March 28th 2006

Left it way too long again, meaning I've got loads to get through.

Must apologise for soooo many spelling mistakes last time, I think I was trying to get hte diary done quite quickly.

Last time we met, I had just returned from Doncaster for the 1PW weekend, and later on in this diary I will tell you all about my 2nd trip up to Doncaster.  They have since announced matches for the 3rd weekend, and I wasn't planning on going, due to finances, but looking at the lineups, I may have to change my mind about that one. 

Later on in January I went to IPW:UK's show.  This was the first time I had been to an IPW show as a fan since their 2nd show, nearly 18 months ago.  Amazing to see how much IPW has changed since then, without really changing at all!

This was a great show, with the usual hot crowd.  Ashley Reed and Paul Robinson almost stole the show in the 2nd match on the card, while Spud and Jack Storm ripped the place up in a street fight.  The stars piled onto the train back into London after the show, with Martin Stone, Batallion, Jody Fleisch, John Atkins and Jack King enjoying the freezing cold Kent Winter air.

A week later I set my sights on Brxbourne for the FWA New Frontiers show.  Last time I had persuaded 2 non fan friends to come, but no such luck this time, so I was sat with John and Tim (who left halfway from mostly boredom).  The show wasn't bad at all, but didn't exactly set the place on fire, which was the expectation at Broxbourne not so long ago.  There were more fans there than last time too, but still the crowd of about 250 looks so sad compared the 500 or so they used to get every 3 months.  Stixx vs. Dan Head was a terrible match, and other than Jody Fleisch vs. Doug Williams, the 3 qualifying matches were nothing outstanding.  The highlight of Jonny Storm vs. James Tighe was a 12 year old (ish) girl yelling "BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD!!!" everyime Jonny Storm hit Tighe.  Tighe's the bad guy remember.

The 5 way finale featuring the 4 winners and champion Alex Shane was a good match, and a nice way to end the show, although most the crowd were gobsmacked when they realised they hadn't just dreamed Hade Vansen winning the FWA title.  Also confused by Nikita's heel turn which was hard to follow.  Overall it was  a good show, and worth going to as always, but it's sad to remember what the FWA was once like.  Hopefully their upcoming local to me shows in Sudbury and Colchester will deliver the goods.

A week or so after that AWA: UK returned to Ware.  History lesson time:  John Chapman Promotions ran 2 shows at the Drill Hall in 2005, in May and August with crowds of about 90 and a 115.  Good shows, particularly the first one, which featured a 45 minute long Royal Rumble match.  Late last year, the promotion changes its name to AWA: UK and runs its debut show in Ware at a different venue (Wodson Park) and draws about 200.  They then return to Drill Hall in February, with Tommy Dreamer on the show, and draw about 300.  Good move, although you have to wonder if they can get that crowd again with no big name like Dreamer on the show.  This show, however featured a 70 minute Royal Rumble match, with 34 participants.  Naturally, as Pinfall Productions were on hand, I was ringside for the whole match, and I've never filmed a match that long before.  I was absolutely knackered by the end, although I can't imagine how Andy Simmonz was feeling.  He was in the match for over an hour!  I had precited the match would be a bit of a mess, with the rookies trying to impress WWE employee Dreamer, but it turned out to be a fantastic match and an awesome show.  AWA have announced their next show for July, featuring Shinjiro Otani and Sensational Sherri.  It's at a different venue though!!  When will people learn!  Hopefully in the long term, it will all work out.

The next sunday I went to Croydon for All Star Wrestling's afternoon event, as was stunned to learn I had to get a Row Q seat!  I then walked into the hall, to see what I thought was about 750 fans, but ASW's website has since called over 1,000 in attendance.  The reason I was so amazed is because as a semi regular Croydon attendee of the last 3 years I have seen the crowd go from about 300 down to 125 and the average around the 250-400 mark for months, with the occasional 500 on the sunday afternoons.  So this was impressive.  The show was only average though, but the opener was one of the best matches I've seen live this year, with Dean 2 Xtreme & Kid Cool beating Mikey Whiplash & Robbie Dynamite.  Just what wrestling should be like.  The show ended poorly though, with an awful 10 man Rookie Rumble won by The Widowmaker.  Brookside also turned heel !

ASW then did 2 things that annoyed me greatly.  Firstly, obviously capitilising on the big crowd full of families with kids, announced Jake The Snake as being at the next show.  Clearly they knew he wasn't going to be there, as even ASW can't make a mistake like that.  They announced him so as many of the 1000 people there would buy a ticket now, and then when they learn Jake isn't there, either don't care, can't be bothered to get refunds, or even more likely can't get refunds.  Unacceptable behaviour.

