DECEMBER 2nd 2006

Just over 2 months to catch up on this time, but still a lot has gone on, so let's get straight into it!

The diary begins on September 24th which was a crazy day to say the least.  IPW had another show down in Orpington, complimented by an afternoon mini show.  "Travelling to shows pals" Rob & Lee opted to spend the whole afternoon and evening in Orpington, while I decided to mix it up a little bit, and go to LDN's charity event, part of a police fundraiser, taking place outdoors in East London.

LDN promoter Sanjay Bagga had boasted to me the wrestling would attract 2000 customers, although in reality, he meant the police fundrasier would.  When I arrived at the venue less than 50 people were there, although by the time it started 50 minutes late that had raised to around 300, plus about 20 trainess/LDN staffers!  Me thinks the advertised time was different online than what it was at the actual venue, which is why they changed the start time and 250 people showed up "an hour late".  Despite all that, I was still able to leave East London (Plaistow to be exact) after the show and get to Orpington with a good 20 minutes to spare until the main IPW show began.

The day itself was crazy.  I had been told the venue was a 5 minute walk from Upton Park tube station, which is easy enough to get to.  I think the man meant a 5 minute bus ride though, as it actually took me about 35 minutes, meaning I got there dead on the 12.30 start time, which as already noted, ended up being nearly an hour early anyway!  The venue was very unique.  I love outdoor shows, and they sure took a gamble doing it in september.  But it was a really nice day for weather.  The venue was a football/running etc stadium, and as the show concluded there was actually football practice taking place behind the ring for the last couple of matches!!  At some points, the man operating the hard camera was more interested in watching that, than doing his job.

The show actually was pretty rotten.  Only one or 2 half decent matches, and some real rubbish, but I can understand, as 85% of the crowd weren't wrestling fans, and they hadn't paid specifically to see it.  But they got into it mostly, and the matches were kept short, with none going longer than 8 minutes, so the crowd never got bored.  As it was a TV taping though, the matches could have done with being better, although I've seen the first of the 2 TV episodes recorded on this day, and it came across much better on TV.  The nobhead known on the UKFF as Timelord (in reality an employee of LDN) gave the show a 10/10, saying it had everything a wrestling show needs...and he accuses IPW and FWA fans of being "fanboys". 

Annoyingly, there was a troup of staff heading down to Orpington in a car (Phil Austin, John Atkins, and others) but I was denied a lift, as the car was full, so I happily got the train down there.  It wasn't a problem, but a car would have been easier.  As I was leaving I saw Skye getting in her car alone, but assumed she was going home.  So when I got to Orpington and saw her there, I was annoyed! 

Still, that afternoon I saw 6 matches (9 if you count the gauntlet as seperate matches) at zero cost, while Lee and Rob saw 3 matches for £5 (I think).  I think I got the better deal, had a more unique experience, and also had no extra travel costs.

The evenings IPW show was highlighted by the first (and only) non WWE appearance of Ultimo Dragon.  He was part of a gauntlet match where he wrestled Mexican Ricky Marvin, and England's Pac.  There was a TLC match for the Tag Titles, which was also great.  The rest of the show was average. 

The next weekend was outstanding.  WAW presented a legends card in Lowestoft, as a tribute to their longtime referee Joe Williams, who was suffering from cancer.  We were filming the show, and had a great time, and the show was phenomenal.  A large crowd of nearly 600 was on hand too, many of whom were legendary British wrestlers.  Seeing Joe sitting in the front row enjoying the night that was presented in his honor, and seeing him enter the ring at the end of the show, as every wrestler and WAW employee on hand paid tribute to him was very touching.  While I could never ever claim to know Joe like everyone who was standing in the ring then, I still have fond memories of being in his company for the last 4 years.  At every WAW show we have filmed, he was always there for a friendly chat, was always one of the first to come over and say hello, and was always genuinly interested in how you were doing.  He'd always offer his unbiased and interesting opinion on the show and wrestling in general, and was always great company.  Before we even started filming WAW shows I had attended many WAW shows as a fan in places like Clacton and Great Yarmouth, and even then, Joe would recognise me at shows and would always make time for a quick chat.  Although everyone knew it was coming, it was a sad and shocking moment when I read a post from WAW owner, and Joe's best friend, Ricky Knight, that Joe had died just 2 weeks later.  The WAW Legends DVD will also be presented in his honour, and all proceeds from the sale of the DVD are either going to Joe's family, or charities which Joe was fond of.  I really hope people will make an effort to buy the DVD, as not only was it a tremendoud and heartwarming show, but it's all for a good cause.

