September 11th 2005

Well, here we are with another logn awaited Dart Diary.  And wow is there a lot to get through this time. 

The Playhouse Wrestlefest was the last item on my last diary, and it's since been announced that the followup event will be on October 28th.  I'm very excited, but very annoyed, because that's the same day as All Star's return to Colchester!!!  Talk about grrrrrr.  Allstar come to town twice a year, and this time there's a clash.  That's just the way it goes I suppose.

Early July saw WAW return to Norwich for Meltdown, the show's name being created by a fan as part of a competition!!

The main event was a 3 stages of hell 8 man tag team match.  The final stage was hardcore, and this was my first experience filming a hardcore match.  Wow was it mad!!  At one point Jason Cross was holding the barbed wire baseball bat, and I was standing next to him.  As he swung it back and forth it caught my on the leg and wow that hurt.  Can't imagine what getting it in the face would be like!

We filmed some good stuff for the DVD and it's in its final stage of production now and will be available to buy real soon.  It also will include a bonus match with Alex Shane's first defence of the WAW title against Jonny Storm in only their 2nd one on one match ever.

A week or so later I popped along to FWA at Broxbourne.  Despite all the criticism they get, from me included, they still put on a damn good show most the time, and Vendetta was no excpetion.  I went to the "press" conference before the show, which while entertaining, was a rip off at 4 quid.  The fact that they are selling a DVD of the thing for 6 quid is comical too.

The interviews with Brookside and Shane were particularly enjoyable, while American Dragon was cool.

The show itself was good enough, and when I paid for Row V seating but sat in Row B seating, that was cool.  I also saw the "dark match" before the show, which is only for gold seat ticket holders.  But I was able to get in possibly because I had been in the press conference.

The next weekend was a big one.  My debut for IPW:UK as a cameraman.  I was quite touched that I was asked to film these shows as they are one of the biggest up and coming promotions in the land. 

This was a big weekend, and very memorable.  IPW ran 2 shows in the 2 days at the same venue.  I arrived at the venue, and most people were already there.  The show was highlighted by the quarter finals of a tag team tournament (semis and finals took place sunday).

After the show a bunch of us were going to go out clubbing in Croydon, but the promoter learned the desired club was closed down and changed his mind.  A few of the wrestlers and the referee went out somewhere in Orpington but msot of us stayed and chatted at the promoter's gaff.  Harry Smith (British Bulldog's son) was there, very quiet, very tall.  He was up until 6am chatting on the internet!  Chasyn Rance, a very cool dude was there, an indie star from the USA whose dad is American.  The High Class Catch Club were there too from Germany, as well as Shadow and Stevie Douglas.  James Tighe and one of the managers whose ring name I can't remember but is called Ben.

The next day there was a fan slam, which was very unorganised during the afternoon.  This also featured 4 matches, so technically there were 3 shows!!

The show then went down and was very good, and I went home!

The next saturday IPW ran their first show outside of Orpington.  This show was in Leigh on Sea.  I was wary of going to this show, as my ex girlfriend lives there and the memories were set to come flooding back.  But the show was in a different part of town, and I never recognised where I was.  The journey was a slag.  I thought it was a simple 2 train journey to Leigh, but I actually had to get 2 trains to Southend, then walk (!!!) to the other Southend station and get a train to Chalkwell.  Then from there it was a 10 minute up hill walk to the venue.  A very small venue I would probably have walked right past it had Martin Stone not been standing outside.

I'd been in some small venues when doing RBW shows, but this one was smaller than those, with the exception of Celbic Hall in Enfield.

But it did the job and the show was decent.  Phil Austin, who is now a dude in my book, then gave me a lift home, which took about 45 minutes (train woulda have taken nearly 2 hours, with a taxi ride afterwards).  So mad props to Phil for that.  King Slim of internet fame was in the car too.  Can't remember what he said, but probably was nonsense.

2 days later began something very special.  WAW's summer season at Great Yarmouth.  2 years ago they ran for 4 weeks a the Marina Centre, and  as a fan I went to 2 of those shows.  Last year they moved to the Atlantis Resort and ran for 6 weeks, I went to one of those shows.  Check out the archives to read about my nightmare journey on August 2nd last year!!

This year they ran for 6 weeks again, and we filmed the lot.  a Double DVD set will be released later in the year with the Best of the Season.