The 2nd thing isn't as bad, but neither Joe Legend or Gangrel (or Mikey Whiplash for that matter) were present at the Backstage Pass deal after the show.  Surely most the kids wanted to meet Gangrel, so why wasn't he there?

The next weekend I went to my first LDN show since filming their debut in  November 2004.  Romford is pretty local so this was cool.  Got the train down to Harold Hill and walked like what seemed forever to the venue.  Was actually only about a 20 minute walk, but in the freezing cold when you don't know where you're going, it can go on and on and on.  So I was very happy to finally get there.  The show was pretty good, although by no means spectacular.  Martin Stone vs. Chris Wyld and Ashe vs. Tex Benedict were the highlights. 

I should also note that in the time span of this Diary entry, I got a new girlfriend.  She then dumped me 27 days later.  Not much can be done about that now, so back to the wrestling.

March 4th saw me and Lee venture up to Doncaster once again, and as expected the journey saw its fair share of craziness.

I called up Lee on the friday night to confirm travel arrangement, and he mentioned he heard a rumour that the fanslam was saturday afternoon, rather than sunday.  I said, nah.  Then after hanging up I thought I'd just check, so went onto 1PW's official website, and yes he was right, the fanslam was on saturday.  So I called Lee back up and said we were gonna have to leave earlier to get to Doncaster by 12.  So we re arranged our plans, and I was going to have to get a train at 7am.  But, by the time we arranged it, and I hung up the phone I had already confused myself and thought I had to get up at 7am, so set my alarm clock.  The next morning I woke up at 7, and then realised what I had done.  So I called Lee and told him I'd missed the train, and would be there an hour later afterall, meaning we'd get to Doncaster with about 5 minutes before the fanslam started (we needed to drop our stuff off at the hotel and find the hotel see).  So I said go ahead without me and I'll meet you there probably.  Lee goes the planned route, but ends up getting delayed like anything through delayes, replacement buses etc. and so I decided to go through London instead and ended up getting to Peterborough only 20 minutes after Lee, despite leaving more than an hour after him and taking a longer route.  Yay.  On the way up there it clicked.  1PW's website made a mistake.  The tickets say sunday afternoon afterall.  The fanslam was sunday, so all that getting up early stuff was a waste of effort.  We thought we'd go to the Dome anyway, just in case though.  Once we got to Doncaster and found our hotel, we told the guy there that we were in a rush, how do we get to the Dome.  On and on he went, telling us everything he knew about everything.  So we pretty much just walked out and were on our way, getting just a bit lost, but eventually getting there to confirm it was indeed sunday.  Damn.  So rather than go back to the hotel, we killed about 6 hours in the small area surrounding the Dome.  Bowling, pool, McDonald's, Asda.  That was about it.  I won't go into details of the show, as there's  no real need.  But after the show, we called up a taxi company at 11.10pm, who said these exact words "yeh we can do you a taxi.  But it won't be there until 3 o'clock."  Riiiiiight.  Luckily the man of the hour Phil Austin drove us into town and after getting a cheap as you like Pizza, we made the short walk back to the hotel.  Last time we stayed at the Innkeeper's Lodge.  Nice place.  This time we stayed at the Ashlea Hotel.  Not so nice.  And no cheaper either. 

The next day we showed up for the fanslam, killed a bit more time, then enjoyed the show.  Another really cheap pizza later, and back to the hotel, where we got our balls broken for making too much noise! 

A tiring journey home brought and end to the 1PW adventure. 

A week later was WAW's return to Norwich. A stop off at Zac's for a nice steak on the way, and then onto The Talk, where we were early, cold and forced to wait in the cold until the care taker arrived.  The show was good, the crowd was decent and we had fun.

For the first time ever that friday I went to an All Star Colchester show alone, as Lee couldn't make it.  So, also for the first time ever I didn't sit front row, but instead sat near the back.  Decent show, but nothing special.  Jonny Storm vs. Jody Fleisch was a nice surprise, and although a good match, and indeed match of the night, it wasn't the best match they've ever had!

2 days later Lee joined me for his first ever IPW event.  We wondered around London for a couple of hours before going to Orpington, which was cool.  This was a heartbreaker though.  After friday I had forgotten to charge my camera battery up, so it died after 3 matches.  Serious grrrrr.

Good show again, with Jody vs. Jonny again, and a 4 way between Robinson, Reed and American indy stars Delerious and Matt Sydal being the best matches.

