivan Kiev (a worker on the evening’s show) and another German worker whose name, unfortunately, escapes me at the moment. The journey by car, from Berlin to Osnabruck was an extremely tough five hours. I HATE road travel, by the way, unless I’m driving. It’s weird like that, but I don’t find a trip that bad if I’m behind the wheel. Anyway, with that in mind, the five hours (after a previous two hour Ryanair flight) were difficult, especially since none of the guys in the car spoke English, and my German is nowhere near good enough to maintain a conversation! It was a LONG five hours…
My one lasting memory from the journey to the venue would be us stopping along the way for a Burger King. The meal itself wasn’t the memorable part. (I should note, actually, that Germany was COVERED in snow at this point in time, and it was absolutely FREEZING. Really, really, really cold.) Once we were finished, we left the BK (where I had it MY way!) and walked to the car. At this stage, the German fella decided he fancied a smoke, and we all ended up standing around in the freezing cold while he finished his cigarette—longest four minutes of my life!
The show itself was in a weird location, in a kinda disco/nightclub hybrid, with quite a low roof. Thankfully, the ring was much softer than the last German one I worked in. In February last year, I worked for SWO in Kaiserslautern, and their ring was like concrete! Two months later, I worked for them again, but they had a different ring—softer, yes, but the canvas was peppered with fibreglass which made everyone itchy afterwards! In a similar vein to “Goldilocks and the three bears”- not that I’m likening myself, incidentally, to some bed-hopping young trollop- the third wrestling ring was JUUSST right! Soft canvas, more padding, no itching, and good ropes. All the tools were there and, thankfully, the match went well too, especially for a face vs face (good guy vs good guy) match opening the show. (Typically, a standard heel vs face match would be the ideal way to warm up a crowd for the show ahead. If you’ve never seen a wrestling show live before, it kinda trains you for what to expect, and the type of characters you’re likely to see. When to cheer, when to boo, etc. A babyface vs babyface match confuses the audience in a sense, as there are two guys vying for your adulation and respect. Generally, in my experience, these matches aren’t ideal to open a show with.) I worked with Bernd Foehr, Germany’s resident cruiserweight who I’d worked with before last February in the “concrete” ring! Bernd is very enjoyable to work with, and is a lovely guy, and we had some fun. He won our SWO match, and I got my win back here on the Alpha show, with my G-17 finisher. Hopefully, the decisive “rubber” match will happen somewhere down the line. I’d love to work with him again.
Five hours of road awaited after the show, and they were (again) exceptionally tough. I nearly drifted off on a number of occasions, but couldn’t sleep for any more than a minute or two. I got dropped back to the airport in Berlin around 3 or so, and spent maybe six hours waiting for my flight—horrible, especially since there were barely any seats around the place, and most shops were closed. I ended up lying on the ground somewhere upstairs, covered with my jacket, but couldn’t sleep. Those who think wrestling is all glitz and glamour? THIS is the unfortunate reality about wrestling—there’s a lot of waiting around, a lot of discomfort, a lot of bullshit, and a lot of strange situations you’d rather not find yourself in. Breaking it down, I had a two hour flight, and ten hours of road travel in order to work a seventeen minute match! It’s crazy, and it defies logic and, as a fairly logical guy, I often wonder why I do it, especially with all the niggling little aches and pains you pick up along the way thrown into the bargain. I do enjoy it, though. I love the in-ring stuff, seeing other places, and some of the people you meet along the way. (Some, not all.) The flight back was excruciating, and I was fucked. Really, really tired. I got back to Dublin, went home for a while, and then went to Naas for a show. Yeah, I know…
I knew in advance that scheduling a booking the same day I was getting back from Germany was a bad idea, but I still did it. There’s no fool, as they say, like an old fool! Why did I take the booking? For one, I don’t generally get to wrestle in the Republic of Ireland much these days. I worked with Irish Whip Wrestling for four years, wrestling all over the country, but I left them in June 2009, and have no plans to go back. Don’t get me wrong—I’m proud of my achievements in IWW; the matches I had there, the guys I trained, and the experience I amassed, but after four years, I wanted to try new things. That said, when I left, I hoped to continue working in Ireland, even though I knew that no one else was really running shows. I was pleased to hear NLW was running a show in Naas in January, and was even more pleased when I was offered a place on it.