The first show me and Dan got a lift up there with Kraft and Rock Weiller.  The journey was cool and the show was decent.  It was actually the worst show of the season, but that doesn't mean it was bad at all, as there were some amazing matches over the 6 weeks.

The next sunday FWA did a show in Enfield, which i went along to.  It featured a round robin tournament with Jonny Storm, Jodie Fleisch, Spud and Colt Cabana.  I sat in the crowd with The New Breed and Skye which was cool!

The Great Yarmouth season continued the next day with an awesome show.  For this show Dan went up with Kraft and  I went up early on the train with Lee, who was going to watch the show.  We spent the afternoon going on some rides and stuff.  We also went in some stupid Dinosaur thing which seemed awesome, but um wasn't.

The show was memorable for Jetta breaking her arm in her match.  Yuk it was gross.  Didn't even notice it when it happened, but something was obviously up.  They then took her out the match and we watched it back during the interval!!

Me and Lee stayed in a really cool B&B that night, which had a DVD player, so we watched some of the Burchill Shoot Interview and Behind Closed Doors with Jake the Snake.

The next week was Great Yarmouth again!!  I went by myself to this show on the train.  Great fun! 

I stayed at Baz's that night.  We watched some old WCW tapes and stuff!!

The next sunday was another memorable show. 

Well we went to the Wrestler's Reunion sunday afternoon in Kent.  It wasn't as good as the last 2 years cos the whether sucked.  Loads of people left early or didn't come at all. Then that night Chapman Promotions (now AWA:UK) came back to Ware for their 2nd show.  The show was very good, but not as good as the first one.  But a mixture of some free tickets, crap security, and alcohol on sale caused problems in some parts of the crowd.  A 'fan' apparently nicked Charlie Rage's sunglasses, which I missed, but then he got in the ring during the rumble, totally drunk, which was extremely dangerous.  No one did anything!!!   Then after the rumble, Darren Burridge was in the ring celebrating a victory, when a load of kids got in the ring to dance with him (acceptable, but still dangerous) and this idiot got back in there again and tried to tackle Burridge.  Obviously with no strength cos of the alcohol he failed miserably, and a conversation with Burridge after the show confirmed it, as Burridge didn't even notice!

The idiot got away with it.  Unbelievable.  The promoter regrets the incident and is taking measures to avoid such things next time, which is good.

The next day we were back at Great Yarmouth with more WAW action.  Not much to report on with that one.

The next weekend IPW were back in Orpington as was I.  The show was set to start at 6.30 with doors at 6.  The ring arrived at 5.45!!  It was up by 7.15 and the show kicked off!!!  The ring is a big 18 foot one from Summit Wrestling, and brand new and only used a few times.  So the crew haven't mastered it yet so were quite slow getting it up.  Getting lost on the way didn't help.

WAW were back at GTY next week with another great lineup.

And one week later they were back for the finale.  Drove up with Johnny Boy for that one.  This show featured a cage match with Zebra Kid vs. Ricky Knight.  I was inside the cage, which was quite scary, but no hassle.  Very different!!

I have rushed through it all this occasion, but there's been so much.

Until next time, see you at the matches.

January 15th 2006

Oops.  Left it a while didn't I!!

Well here goes, got a hell of a lot to get through, including Universal Uproar weekend AND 1PW weekend. 

Late september saw a major IPW:UK show. This was their one year anniversary show, and what a year it was.  They are sure to win promotion of the year on this very website.  Those awards will be annnounced very soon.

I was filming this show, but only parts of it, as IPW:UK hired the FWA Academy film crew to do their DVDs, so my shots were just used for replays I think.  Anyway, hte undercard featured some real good stuff, but the main event was out of this world.  Luckily I was able to just sit down and watch the 4 team TLC match.  Words can't really describe it, it was just fantastic.

Not so long later, All Star presented another great show in Croydon.  The main event saw Joe Legend battle Alex Shane, in a match that was apparently for the FWA title, even though it wasn't announced as such.  Joe won by DQ.   I went to this show with Lee and.......Dan.  Wow, Dan watching a show, that was weird!  The 3 of us went for a wonder around London before the show, including Lee spending about 40 minutes in the Disney Store, and a very expensive lunch.

