September 5th 2003

This week I'm not going to Great Yarmouth for the Rebel Pro Wrestling holiday camp show, as Dan, my usual companion is on holiday in Spain, and I didn't fancy doing the journey by myself.

But I did get a fix of wrestling action as once again All Star Wrestling returned to Fairfield Halls in Croydon.

The show was one of the better All Star shows I have seen, with a corking main event, a very good (but long) opener, and enough big names on the show to satisfy anyone's needs.

I was disappointed that no one was around immedietly after the show to do autographs and pictures, but I did manage to get Brian Dixon's autograph, and Dean Ayass' (who was a fan on this night).

The FWA Hardcore match that took place was awesome, as was Five Star Flash's opener with NWA: TNA star Joe E Legend.

Next month, the show will feature a World Heavy Middleweight title match with champion American Dragon taking on Mikey Whiplash.

After a rather nasty incident that took place at my workplace on Wednesday night I was cheered up greatly thursday morning when I receieved an email from The UK Pitbulls, complimenting me on this very website!!!

There's very little to report on elsewhere this week, which is a tremendous shame.

This week I found out that Premier Promotions return to Cheshunt in Hertfordshire on October 19th. So for the first time ever I will be going to 3 wrestling shows in 3 days, something I have wanted to do for a long time, that is if I can get that day off work!!!

I should not be going to anymore shows now until the 21st, when the FWA present Hotwired. The card features James Tighe vs. Flash Barker for the No. 1 Contendership to Doug Williams' Heavyweight title, and also Jodie Fleisch is against Jack Xavier.

So, it has been a difficult couple of days for me, if anyone is interested in what happened at work, feel free to ask me, but there's no need for me to go into it here. It's not as bad as I make it sound I'm sure, but it was quite disturbing for me.

Until the next one, aaawwwwwwwicked.

September 14th 2003

Hello, and welcome once again to My Weekly Rampage.

I have just read that October Outrage has been cancelled!!!

That's very bad news, especially as WAW amd The Talk have always had such a good relationship, but it seems The Talk have never had a license to hold wrestling events.

The show might get moved to a different venue, but for the time being, it seems it's off. At least I will save some money not going to it, but I was looking forward to it.

Just been to the one show this week, that show being Rebel Pro Wrestling's holiday camp show in sunny Great Yarmouth.

The show was decent, as always, and I'm constantly learning as the weeks go on how to put up the wrestling ring, if I just learn one new thing each week, I'm happy.

The season is coming to its end now though, with only 2 weeks left, and the last 2 shows are going to be afternoon shows, which means...we will be able to help take the ring down aswell.

We are teasing staying at the holiday camp for the last one.

Shame to hear about Jodie Fleisch's injury, it might keep him off British Uprising, which will be a terrible shame, but he has been replaced by EZ Money for Hotwired..which is nice.

Chris Hamrick was also announced for Hotwired this week, he will be taking on Jonny Storm.

That's all for this week.

Until the next one, bammo.

September 21st 2003

We are just hours away from FWA Hotwired 2003, which takes place at the Broxbourne Civic Hall in Hertfordshire tonight at 6.30pm.

The show is the final show before the Wrestlemania of the FWA, British Uprising, which is on October 18th, so you can expect some big things to happen tonight.

On the card we have XPW European champion Jonny Storm defending against former All England champion Chris Hamrick. These two fought on the British Breakout tour back in April, and when Hamrick challenged Storm through the FWA's website, Jonny was quick to draw up some stipulations. Should Jonny win, he will never be able to be forced to wrestle Jodie Fleisch on an FWA show, but should Hamrick win, Jonny will no longer be able to call himself XPW European champion. Obviously with Jodie's retirement, the stipulations might be changed tonight.

Jodie Fleisch's replacement is making his FWA debut, former WCW, ECW and WWE star EZ Money (aka Jason Jet). He will be taking on Jack Xavier, in a match which could go either way.