I’d wrestled in Naas a few times before for IWW and, to be honest, the last show I’d done there left a very bad taste in my mouth as I’d taken part in a very scrappy three-way match which didn’t turn out well; along with this, I had been stiffed on pay (whereas my two opponents and even the fucking REF had gotten paid! A great ref, but still… It was an insult, considering my experience, and the effort I put into every match.) Anyway, this show for NLW was a chance to wipe the slate clean, and start over; thankfully, I had a terrific guy to work with on the night in Machine/Bonesaw McGraw, and he and I had a brisk, energetic and exciting match that I thoroughly enjoyed. I’ve worked with Bonesaw a lot over the last twelve months, and think I’ve liked every match we’ve had—he’s a superb worker. This match nicely expunged any bad vibes from the previous Naas show the previous year.
Getting home at 10:30, I pretty much went straight to bed, and straight to sleep! I was knackered. That was it for January.
More to come...
- Ballance.
I'm not much of a blogger, to be completely honest. I don't tweet, rarely use the old FB "status" thingie, and genuinely don't think my life is interesting enough that folks care what I'm doing every second of the day, what brand of toothpaste I buy, what I do to relax or anything like that. I don't generally write a whole lot about wrestling, either. I've always felt a bit weird writing about it. Though the cat is well and truly out of the bag as regards to kayfabe, and so forth, I'm still somewhat reticent about writing about what I do. That said, I'm a strong believer that writing is therapeutic, and helps one to get their head sorted, and gather their thoughts. I also know "sharing is caring" or some crap like that (heh heh) and since you guys "cared" enough to like/join this page, I thought I'd "share" with you a bit about my experiences this year. Eh? See what I did there? Eh? Eh?? Ah, forget it... Anyway, if you can stomach my casual writing tone, and self-perpetuating egotism, please read on, and enjoy... Perhaps you might like to help yourself to a warm beverage, or some sort of modified pasty (Cornish, maybe), as a nice accompaniment, but let me not overstep my bounds...
JANUARY: 2010 kicked off for me in a quite unusual fashion in that my first booking took me all the way to Osnabruck, in Germany. An early morning flight had me in Berlin’s Schonefeld airport around 10 o’clock, or thereabouts, where I was met by Alpha Pro Wrestling ref Roberto, Ivan Kiev (a worker on the evening’s show) and another German worker whose name, unfortunately, escapes me at the moment. The journey by car, from Berlin to Osnabruck was an extremely tough five hours. I HATE road travel, by the way, unless I’m driving. It’s weird like that, but I don’t find a trip that bad if I’m behind the wheel. Anyway, with that in mind, the five hours (after a previous two hour Ryanair flight) were difficult, especially since none of the guys in the car spoke English, and my German is nowhere near good enough to maintain a conversation! It was a LONG five hours…
My one lasting memory from the journey to the venue would be us stopping along the way for a Burger King. The meal itself wasn’t the memorable part. (I should note, actually, that Germany was COVERED in snow at this point in time, and it was absolutely FREEZING. Really, really, really cold.) Once we were finished, we left the BK (where I had it MY way!) and walked to the car. At this stage, the German fella decided he fancied a smoke, and we all ended up standing around in the freezing cold while he finished his cigarette—longest four minutes of my life!