WAW returned to The Talk that weekend with October Outrage 7.  Obviously Ricky Knight had been having some personal issues which I won't go into here, and had been hospitalised a few days prior to this event, so his match with Paul Tyrell was cancelled.  It was very strange being at a WAW show without Sweet Saraya or Ricky Knight on hand.  The card was very good, but didn't have the October Outrage feel of past events. Was still a good show though, and naturally we filmed it for DVD release, and for the first time we used 2 TV broadcast quality cameras.  The camera I used ringisde was very heavy though, and I think my camera skills may have suffered!

The next day was an interesting one.  I had convinced my old work friend Scott to come to the FWA show with me.  I had to buy his ticket, but he drove me there and home.  He also bought his mate Rob, who is a laugh.  So we went to this show, got there way to early, overestimating how long it'd take to get there.  So went for some food, and then on to the show.  Neither of these 2 are wrestling fans, and have certainly never been to a show, but were willing to go for a night out, and both enjoyed it.  Credit to FWA, despite how crap they are compared to 3 years ago, they are probably the only company out there I wouldn't feel embarraed to take non fan friends to.

We left pretty much as soon as the show finished, and I was home by 11 !!

I couldn't believe it.  When I get the train it's usually about half 12!

Gotta try and get Scott to come again next time.

I decided, for some reason, to go to All Star in St. Albans in Hertfordshire.  It was a freezing cold night, and I didn't know where the venue was, but eventually found it.  It's called an arena, despite clearly being a theatre!!  Anyway the show was decent, but nothing special.  Really Croydon Allstar shows are the only ones worthy of a lengthy travel, so doubt I'll go to St. Albans again.  I managed to meet Gangrel though.  Also got back to the train station and who is there?  Steve "Sonic" Lewington.  So we chatted on the train back to London about all sorts.  Nice guy, quite quiet though.

I made another similar journey a few days later to Premier Promotions in Potters Bar.  This was my first time as a fan at Premier, as usually I have been a corner man, but won't be doing that anymore.  So I went along to watch, and was very disappointed.  Premier have put on some awesome shows, but this was very average.  Seen worse, but still.

2 days later I filmed one of the best shows I've ever seen.  I just wish I had been there as a fan, as it was truly fantastic.  The Playhouse Wrestlefest 2 in Harlow.  Alex Shane took on Hade Vansen in a Casket Match, and Paul Tyrell battled Charlie Rage in an awesome TLC match.  The crowd was sold out, the production of the show was amazing, and all the matches were either very good or fantastic.  When it is eventually released on DVD by the Playhouse, you have to get it!

I hadn't planned on going to the London Expo the next day, but Bagga talked me into watching his merchandise while he did the music for the FWA matches, in exchange for getting me in for free.  So I didn't have to pay the 7 or so quid to get in, and also didn't have to que.  But man was it boring.  Making fun of all the sci fi nerds managed to get us through the day.  Meeting the Dudley Boyz was cool too.  But I was there by 9.30 I think, and the first FWA match wasn't until about 12.30!!

They put on 4 matches, and if they were trying to draw in new fans, they bombed out big time.  All 4 matches were of a poor quality.  Obviously when a crowd isn't really wrestling fans it's harder to get them into it, and the crowd barely reacted to anything, but there was little to react to.  An opener of Mark Sloan vs. Max Voltage was awful, and a 6 person tag match was really bad.  Storm & Simmonz vs. O'Neil & Vansen just about managed to entertain some people there, but could have been so much more.  We left pretty much as soon as the last match was done.

I didn't bother going back the next day, but apparently the matches were better.

In november it was Universal Uproar, and me and Lee went up to Coventry a day early and went along to another show.  The day after Uproar was AWA:UK.  I wrote about these 3 days on the UKFF, so I am going to copy and paste that into here now.  It is somewhat more detailed than everything else on here, but here is what I wrote at the time:

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 11TH 2005

It was an early one, as I got a lift to the train station with the intent of meeting travel buddy Lee on the 10.49 train from Witham to Liverpool Street. All went well, and off we were on part one of the trip. A simple tube journey to Euston should be simple enough, but a lack of concentration meant we forgot to get off at King's Cross (where we would have changed to get a tube direct to Euston train station) and instead had to get off at Euston Square and walk to Euston. No problem though. Things started to get tricky here. The very second it was announced what platform the train to Birmingham was leaving about 600 people ran towards to train, and it was an epic stuggle to find good seats. But we just about managed it and off we were....we though. About 5 minutes after departure time and nothing has happened yet. An announcement is made that due to some kind of malfunction all power is being turned off on the train until further notice. Strange. But eventually we were moving. Then another announcement is made about a suspicious white suitcase being left unattended. As no one claimed it we stopped at Watford where a bunch of police came on to remove the item. Then finally we carried on and eventually rolled into Coventry at about 2.

