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February 7th 2004 It's been a busy few weeks for yours truly, so let's get right into it!I had my first taste of Revolution British Wrestling on January 24th as the group made their debut in Enfield. This was the first of a series of monthly events at Celbic Hall, and was the beginning of a new era in RBW's history. RBW have a very bright future indeed, and this event would have been a great platform to create a new fanbase in the London area, as most of RBW's shows have been in the north so far. But this venue in Enfield (which is located next door to their London training school) is so small that most of the crowd consisted of the wrestlers' family and friends. Infact the cosy little room only seated about 65 people. Still, it does its job. Match of the evening went to the tournament final to crown a new British Middleweight champion. The final two competitors were Cameron Knite and Johnny Kidd. What a match!! This was the first time I had seen Cameron Knite, and I was impressed. Johnny Kidd eventually won the best of 3 falls contest, but Cameron retained a bit of dignity when he won the Battle Royal match at the end of the evening. The two men will compete again in a rather different environment at the Leeds Corn Exchange on March 25th for the UFO.It was also good to catch up with some old acquaintances who I had not seen for a few months. Celbic Hall in Enfield will now stage RBW events every month for the foreseeable future, and RBW also have dates in Hemel Hempstead and Chingford too.A few days later was the return of the UWA. It had been more than a year since the UWA had run a show (as far as I know) so it was good to see that they were on the comeback trail. What made this event even better is I was filming the event for future release. So along with "Dangerous" Dan Ambrose got the train out of Essex, into London, then into Hertfordshire, before walking back into Essex. Crazy it may sound, but that's the way the train system works. We got the Waltham Abbey Town Hall to find the ring almost set up (so much for us getting there early), so got on with setting up our equipment. This didn't take as long as we had imagined, but we obviously wanted to get the best angles and what have you, especially as this was going to be quite an important show. The crowd was a disappointment, as about 100 people walked into the 250-seat venue, but I think we can all trust that the risque weather conditions were part of the reason the crowd was small.The show was enjoyable, but obviously when you are filming you tend to see things a bit differently than if you were sitting in the audience, so I can't really comment on the matches. But from what I have seen back on video it was a good event. But 2 days later UWA staged another event that would top anything and everything we saw at Waltham Abbey. In fact there was a little story leading into the show at Chelmsford's Riverside Ice & Leisure Centre. Years ago, when WAW used to run the venue there were crowds of up to and including 700 there on a regular basis, but as wrestling's popularity died down (again) about 3 years ago, so did the crowds. I never saw any of this, but Dan saw the crowds go down and down. The last time an event was held there was 10 months ago. I was there for that one, and so were about 75 other people. It would have been less had Dan not convinced a group of about 15 of his mates to attend. Blame the date being wrong in the papers, or as some more educated people might say, the shows were poor, and there was no reason for anyone to come back. I can't comment, as was never there, but the WAW show in 2003 was awesome. Anyway, so I was hopeful that UWA would be able to improve, as it would be sad to see wrestling in Chelmsford die forever. I was impressed to see articles and adverts in local papers, it showed the UWA had gone to a lot of effort, but I was sceptical when I read in a press release that tickets were selling fast for the 700-seat venue. This all changed when we heard from the venue itself that more than 350 tickets had been sold, with weeks left before the event.The inclusion of Jake "the Snake" Roberts, and an impressive under card left me with an optimistic feel. Then on the night, I was shocked but very impressed to see the place sell out.. and then some. There were at least 750 people there, probably more. It goes to show that with the right advertising it is still possible to get decent crowds. What was even more encouraging was the positive reaction from the crowd, and the excellent show UWA delivered. It was so encouraging that a return date has already been scheduled for the spring! For this event Dan and I got there earlier, and were able to help set up the ring a bit, and also chat to people a lot more. It was a lot of fun certainly. The highlight of the show for me has to be what happened during the Frankie Sloane vs. Phil Powers match. At ringside filming the show I saw Frankie set up Phil for an Irish Whip. Assuming Phil would be thrown into the turnbuckle pads I raised the camera to get a good shot of him running into the corner (where I was). The velocity of the whip however caused Phil to kind of fly, and of course his legs went between the ropes, with his crotch nailing the pads. Without time to react I was faced with Phil's feet coming right at me, and was nailed in the face. Well actually Phil nailed my camera, which subsequently nailed me. And yeh it hurt! I felt like my face had been smashed with a sledgehammer! A Triple H sledgehammer that is, not a garden shed one, so I was fine a few seconds later. Shockingly the camera was fine, not damaged in the slightest. That pleased me, so after getting over the fact that half the crowd had just laughed at me, I carried on filming. After a minute or so I realised I was bleeding! It must have been the first time a cameraman had bled on a wrestling show. No biggy. Natch, I was fine, I let myself bleed a bit, but then decided I should go and sort myself out!!!The rest of the show was fantastic, and went along with no major problems. I managed to run out of battery, which caused a bit of hassle but nothing big. Now all we have to do is go down to Harlow or Southend to get these 2 shows edited up. If I had the money of course I'd get my own editing equipment, as I'd love nothing more than be able to edit them entirely by myself, and not have to trust someone I barely know with it. But I guess I'll have to! The finished product should look great, and I can't wait to get on with the editing, it's just