James Tighe and Flash Barker will be competing in a Number One contender's match tonight. The 2 won semi final matches back in June at Vendetta, but the finals will be an interesting match. The winner will face Doug Williams at British Uprising for the Heavyweight title, and the loser will have the opportunity to wrestle The Zebra Kid tonight!!

The Tag Team title will be on the line as The Family defend the gold against Alex Shane & Ulf Hermann in a Barbed Wire Baseball Match! Despite Ulf's challenge for a singles match with Paul Travell at Vendetta, the tag team fued will continue in what should be a bloody brawl.

The ever popular Simmons will take on Mark Sloan tonight. These two teamed up at Vendetta and also on the Northern Exposure tour, so why they are against each other is a bit confusing.

In the first of the FWA Guest Match series, Lee Darren and Jace the Ace from Premier Promotions will battle in a Best of 3 Falls encounter. The crowd's response to these two should be interesting. They have wrestled all over the country, but tonight they get to make a name for themselves.

And finally, in preperation for his in ring return at British Uprising, The Duke of Danger will be doing a public workout in the ring.

It all takes place tonight at 6.30pm at the Civic Hall in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.

See you there!

Elsewhere The FWA have announced CM Punk and Justin Credible for British Uprising. I couldn't care less about CM Punk personally, but there will be a lot of net nerds treating him like God because he's American.

It's a shame to hear about Jodie Fleisch giving up bone bending. If it is because of injuries, one might say, "what do you expect". But until full details are reported, we can only wonder why.

Friday afternoon I took the trip to Great Yarmouth once again for Rebel Pro Wrestling, this week, as it was an afternoon performance, we actually helped take the ring down aswell!!

The Midlands Pro Wrestling contengent was well represented with Samurai, Mad Mike, Chris Charizma and White Tiger all on the bill.

Next week is the season finale, which is a shame, but I have had a great time there, and it's been a tremendous learning experience.

That's all for this week, until next time, byezey bye.

September 26th 2003

A great week it's been, with the finale of the RPW summer season at Great Yarmouth coming to an end tomorrow.

It's been a fun week, with FWA Hotwired on sunday at Broxbourne Civic Hall in Hertfordshire. The show was great and set up British Uprising nicely.

Before I get onto my thoughts on the show it must be pointed out how many wrestlers and wrestling personalities were either in attendance or working as security or selling merchandise. It really was a who's who of British wrestling.

Romeo L'Amore, Leroy Kincaid, Ricky Knight, WAW referee Joe Williams, Scott Frazier, Joe Riot, Charles Rhyse, Baxter Burridge, Stixx, Tex Benedict and Kristian Linnel were all there.

The show was solid, some bits better than others.

Jack Xavier vs. EZ Money was a decent opener, very different from the usual kind of opener we get. EZ Money may not have been in the best shape of his life but he put on a decent showing, and although it boggles my mind as to why, Jack Xavier grows in popularity each and every time he wrestles.

Flash Barker vs. James Tighe was not as good as expected, and the crowd seemed less interested than they should have been. The ending was very originaly executed, but looked too prepared.

Simmons is still more over than anyone else on the FWA roster, and his effort against Mark Sloan explains it. Well actually the stuff he did with Birchill later on in the show explains it, but he had a great match with Sloan.

I was very disappointed with the Flash Barker vs. Zebra Kid match. Back in March they wrestled to a crowd of 70 people, but put together one of the matches of the year. This time around, they wrestled for about 3 minutes before Hade Vanson entered the ring before getting the hell kicked out of him by all the security and a selection of wrestlers, including Alex Shane.

The Duke of Danger's Public Workout was a mixture of hilarity and pointlessness. Simmons comments made up for the fact that Duke didn't get on the mike.

The Premier Promotions guest match was a good effort, and the crowd's support of Jace the Ace and Lee Darren was positive. It was a very un-Premier style match though, although Premier rules were in effect.