That's about it.  Been to some really good shows the last 2 months, and have got some good stuff upcoming.  This weekend I embark on a challenge of sorts.  The 2 biggest companies in the UK are running their 2 biggest venues on the same day.  Luckily at different times. All Star are in Croydon at 3pm while FWA are in Broxbourne at 6.30.  Assuming ASW finish at 5.30, that gives me one hour to get to Broxbourne.  It is about an 80 minute journey so I plan on leaving All Star a bit early.  I am still looking for someone to join me on this adventure, but it should be fun.  The day before FWA return to Sudbury for the first time in 3 years, shall be there too.

So, until next time, tara.

July 11th 2006

Once AGAIN, I have left it way too long to do a new Dart Diary, so loads to get through this time.  Really loads.....including:

• Attending shows at arguably the two most famed venues of the modern day for the two biggest promotions in the country on the same day
• Attending two WWE TV tapings in the country's capital
• Former 6 time World Champion Bret Hart coming to my home town!
• My first "TV taping"

So, this edition kicks off on April Fool's Day.  Over in the USA, the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony took place, while here in the UK, the FWA made their long awaited return to Sudbury after a 3 year absence. 

3 years ago, the FWA was on fire.  The most talked about promotion, the most respected among hardcore fans, and generally putting on first class shows every time.  They also had their first proper tour, taking in I believe 8 shows over 9 days, including a show just down the road from me, in Sudbury.

A year later, the UWA ran a show there, with Jake Roberts on the show, who is a much bigger name than Chris Hamrick and Juventud Guerrera.  Still, FWA had the bigger crowd, although the UWA's was respectable.

These days though, the FWA have been pretty much reduced to being just another British promotion, who sometimes use an international name, but still put on very decent shows wherever they go.  They're just not must see shows anymore.

And without the international import the show drew barely 100, although the FWA seemed happy with the crowd, and announced an August return date before the show was over.

Despite all FWA's faults, they still put on a great show most the time, and this show was great.  It really made me appreciate good basic family based wrestling shows and your local sports hall.  Pac vs. Stevie Lynn opened the show.  This was my first time seeing Pac live, and his FWA debut, and wow did he live up to the hype or what?? 

Leroy Kincaid destroyed another FWA debutant, Dragon Aisu (formerly Ice XVII), Iceman and Paul Travell had a very good match, Darren Burridge vs. Paul Tyrell was an awesome wrestling match, and Jonny & Jody vs. Vansen & Tighe was a good way to the end the show.

Oh, and there was a really bad tag match in the middle, which I'm sad to say I had to suffer 3 times in April. 

Overall I was totally impressed with the show.

The next day was a big one.  FWA were running Broxbourne, their number one venue at 6.30pm, while All Star Wrestling were running Croydon, their number one venue at 3pm.  With Croydon set to finish at 5.30, and the train journey taking 90 minutes, I decided I'd leave Croydon early, assuming FWA would be the better show, and also with FWA having more expensive tickets, I decided I'd rather miss some of the ASW show.

So I got to Croydon and enjoyed the first 3 matches.  Annoyingly, the massive crowd took ages getting in the venue, so the show started late, and the interval overran too.  So I had to leave just as the 4th match was starting in order to get to Broxbourne in time.  Apparently I missed a really good match between Robbie Brookside and Steve Sonic, and a really bad match, which as I didn't see any of, I haven't kept a record of, and thus, can't remember what it was!!

I did see 3 decent matches, but nothing spectacular, which was a shame.

I got to the Broxbourne venue, dead on 6.30, but surprise surprise, the show was running late, and started at about 6.45.  Annoyingly, the first match was the same match I had hated 24 hours previously, which I would gladly have missed in favour of Brookside vs. Sonic, and got to Broxbourne at 7.  No matter really.

Sadly, the Broxbourne show wasn't as good as the Sudbury show, but was much better than February's Broxbourne event.

Pac, Ross Jordan and Stevie Lynn stole the show in a 3 way match, which saw Pac come out to almost silence, but receive a standing ovation when he won the Flyweight title.

Iceman and Paul Travell ripped each other apart in a hardcore match, and Robbie Brookside, possibly on the train I should have and could have got from Croydon, interferred in the Jonny Storm vs. Hade Vansen match.

A few weeks later it was time for WWE to take over the UK, and especially London, where they would record RAW and Smackdown! for the first time.  We got our tickets in November, so the anticipation was high.  Luckily, the shows (especially Smackdown!) were fantastic.

Friday was the RAW crew, and as me and Lee waited outside the venue with the hopes of getting a few autographs, we were pleasently surprised to see Andy Simmonz, Charlie Rage and Eamon O'Neil arrive.