The next weekend was IPW's return to Swanley after the Frontiers of Honor rubbish that was presented there 2 months earlier.  I had absolutely no intention of going, but the card was decent, and with no other plans I made the decision to attend that afternoon, and met Rob in the seats he had reserved for us.  The show was pretty good, much better than FOH2, but I still don't like the venue.  The atmosphere is lost in a venue like that which is not packed.  The first ever live Cage match I've seen (not counting WAW's builders cage matches) was the main event with Ashe vs. Kris Linnell.  The rest of the show was decent, with nothing really bad (except Head & Voltage vs. Spud & Phoenix), but nothing mindblowing.

It was back to the ways of the past the next weekend, with an ASW show in Colchester.  I started a new job the week earlier, a job which can involve staying late on fridays, and has had me staying til 8 o'clock twice already.  Luckily this week I was able to leave on time and get to Colchester's Charter Hall for 7.25, just in time for the start of the show.  In future I have to let my customer know if I need to leave on time on a friday as early as possible, so special arrangements can be made that all the work is done early. 

The show was decent, nothing overly bad, but as usual, nothing awesome either.  They had set the hall out differently, with seats on all 4 sides of the ring for the first time ever, rather than the usual 3.  So we (Rob's first ever ASW Colchester show) sat on the 4th side, with an alternative view of the action.  Worth noting that for the first time since 2002, the show was not sold out, with a good 100 empty seats! 

I stayed at my brother's house in Colchester that evening, and woke up, after about 3 hours sleep on his couch, at 6.40am, to get the 7.15 train from Hythe-Doncaster, with a change in Colchester, getting off an meeting Lee in Ipswich, changing in Cambridge AND Peterborough.  We could actually have got a train straight from Colchester to Peterborough with Lee jumping on at Ipswich, had I bought my ticket in advance.  But Hythe is a small station with no ticket office, so I had to get off at Ipswich to buy a ticket, which meant missing the direct train and having to make that change.  No problem though, as we got to Doncaster with plenty of time.  After waiting for nearly 25 minutes for a taxi outside the station, we left to que of about 15 people to wonder into the town centre to see if we could find a taxi firm.  We did which was to be a 30 minute wait!  This was on a saturday morning!  We then literally walked around one corner and found about 10 taxis at another rank just waiting!  So we hopped in and were at the hotel in no time.  We quickly unpacked and cleaned up then got a short bus trip to the Doncaster Dome for 1PW Fight Club!  The ticket was 12 quid and the show lasted 90 minutes!  The evening show's ticket was 24 quid and lasted 5 hours!  Weird eh?  Fight Club (the afternoon show) had a couple of OK matches, but nothing special.  The evening show, had a few really good matches, and of course the "first ever" (bullplop) No Rope Barbed Wire match in the UK between Steve Corino and Abyss.  That was good violent fun.  Seats were good, but some lanky swine kept standing on his seat right in front of us.  Blimey. 

The next morning we had a lovely breakfast (I love that hotel, it's so cheap for what you get)  then made our way back to the station for a train ride to London, where we would then get a tube to Liverpool Street, meet Rob and go to Broxbourne for IPW.  Lee had originally wanted to go the long route (ie from Doncaster to Peterborough, through Ipswich and Colchester with probably one change, to Liverpool Street, to Broxbourne) which would have taken 6 hours!   Sure we had 6 hours to spare, but why would I want to sit on a train for 6 hours when the short route (Doncaster to Kings Cross to Liverpool Street to Broxbourne) takes less than 3 hours!  Lee's excuse was that it would cost nearly double the train fare.  I told him that was rubbish and would probably be an extra 7 quid.  It turned out it was 9 quid extra, so we did that.  I would have anyway, but Lee did too.  When we got to London we wondered around for a bit, taking in some sunday afternoon markets, where I bought a new wallet, and Lee bought a new bag.  Having never really experienced the real world, Lee was a nervous wreck the whole time we were in the markets, begging for us to leave cos he was uncomfortable the whole time.  I just kept telling him it was great, this is what real life is like, and I am going nowhere!  While we waited in Liverpool Street for Rob, Lee made an uncalled for remark about my ex girlfriend, who I am friends with, which made me want to kill him and I should have.  You have to bear in mind, Lee gets very upset whenever I call his girlfriend a 'bird', so why he felt the need to call my ex a slag, just because she had a baby when she was 20 years old with a man she was with for 4 years, I have no idea.  He also kept going on about a show he watched with his girlfriend about teen pregnancies.  I told him 20 is not a teenager, and there is nothing illegal about having a baby when you are 16 (well 9 months into being 16!) and it all depends on the parent themselves, not their age.  It might be daft, but not illegal!  I also told him my mum had my sister when she was 19.  Does that make her a slag?  Does that make her a bad mother?  My sister who was born to a 19 year old mum is now married, living in a 5 bedroom house with 2 daughters of her own, and is a high paid clothe designer married to an even higher paid tax inspector.  Damn my mum for being a pregnant teenager.  What a slag!  Seriously, Lee needs to cut the cord and have some real life experiences, because he talks utter crap most the time, and I'm not the only one who notices it.  He is a good fella, he's not horrible, he's good company most the time, but he has no idea what real life is all about.  At least I didn't punch him like I did at British Uprising 2.