Jonny Storm and Chris Hamrick's match was not as good as their British Breakout tour match in Sudbury last April, but still match of the night.

The Family vs. Alex Shane & Co. war continues, with The Family retaining the titles by DQ in a Barbed Wire Baseball Bat match. Crazy huh? The fued should end at Uprising, I say should, blooming well better do.

As it is late at night, I am tired and achy, and have to get up early tomorrow morning, I am going to leave it at that for this week.

I was thinking of including a Q&A section to the website, if you like the idea, let me know, until then tattybyebye.

October 4th 2003

Not much went down this week, as the summer season is over in Great Yarmouth, and sadly only one match has been announced for this tuesday's All Star return to Croydon, so I can't do a preview of that show!!

Tonight I would have been going to WAW October Outrage 4 in Norwich, but sadly the show was postponed and will now take place on the 24th.

The countdown to British Uprising continues, with only 14 days to go.

Only 4 matches have been announced, with 3 titles on the line, also the Duke of Danger returns to action for the first time since April to team with Simmons against Burchill in a handicap match.

Doug Williams defends the title against James Tighe. The two squared off in March at Crunch, in a match won by Doug Williams.

Alex Shane & Ulf Hermann challenge The Family for the tag team titles again. The fued will hopefully come to and end on this night.

The Zebra Kid defends his All England title against Flash Barker in a rematch fron Hotwired.

There's little else going on this week, so for now, I will call off.

Until next time, bye. 

October 13th 2003

It's been a very busy week this week, so let's get started!

On tuesday, All Star wrestling returned to Fairfield Halls in Croydon, for their monthly spectacular. 

4 of the 5 matches had been announced a few days in advance, so we knew were in for a treat with the lineup, although the previously advertised match between American Dragon and Mikey Whiplash was nowhere to be seen.  For the better though it would seem, as we would be getting a rematch from June's match between Dragon and Doug Williams, who had just returned from a successful 10 day German tour.

As great as this match was, it was still not the best match on the show, but it was most memorable, as after a 5 month run, American Dragon lost his World Heavy Middleweight title (now known as the All Star World title). 

The best match on the show was between Jonny Storm and Steve Grey.  This match in my opinion was better than most matches you see on FWA shows, in lacked in ridiculous looking "high spots" and concentrated on mat wrestling, leading to a big finisher with Storm doing a kind of suplex DDT on Grey, then getting the fall. 

It was interesting to see James Tighe, Andy Simmonz, Aviv Mayaan and others in an All Star ring, hopefully we will see more of them in the future.

It was also fun to meet John Atkins the FWA ring announcer and sit with him and Sanjay Bagga at the show. 

After all that excitement, I went all the way to Birmingham, spending 3 and a half hours on various trains by myself, to see the WWE Passport to Pain tour. 

I met up with notorious wrestling journalist Tom Lancaster at the venue and after discussing all the goings on in the bone bending game we went inside to enjoy an awesome show.  It was much better than May's Tour de Force show in London I visisted, and last year's Insurrextion was only better because it was a pay-per-view.  The crowd were awfully loud, there were no bad matches on the show, although some of the endings were slightly anticlimatic. 

After the show, outside the venue we briefly engaged in conversation with Phil Austin, Stixx and Alex Shane, as well as Mario, who people might know as promoter of various FWA events, and owner of Mario's Fun Van, which many a wrestler and fan a like have travelled in!

Back at Tom's we watched some old episodes of RAW, aswell as Michinoku Pro Invades the UK, which was good fun.

The long journey back was as fun as it could be, and it was very good to finally get home at 7.30 pm on sunday.

Next week will be even better as on friday I go to All Star at Colchester, then on saturday FWA in Bethnal Green and on sunday Premier Promotions in Cheshunt.  I very much look forward to my wrestling weekend next week.