Lee stayed at the venue pretty much all day, for about 9 hours before the show started.  I would love to meet some big stars, and get a picture and autograph, but I'm not mental.  After about 3 hours I met up with Sanjay Bagga and The Eliminator from CSF, among others, for an afternoon of food, drink and chat.  The Eliminator is one funny funny fella.

We got in, and as expected, our seats weren't great, but we had a good view really.  I had to have neck surgery the next day from the awkward angle our seats were at, but it's all good.  The show kicked off in a big way, with The Big Show.  But we were more excited when Charlie Rage and The UK Kid came out to face him in a non televised handicap match.

More excitement followed when Andy Simmonz teamed up with European star Eric Schwarz to take on Gene Snitsky & Goldust.

Then later on, former WWE employee, but current (at the time) British heavyweight champion, Steve Sonic came out for a match with Umaga.  That was expected, but still nice.  They all lost, by the way!!

Sonic later reported that at the show he was offered and accepted a new WWE contract and will be heading back to America shortly.  Nikita was also at the shows, and has since signed a WWE contract.

With Finlay, Regal, Burchill, Sonic and Nikita all working for WWE, that's a nice British representive they have.  But they also have the British Bulldog's son, Harry Smith (who is Canadian, but may as well be English) under contract now, and also employ Dave Taylor as a trainer!

There were no 5 star classics on the show, but we had great fun.

The next day, disappointed with only meeting one or 2 stars, Lee wanted to get to the venue even earlier, suggesting arriving at 8am.  I told him to have fun and enjoy himself, and decided to sleep in, and I think I arrived around 12.

With the news he had not really met anyone again, except one or 2 people, I didn't stay long and later in the afternoon met up with Bagga and The Eliminator again, but also people such as Phil Austin and John Atkins made appearances.  Lee did eventually join us in the pub too.

I think over the 2 days he met Rob Van Dam, Jerry Lawler and Teddy Long.

We were 5th row on the floor behind the commentators for Smackdown!  The second best seats I have had for a WWE show (I was 2nd row for RAW in Manchester in 2004), were awesome.  The show opened in a big way again with Chris Benoit.  Simmonz was on the show again, losing to Matt Hardy, but aside from actual WWE wrestlers, Regal, Burchill and Finlay, no British guys appeared.

Burchill got the best crowd response he has had in the WWE for his match with Nunzio, Regal drove the crowd crazy as a good guy (despite being a bad guy for the last number of months, and switching back to a bad guy a week later), losing to JBL in a classic TV match, and Finlay beat Gunner Scott in a good match, which sadly the crowd weren't into much.

The show ended with a no contest, but amazing match between Rey Mysterio and Kurt Angle.  The show was short though, going barely 2 and a half hours.  The RAW in Manchester lasted 3 and a half hours, while last year's London house show lasted just under 4 hours.  Even last night's RAW was 3 hours.  No big matter though, just TV tapings in America tend to be longer than house shows, and often feature 10 or 11 matches, where we got 8 and 9.  Not crying about it though.  In Birmingham we only had 7 !

A week or so later, FWA made their debut in my home town of Colchester.  Amazingly, Bret Hart was set to make an appearance!!

The show was held at the Hippodrome nightclub, not the friendliest nightclub in the world, but I had always thought would be good for wrestling, and it was.  The seating on the floor wasn't good though, as we could barely move, and if they come back, we'll stand on the balcony, as the view looked great from up there.

I've gone over my disappointed over the Bret situation already, so I'll summarise here.  We were told if we arrived an hour early we could meet Bret before the show.  Loads of people did.  But Bret wasn't there, but no one told us.  So we stood out in the cold for an hour for nothing.  When they did eventually start letting people in early, it wasn't to meet Bret, it was to meet Billy Kidman.

We were however promised we'd meet Bret in the interval.  However, everyone there wanted to meet Bret in the interval. 400 people qued to meet him in the 15 minute interval.  Wasn't gonna happen.  In fact, 70% of the crowd didn't even bother with the 2 matches after the interval, cos they were queing to meet Bret.  Eventually I gave up, just in time to see Charlie Rage beat Andy Simmonz, but Dan and John, who stayed qued, got a ticket, and got one for me, which guaranteed to meet Bret after the show.  So after the show we went with our tickets, but were told Bret had gone, but we could have a pre signed 8x10 of him.  Cheers FWA.  Way to make new friends in a new town. 

Luckily for them, the show was off the charts amazing.