The show itself was in a weird location, in a kinda disco/nightclub hybrid, with quite a low roof. Thankfully, the ring was much softer than the last German one I worked in. In February last year, I worked for SWO in Kaiserslautern, and their ring was like concrete! Two months later, I worked for them again, but they had a different ring—softer, yes, but the canvas was peppered with fibreglass which made everyone itchy afterwards! In a similar vein to “Goldilocks and the three bears”- not that I’m likening myself, incidentally, to some bed-hopping young trollop- the third wrestling ring was JUUSST right! Soft canvas, more padding, no itching, and good ropes. All the tools were there and, thankfully, the match went well too, especially for a face vs face (good guy vs good guy) match opening the show. (Typically, a standard heel vs face match would be the ideal way to warm up a crowd for the show ahead. If you’ve never seen a wrestling show live before, it kinda trains you for what to expect, and the type of characters you’re likely to see. When to cheer, when to boo, etc. A babyface vs babyface match confuses the audience in a sense, as there are two guys vying for your adulation and respect. Generally, in my experience, these matches aren’t ideal to open a show with.) I worked with Bernd Foehr, Germany’s resident cruiserweight who I’d worked with before last February in the “concrete” ring! Bernd is very enjoyable to work with, and is a lovely guy, and we had some fun. He won our SWO match, and I got my win back here on the Alpha show, with my G-17 finisher. Hopefully, the decisive “rubber” match will happen somewhere down the line. I’d love to work with him again.
Five hours of road awaited after the show, and they were (again) exceptionally tough. I nearly drifted off on a number of occasions, but couldn’t sleep for any more than a minute or two. I got dropped back to the airport in Berlin around 3 or so, and spent maybe six hours waiting for my flight—horrible, especially since there were barely any seats around the place, and most shops were closed. I ended up lying on the ground somewhere upstairs, covered with my jacket, but couldn’t sleep. Those who think wrestling is all glitz and glamour? THIS is the unfortunate reality about wrestling—there’s a lot of waiting around, a lot of discomfort, a lot of bullshit, and a lot of strange situations you’d rather not find yourself in. Breaking it down, I had a two hour flight, and ten hours of road travel in order to work a seventeen minute match! It’s crazy, and it defies logic and, as a fairly logical guy, I often wonder why I do it, especially with all the niggling little aches and pains you pick up along the way thrown into the bargain. I do enjoy it, though. I love the in-ring stuff, seeing other places, and some of the people you meet along the way. (Some, not all.) The flight back was excruciating, and I was fucked. Really, really tired. I got back to Dublin, went home for a while, and then went to Naas for a show. Yeah, I know…
I knew in advance that scheduling a booking the same day I was getting back from Germany was a bad idea, but I still did it. There’s no fool, as they say, like an old fool! Why did I take the booking? For one, I don’t generally get to wrestle in the Republic of Ireland much these days. I worked with Irish Whip Wrestling for four years, wrestling all over the country, but I left them in June 2009, and have no plans to go back. Don’t get me wrong—I’m proud of my achievements in IWW; the matches I had there, the guys I trained, and the experience I amassed, but after four years, I wanted to try new things. That said, when I left, I hoped to continue working in Ireland, even though I knew that no one else was really running shows. I was pleased to hear NLW was running a show in Naas in January, and was even more pleased when I was offered a place on it.
I’d wrestled in Naas a few times before for IWW and, to be honest, the last show I’d done there left a very bad taste in my mouth as I’d taken part in a very scrappy three-way match which didn’t turn out well; along with this, I had been stiffed on pay (whereas my two opponents and even the fucking REF had gotten paid! A great ref, but still… It was an insult, considering my experience, and the effort I put into every match.) Anyway, this show for NLW was a chance to wipe the slate clean, and start over; thankfully, I had a terrific guy to work with on the night in Machine/Bonesaw McGraw, and he and I had a brisk, energetic and exciting match that I thoroughly enjoyed. I’ve worked with Bonesaw a lot over the last twelve months, and think I’ve liked every match we’ve had—he’s a superb worker. This match nicely expunged any bad vibes from the previous Naas show the previous year.
Getting home at 10:30, I pretty much went straight to bed, and straight to sleep! I was knackered. That was it for January.
More to come...
- Ballance.
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