Elsewhere:  Colt Cobana vs. CM Punk?  Yawn!  Homicide?  Yawn!  As it stands right now, I think this year's British Uprising is gonna have a hard time topping last year's, but I'm sure somehow it will manage it.

Next week, I will give a report on my 3 days of wrestling extravaganza, so be sure to tune in.

October 20th 2003

What a week!

Firstly on thursday,  Dan  joined me for an evening of pizza and wrestling videos, throughout the night and the next morning we probably watched about 10 hours of UK wrestling shows dating as far back as 1990 and as recent as August from this year. It was all good.

Friday afternoon I got some films developed which include pictures from RPW, WAW, All Star and WWE shows.

Then we got the bus to Colchester, which was 25 minutes late and went to the All Star show, meeting up with Lenny, Phil Austin, Lenny's mum and others at the show. Top night of All Star action, highlights include meeting Bill Apter and getting Hade Vanson, Stixx, Doug Williams, Jonny Storm (new hair and all, one day before FWA!!!!) pics and autographs. Also good to see the former UWA Tag Team champions Too Far Gone against each other.

Friday night I watched RAW, slept for about 4 hours, then got on a bus, then a train to Bethnal Green for the fan slam. I forgot my glasses which caused me all kinds of problems. Fan Slam was great, got pics with Homicide, James Tighe, Andy Simmonz, Colt Cobana, CM Punk and Bill Apter. Also got Ulf Hermann and Alex Shane's autographs.

Then on to Uprising, show was good, but no better than Hotwired or Vendetta. Punched my friend Lenny in the side of the head for pissing me off one too many times just before the show started. Match of the night was, I'm sad to say, Colt v. Punk, followed by Doug v. Tighe.

After the show got pics with Whipwreck and Credible. Stayed at Dan's house saturday night, watched Northern Exposure tour and the "Everything Stopped at 4 O'Clock" documentary, and prob some other stuff I've forgotten.

Sunday morning we watched an HWA vid then were gonna go see David Blaine, but missed the train, so went straight to Cheshunt for Premier Promotions' return to Wolsey Hall.

Show was great, headlined by Doug Williams v. Paul Birchill. Also featured Kris Kaye, Mark Sloan, Johnny Kidd, Jorge Castano, UK Kid and James Tighe.

Spoke with Doug before the show, and Tighe, Birchill, Freemantle (promoter) and Kidd after the show before a jogging race with Dan, Lenny and Tom Lancaster back to the train. I finally got home at 11.30pm sunday night, before watching WWE No Mercy.

I'd never been to 3 consecutive shows before, and after it I am knackered, but it was good fun, if I could afford it, I'd love to go on the road watching wrestling, but you know...hotels, food, travel, tickets.  It all adds up.

This friday I will either be going to WAW in Norwich, or Dropkixx in Purfleet, most like Dropkixx, again due to finances.

Also upcoming in my schedule are shows in Croydon, Stoke and Yate, and should also be at the MMA show in Purfleet on November 2nd.

So until next week, thanks for reading, and so long.

October 24th 2003

Well after my mammoth week last week, I think I am deserving of this short break!!!

Tonight the original plan was to go to WAW October Outrage 5 in Norwich and stay in a hotel. 

A lack of fincances coupled with the quite frankly terrible card, we decided not to go.  Instead we were gonna go to the Dropkixx show in Purfleet.  Funnily enough this show was rescheduled from October 1st, and the WAW show was rescheduled from October 4th, we were gonna go to both originally. 

So we decided to and get our first taste of live Dropkixx action (seen 2 videos before).  However, one of our 3 man convoy couldn't make it due to a University open day, and again a not so great card, made me decide not to bother.

So, I've been to no shows this week, but am teasing going all the way down to Portsmouth to see my first ever FWA Academy show.

Trouble is I would be meeting Dan there, meaning a 2 hour journey alone, which doesn't impress me.  Plus finances come into question, especially if I am going to go to Trowbridge in a couple of weeks.  Will I go or not?  You'll have to wait until next week to find out!!!