This is where we found out we would have to get a bus from Milton Keynes to London sunday morning on our way back. Not good news. A taxi to the Albany Guest House, about an hour's rest and a game or 2 (well actually 12, 11 of which I lost) of complimentary Connect 4, and we were off again. The "30 minute walk" my friend Lee had estimated to walk to the coach station was actually about a 9 minute walk, leaving us with time to kill by spending money. Grrrr.

After being 'reliably' informed our coach left at stand g we got on with a game of WWE top trumps to kill time. About 5 minutes after the 3.40 departure time we got curious and asked what the deal was. The same bloody woman then informs us our coach was stand a (bitch) and we had missed it!! Turns out she was wrong as it was late and was just pulling in that second. We got on and were on our way to Leicester.

It amazes me how easy it can be to find your way round a city you have never been to before. As was the case as we walked right across town from the coach station to the bus station with no problems. Finding the bus we were supposed to get was a bit more troublesome, but after a few q+a sessions with various people we were on the 5a to Syston. Now, given that neither me or my friend have ever been there before, we don't know what we are looking out for, and it's pitch black outside, this might have proven tricky. Indeed it did, as as soon as we saw anything that might have been where we wanted to be we jumped off. About 5 stops early. So we walked the rest of the way only stopping to get a pizza. Sadly, despite all this we were still way early. We actually got there before the ring, the wrestlers, the promoter, the venue staff etc etc.

So we looked round Sommerfields, spent more money and generally wasted time. Eventually people started to show up and we qued up. This is where I met up with UKFFers Leicester Lantern and Freaky Jason (who was giving us a lift back into Leicester after the show). The show was running late though, starting at 8, instead of 7.30, and I was advised it might not finish til 10.30. This caused a problem as we were getting a coach at 10.50. So, we decided we'd just have to miss the main event and grab a taxi back into the city centre.

This was my first ever live MPW show, and for 4 quid it was value for money to the extreme.

I did have a few minor dislikes about the show, but the matches themselves were generally very entertaining, and I had a good time.

As time went on it became more apparent the show would finish on time, so we cancelled that taxi and got our lift back into Leicester. Too early though, and it didn't take as long as we allowed for. So we had 30 minutes to wait. The coach station is right opposite a nightclub, so you can imagine what it was like there on a friday night at 10.30pm.

We got back to Coventry at around 11.35pm and it was another taxi back to the hotel, where sleep was the next part of the process.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 12TH

Lee, being a bastard, woke up at about 7.30 which woke me. I managed to doze back to sleep for a bit, but at about 8.45 decided, what the hell, and got up. Breakfast was nice, but I wouldn't really call it a "full" English Breakfast. We watched an episode of Home Improvement on the TV, then Lee decided to walk into the city to do a bit of shopping. I decided to go back to sleep. The fool then came back about 15 minutes later as he had forgotten to gel his hair!!

Eventually I decided to walk to the Skydome, which Lee said was about a "25 minute walk". So, naturally 7 minutes later I was there.

Doors for the Expo opened 30 minutes late. The highlight of queing was me having a go at some guy for pushing in the que, and him congratulating me on my courage for confronting him. I then told him I didn't care if he pushed in behind me, so he did!!

The Expo was very disappointing at first, but picked up after the q+a sessions began and more of the stars started to show up.

The highlights were meeting Mick Foley and Kendo Nagasaki. But it was all good. Not quite as amazing as they had made out it would be, and the range of merchandise was poor. Really you could buy ROH or FWA:A DVDs. That was pretty much it.

During the Expo we met up with the 2 other guys we were staying at the hotel with, one of whom bought a crazy person with him, who had never been to a live wrestling show before, and who seemed to have no concept of time or place. Nice enough guy though.

We popped back to the hotel for a bit to sort out arrangements for the crazy guy.

Then it was back to the Skydome for the show. Doors opened late for this too! No surprise there.