Darren Burridge and Stevie Knight had a nice match, Leroy Kincaid beat James Tighe in a good match, Doug Williams & Hade Vansen beat Mohammad Yone & Takeshi Moreshima in the best match of Vansen's career, and Jonny, Jody & Kidman ripped it up in an amazing 3 way match.

At least while queing to meet Bret I got to miss another Academy tag match. 

WAW returned to Norwich in early June for Meltdown.  The weather was literally like a meltdown, as the show was called, which was the best Norwich show since Who Dares Wins last March.

There wasn't much eventful that happened before or after the show.  It was too hot to think.  We used our new camera, which is great, for the first time, and had a good time at the show.

I hadn't seen a show as a fan for 7 weeks, so was really excited about IPW UK's show in Oprington on June 25th.  I went down there with Lee, and met Rob at the venue.

It wasn't IPW's best show, but was well worth the trip.  I met Duke of Danger for the first time ever (his return to action was a genuine mark out moment!). 

On July 1st AWA: UK promoted its 3rd show.  With the announced lineup it should have been the best non supershow of the year in the UK.

The show was originally announced in early march, and was set to take place at the outdoor soundstage, around the back of the highstreet in Ware.  The show was going to be a part of the Ware Carnival.  Between the original announcement of the show, it changed from being held at the Soundstage, the Wodson Park, back to the Soundtage with the Drill Hall as a backup in case it rained, to the Drill Hall.  Also the time of the show changed from 1pm to 12pm.  Despite not being sent out to fans until weeks after the time change, the tickets still said 1pm, meaning around 100 fans showed up an hour into the show.

Sensational Sherri had been announced for the show, but had to pull out due to a back injury, so was replaced with Jimmy Snuka.  He actually pulled out, but luckily pulled back in before AWA announced it.  1PW however did take him off their show he had been booked for, but did use him anyway in the end.  Any fan who decided not to go to 1PW because they had taken Snuka off the show, then found out he was on it must have been a bit annoyed.

At around mid april we heard that new European channel Fight+ were interested in showing AWA UK events on their channel, which launched in Scandanavia a few months ago, and was set to launch in other European countries, and the UK late this year/early next year.  After much thought and the agreement that rather than a series, we would produce one off specials for the channel, the deal was set.  As long as the production of the show met their standards they would show it.

Coming to the show we had sorted many aspects, to make it more TV friendly than previous AWA UK events.  Well we thought we had.  Without going into too much detail, we were left disappointed by the production standards of the show, and pretty much agreed, as long as we had any say in the matter, it wouldn't go anywhere near a TV station, and we'd try again at the next show on July 29th.

Immedietly after the show however, AWA UK promoter John Chapman informed me he was quitting promoting, and obviously the TV deal was cancelled.  To be honest, I wasn't so much annoyed about that, as deep down I knew something would queer the deal, I just wish we had have been told before the show!

The show itself wasn't terrible.  But nowhere near as good as it should have been.  The bottom line, when running a show of that magnitude is, you can't do everything yourself, even if you want to, or think you can.  And you need people who have a clue about wrestling helping you out, not just your mates.

Still, for a family afternoon show, it was good.  But for the travelling fans, some of whom paid £30 for front row tickets, there was some real disappointment after the show.  The main event of Doug Williams vs. American Dragon didn't take place, as Dragon missed his plane.  However, no one bothered to tell the crowd until the end of the show.  Big mistake. 

Still, Rebecca Knox vs. Sweet Saraya and Darren Burridge vs. Takao Omori were great matches, as was the tag match with Brookside & Vansen vs. Castano & Collyer.

But inside the Drill Hall, it was hot as hell.  I think it may have been the hottest day of the year, and the Drill Hall, with its glass ceiling, soaked up the heat, and projected it right towards the ring. 

So, with that AWA: UK has closed and we have been on the look out for a replacement.  Summit Wrestling and Pinfall Productions will team up for the first time this sunday, and if it all goes well, we hope to work together regularly in the future.

Also, this saturday I will be heading down to Romford, for LDN Wrestling's first TV taping for the Wrestling Channel.  It should be a good show.

Then it's a very big summer, with the Playhouse Theatre in Harlow later this month, a few IPW shows, Ring of Honor, Frontiers of Honor 2, FWA, WAW in Great Yarmouth, and once again I want to make it down to Worthing for a Premier Promotions show, but probably won't.

So, that's been the last 3 or 4 months, I'll try not to leave it so long again.  I've not been to nearly as many shows this year as I have the last 2 years, but there's a lot on over the summer, and I'm hoping to get down to some holiday camps shows too.  So, until then, bye bye.