I do want to go, but money! 

So, until next week, byebye.

October 31st 2003

In the end, I didn't go to the FWA Academy show in Portsmouth last saturday, as I got a better offer, you know what I'm talking 'bout.

This weekend I will venture outside of pro wrestling for the first time as I make my debut in Mixed Martial Arts........as a camera man!

This should be a great experience, I will hopefully meet some new and exciting people, witness some exciting action, and it is certainly something to add to my media c.v.

The event takes place in Purfleet, and afterwards I am staying at the Formula One hotel!!!!  Nice name huh?

Oh yeh, hallowe'en.  Cool huh?  I've not had any trick or treaters yet.  Shame that. 

I might not be going to Croydon for the All Star Wrestling show on tuesday.  I have been every month since February, and it is somewhat costly, so if it was more local I'd definetly be going, but as no card has been announced yet, I will probably not be going.  I give them until sunday morning.

In case anyone is going I can reveal that The UK Pitbulls will be in action tuesday night.

I am looking forward to this sunday, it should be fun, hopefully I'll see you there.

Next week, I will tell you all about my MMA debut, but until then, so long.

November 7th 2003

OK, to begin with, thanks to everyone who has voted for the 2003 awards.You can still vote, so click here for more information. I missed All Star in Croydon, this week, I felt good about it in some ways, I felt like I'd saved money for a change, but the card seemed like a decent one, although nobody has personally told me how good it was yet, I've only read.

It was sadening to hear about the death of Michael Lockwood, also known as Crash Holly, who died earlier this week.  He was only in his early 30s, and had so much more to give to professional wrestling.

Last sunday I made my Mixed Martial Arts debut, at the UKMMA Championships in Purfleet in Essex. 

My fight didn't go too well, I had the adva.....hang on, I got confused.  Let me start again.  As part of the camera crew, I furthered my media c.v., which was important to me, and also saw some seriously violent fights.  I believe there were 9 fights altogether.  I have to apologise for not knowing anything about any of the fighters, all I can remember is Ciro Gallo, who is on page 23 of the current Guinness Book of Records.

After the show, which ended at about 11pm, myself and the rest of the High Impact Productions (or Hip, for short) team returned to the Ibis hotel, for chit and chat.  One of the highlights was going to a 24 hours snack bar, set in a bus, to get a sausage baguette.  Unbelievable!

MMA return to Purfleet in February, and you can expect to see me there again.  Check out www.ukmmac.com for more information.

Upcoming in my calendar is Rebel Pro Wrestling.  After the huge success of the summer season in Great Yarmouth, RPW make their debut in Sheffield on December 6th. 

I will be there, most probably filming the event, although nothing is confirmed, but I will be there.

Once again, remember to vote in the awards, and also take part in the new poll on the front page, which will change every month.

Until next time, have a good time.

November 18th 2003

A nothing week this past week, which is why the rampage is so late, because I'd done nothing of any interest, so forgot to write about it!

My plans to go to both AIWF in Stoke, and CSF in Yate were both cancelled, which was a shame.  So to make up for that, I plan to go to some shows I wouldn't normally have gone to (read next week for more info) and also to buy a digital video camera (not that I can afford it).

Remember to vote in the awards, the votes have been interesting so far, so interesting that I might have to put the runners up on the webpage too.

As sad as it may sound, that is it for this week, I really haven't done anything wrestling wise.  The most interesting wrestling thing I have done this week is put my TWA poster back on the wall, after it fell off when I was at work!

Byezey bye.

December 11th 2003

Well as you may have noticed I have stopped doing a Rampage every week, as there were a few times when I had absolutely nothing to report on, so now I will just do a Rampage whenever I feel neccessary.  I hope this new venture sees me well!!

I took a 6 week break from any live wrestling, and in that time made my Mixed Martial Arts debut as a cameraman. 