finding time.The next day Dan and I made a long trip, this time to Bedfordshire. Our good friends at Rebel Pro Wrestling ran the small show, which was a great success. The main feature of the show was Spiderman taking on Blondie Barratt in a fun match. It was a busy week indeed, but well worth all the effort for the most part.I will hopefully be going to see WAW St. Valentine's Day Massacre next week, but am still unsure. Then the week after that Premier Promotions in Potter's Bar.I will be back with another Rampage soon enough, so until then, bo.March 12th 2004 I didn't realise it had been so long since I did a Rampage!Actually this is about the 5th time in the last week I have started to write one, then realised I don't have enough time.Well, it's been a busy month or so for me, indeed. But before we get onto my wealings and dealings of recent weeks, there's a few other things on my mind.Firstly in 3 days it's Wrestlemania XX. This will mark my 13th anniversary as a wrestling fan, which shocks me. Well, actually I saw Wrestlemania 7 about 4 months after it happened, but still I count March 1991 as the time I became a wrestling fan. The day after that The Wrestling Channel launches on Sky Digital. Amazing really. About 10 months ago when it was originally announced so many people thought it was just some guy's idea of a joke. And here we are days away from its launch. I am hoping we will get more than just a series of shows. I will be pleased if we get a TalkWresltling style show, but on TV obviously, and I hear we will be seeing RF Video Shoot Interviews, which are usually a mixture of great interest and utter boredom. Talk about breaking "kayfabe" though. Show some guy trying to kill his opponent in the ring, then an hour later listen to him talk about what good mates they are. I also hear teh FWA are planning a show where they showcase "non FWA" wrestlers, and viewers can text in who they want to see again. Novel idea, but I'm guessing it's going to be a main source of revenue for TWC.Aaaah, FWA. Yesterday they announced they have signed an exclusive 5 year deal with TWC to be the only UK promotion (Irish Whip Wrestling is British, but not UK) on the channel. Talk about rubbish. Of course, as the FWA do as soon as someone on the internet says something bad about them they immedietly respond to it. They have since said the statement was misleading and have said other promotions will be able to appear on the channel if their standards meet the FWA's. Nonesense. We want a variety on the channel, not just FWA style. They also say the other promotions in ring stuff has to meet the FWA's. Well, I think a lot of the FWA's in ring stuff sucks. I don't go to a wrestling show to see someone get set on fire, or two people having a ballet lesson. It's slightly personal for me, because we had been making a TV show to send to the channel with the idea that they were interested in it. 6 weeks have been spent producing the programme, all for nothing. I hope the FWA soon realise they are not the savior of British wrestling and stop acting as though they are.Anyway, onto my activity since the beginning of February.I didn't go to WAW St. Valentine's Day Massacre. It seemed like too much effort for an average card. WAW are using a lot of people I'm not familiar with lately, and if they are doing local shows, I'm happy to go along, but I don't wanna travel great distances to see them.The plan was to go to Premier Promotions in Potter's Bar, I had been looking forward to it since October. Realising travel was a bit tricky, Dan had asked Phil Powers if he could give us a lift, or at least a lift back. So as far as I knew we were getting the train there, and Phil was gonna drive us home.So at work on the tuesday night I was shocked to get a message saying I was going to be a second on the show, as well as help set the ring up. I had never been a second before, so this was going to be exciting. We got there at about 2.30, set the ring up, and then after a few hours of chit chat and milling about, the show began. Then infront of 275 people Johnny Kidd walks through the curtain, and there's little old me right behind him in my blue Premier Promotions shirt. The night when on with only one hitch. Despite my telling Baxter Burridge he was in the blue corner he stodd in the red corner, so when his opponent Mal Sanders came out, I ended up being his second, despite accompanying Baxter to the ring. No biggy.More importantly BBC 3's TV cameras were there to film the event. In case you don't know on friday nights on the Live at Johnny's show they show some very short clips of Premier shows. They had already shown stuff from Worthing, so this last friday I was very excited when they showed a match from Potter's Bar. You just see me in the corner. Hopefully next week they will show the entrances as well. A few days later I made my debut as a cameraman for Revolution British Wrestling. Me and my co cameraman Dan were about 15 minutes late though due to our train being cancelled, but nevermind eh? 7 days later I filmed the RBW show in Hemel Hempstead. We got a bus with the likes of Sammy Ray and Corey Davis from Enfield, which was quite fun. The next day was the return of UKMMAC to Purfleet. The show was decent, and being a cameraman was as knackering as ever. I had a real problem though with an annoying perverted bearded Danish photographer though, who stole my area during the interval and refused to move, until I told him I would come and find him if the video turned out to be rubbish. The next weekend it was another RBW show, this time in Chingford. Another decent offering by RBW. Highlight of the night for me was nearly breaking my leg falling down some dodgy steps backstage. Trouble was I had a can of coke in one hand, and my camera in the other, so when I slipped I couldn't grab onto anything. So, there was me falling down these steps then smashing my head on a wall infront of some of the staff and wrestlers. I felt a bit daft, but was able to laugh it off. We are only a week and a bit away from the next UWA show. The editing of the previous "tour" is almost complete, and it looks pretty good, although not perfect. No fault of the editor though, he's done an excellent job. We had camera problems which means that show will never look perfect no matter what we do. It will all be sorted by March 20th though, and it's looking promising. Anyway, this had been a bit rushed, but I have a lot to do. Hopefully I will be doing another Rampage soon. Until then, bye bye.
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