I found my seat and it was great view. But I paid 10 quid. My mate paid 45 quid. He was about 5 rows in front of me in the same section? Fair, I dunno, not bothered either. Even worse for him, seeing as he had an empty seat next to him I moved forward those 5 rows for the 2nd half. I doubt he thought the 6 man "dark match" was worth 35 quid, and will probably reconsider what ticket he buys next time !!

No need to go into details about the show, but the last 2 matches made it worth the trip. Before that I was thinking "this was well worth the 10 quid ticket, but was it worth 30 quid travel, 20 quid hotel, plus all the rest".

After the show we had aimed to get some food somewhere in town. The only places we could find that were open were either Indians or Chinese, or they looked a bit dodgy. So, after watching a bottle based fight between to drunk locals we went back to the hotel.

After a couple of hours of chat it was time for sleep.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13TH

Luckily at the Expo I had arranged for a lift for the 3 of us heading down to Ware, so we would avoid the replacement bus at Milton Keynes. So, we met up with our lift, who were staying 4 doors down the road. They dropped us off in Hemel Hempstead at about 11.45, so we thought we had plenty of time to get to Ware by 2.30....wrong! Way wrong!

There are no 2 scarier words in the English language than 'replacement bus'. We went to buy our tickets from Liverpool Street to Ware, and were informed we'd have to get 2 replacement buses. And the next train left in 1 minute, and the next one wasn't for an hour. The ticket guy was like Speedy McSpeed in getting our tickets, and might as well have arranged for us to get a jet to the platform the way he was behaving. We jumped on the train and just made it. We eventually got to Ware at around 3. It was definetly gonna be a taxi job, but the lady at the taxi place said we'd have to wait 15-20 minutes and it was only a 10 minute walk. 10 minutes like a fox. More like 35 minutes. Eventually we got to the venue at 3.45, with 15 minutes before show time. Not a problem for fans, but I was filming the show, and should have been there an hour earlier.

AWA UK's debut show was value for money at its best, with Corino, Sandman, Apter & Legend all on the show for just 5 quid tickets!!

Sadly, during the interval news broke about Eddie Guerrero's death, and at the start of the 2nd half Bill Apter came to the ring to announce it to the crowd. All the wrestlers came out and a ten bell salute took place.

The show continued, and was highlighted by the AWA World title match between Steve Corino & Darren Burridge.

After the show I got a lift back to Woodford, avoiding the replacement buses!! With that I was home by 10pm, thus ending the 3 days of wrestling and travel.

Back to the present:

All Star presented another fine event in Croydon with an FWA vs. All Star feel in November.  All Star won!  Also on the show Drew McDonald beat Robbie Brookside in a good match, but not as good as their June battle.

With the death of Eddie Guerrero, WWE had to reschedule some of its European tour, so certain wrestlers could go to his funeral.  Some shows were cancelled, some of the shows in Italy were moved to a 9pm start!  The Coventry show was moved from tuesday night, to saturday afternoon!!  a 12pm start to be exact!  I had to leave at about 8.30 to get there for 11.45 ish, just before the show started.  It was weird being at a WWE show at 12pm for sure.  I was sat right at the back, but had a decent view.  It was also strange being at a WWE show in such a small venue, and also a venue I had been at for a British show only 7 days earlier !!

The show was actually pretty poor.  The last WWE house show I went to lasted 3 hours 45 minutes.  This one lasted 2 hours 15 minutes.  Still it had 2 very good matches with HBK vs. HHH and Cena vs. Angle.

WAW had a show in Lowestoft in late november, headlined by another cage match between Ricky Knight and Zebra Kid.  This one was even more violent than their Great Yarmouth affair.  The rest of the show was solid too with some great action and a great crowd. 

I then had a 6 week period of no wrestling before the big 1PW shows.  I never went to the one in October as I just figured Doncaster is too far to go.  But for 2 shows it's a different story.  There were travel problems from the start with our train running 45 minutes late, and then even when it arrived it only went 3/4 of the way.  We then had to wait for another train.  Still we got there with plenty of time and got to the hotel at around 4.  The hotel and room were great, so much better than the place we stayed at in Coventry!

I won't go into detail about the shows, but friday night was decent and saturday night was awesome.  Crowds of 1300 and 1400 made for a great atmosphere.  The fanslam on saturday afternoon was cool too.  Me and Lee stayed in the hotel with Baz and his 2 friends Emily and Aaron who were good guys.  We had some laughs both nights.

So until next time, keep it real!