This was an awesome experience, but getting back in a live wrestling audience felt good.  All Star Wrestling of course returned to Fairfield Halls for the final show of the year in Croydon on December 2nd, unfortunetly the show was a huge letdown.

I missed the November installment at Croydon, but the October show was brilliant, better than any FWA show I've seen in my opinion, so I had high hopes going into this one.  I already knew the announced main event of Doug Williams vs. Jonny Storm would not be taking place. but I was still excited.

Being backstage at Fairfield Halls was quite cool, as Johnny Kidd showed myself and Dan Ambrose around.  The endless stream of corridors and staircases was bewildering to say the least. 

Onto the show, and we had really rubbish seats, which didn't help, but even front row seats wouldn't have made the show much better.  We sat with Baxter Burridge for the first half, but he ended up wrestling on the show, so we moved after the interval and sat with FWA ring announcer John Atkins, the infamous Bagga and UKFF regular King Slim. 

The first match was decent enough, but the Chris Wyld and Ethan Hayze failed to get the crowd responses they desired, as both men receieved mixed reactions from different sections of the crowd.  I can't even remember who won, but these two will be wrestling each other again tomorrow night in Hampshire on UKPW's debut show.

The following match was the match of the night, but still not great.  Jonny Storm beat German Heavyweight champion Thunder.  The action was exciting, but there were some moments where the two styles didn't gel.

Five Star Flash teamed with the very tall Johnny Lee Cassidy to take on Kid Cool and Marty Jones.  Jones, who was coming out of retirement for one final tour played the heel very effectively in this match.  The in ring action was poor, but the story was fantastic, and Jones was the obvious star, showing his opponents and partner how to do it (in reality aswell as in the story).  The match reminded me of a match I saw 13 months ago in Southend, which had Skull Murphy in Jones' place and Paul Tyrell in Kid Cool's role.  Eventually Jones got tired of Cool being unable to win the match and turned on him.  The challenge for a singles match was made, and accepted, but we have no idea when it will happen.

After the interval, long time foes Pippa Paige and Shelby Beach battled.  As far as crowd reaction was concerned this was probably the match of the night.  The crowd hated Paige, and she played to them really well.  Shelby scored the surprise victory to an excited crowd.

The main event featured Robbie Brookside, who as always win "pop" of the night teaming with Johnny Kidd to take on Baxter Burridge, new look and all, and some ridiculous looking guy called the Sheffield Steelman.  This guy made Stace Oddity look like a good wrestler.  He couldn't even take a decent snap mere properly.  I was disturbed by this guy's performance.  Fortunetly the match was short, and ended when Brookside pinned Burridge.

The journey home included a chat with Johnny Kidd on the train and a female taxi driver (a first).  I was not pleased to find out my taxi fare had gone up one pound though.

That weekend I was supposed to go up to Sheffield for the debut main show of Rebel Pro Wrestling.  After spending the last 5 weeks of the summer helping set up the ring on the holiday camp circuit for RPW I was looking forward to doing the same on a proper show, as well as filming the event. 

Sadly the day before the scheduled event i was informed that the event had been cancelled due to poor ticket sales.  This was a major hinderance, but these things happen, and the risk of doing the event with the possibility of such a small crowd would have been financially foolish, so pulling the plug was the right thing to do for the promoter. 

They will try again on February 1st in a different market though, hopefully with more success.

I teased with the idea of going to Holland on January 25th for FCW's event with Jonny Storm vs. Doug Williams and The UK Pitbulls and Dominator scheduled.  I would have gone, but the day before this event I will be in Enfield for RBW's show there, which is more important.  Of course I could go to Holland the day of the show, but there is only one plane a day, and the timing's not good.  It's a real shame, as it would have been a fun experience, hopefully they will do another show at the same place again soon.

So, until next time, remember to vote in the 2003 British Wrestling Awards, and see you soon.