The IPW show was very enjoyable, and very historical.  It kicked off the FWA vs. IPW feud, which ends in March with one company going out of business forever.  Broxbourne was of course, FWA's home venue for a number of years, before they took their audience for granted and went from having their first legit 500 sell out of the venue to having less than 200 paying fans in a year.  IPW probably had around 250, but as the FWA tarnished the hall, that's not bad.  Hopefully this big event at the venue in March will draw a good crowd.  But it's on a friday night.  How many travelling fans who work can make Broxbourne Civic Hall for say, 7.30?  Not me, and I won't be booking a day off work for it either.  If I can get a lift though, all good, as Broxbourne is an hour in the car.  But they haven't yet announced a start time, so we will see.

It was around this time XSW's debut show, to be held in Colchester was cancelled for personal reasons.  Both promoters had had tragedies in their personal lives, and the show could have happened, but it wouldn't have had their full effort, and they decided to cancel.  The Colchester debut is now on December 10th, and is a Deathmatch tournament!  Weird, but unique.  Not long to go.  I'm bringing 2 non fan friends with me, and I hope they enjoy the ultra violence!

IPW returned to Orpington the next weekend, with a show highlighted by the injured Andy Simmonz winning the IPW title in an awesome match/angle.  Alex Shane also appeared furthering the tremendous feud storyline.  It was awesome until we all saw him go backstage after attacking Martin Stone and cutting an anti IPW promo.  If he is so hated in IPW surely he wasn't backstage for the whole first half of the show?!

Later that week I took a day off work to go to Kettering with Steve Morocco for BOBW's return to Wickstead Park.  The first time there was mid summer on a lovely day.  October 25th, was not a lovely day.  We got there early again, though not as early as last time, set up the ring, had some food etc.  Had a fun day, it was a good show, had some great action (Steve Grey vs. Johnny Kidd for example) and a good but small crowd of 150 ish. 

Got home at 3am to wake up at 7.45 for work!  Immedietly after work I got the bus to Witham and the train to Clacton.  I met Lee on the train and we met Rob there.  This was "Ringside Promotions"' first show at Clacton, although in reality it was Phil Powers who also co-ran RQW and UWA shows there in previous years.  Phil wasn't there though, and the show was ran by Jace the Ace, Tom Thumb and Lloyd Ryan.  The show was a mess for sure, starting very late.  It had a couple of decent matches, like Fleisch vs. Tyrell and Storm vs. Burridge, but overall was nothing special.

That weekend had Rage Entertainment's return to Harlow for Playhouse Wrestlefest 5.  This was just an awesome show.  5 matches, 4 of which had odd stipulations or gimmicks (casket, dog collar, falls anywhere, ladder).  These shows are always off the chain, as some would say, and this one was no exception.

The next day was WAW's "Wrestlemania", October Outrage, in Norwich.  Me, Dan and Rob drove up there to film, and had a good time.  There was a decent lineup, but back when I watched WAW videos and read results, October Outrage always stood out, having superlative lineups, with matches not seen anywhere else, even in WAW.  The last couple of years though, have been good, but just regular kinda Norwich WAW shows.  The crowd has died down too, for whatever reason.  But WAW are happy with their recent successes, and the announcement of Fightmare 2 for next May, in Lowestoft, is exciting.

RQW as a company has totally changed since I filmed their first 2 shows in early 2005.  Originally run by Phil Powers and Lloyd Ryan, media mogual based in Dagenham, Len Davies took over production of the shows, and presented an extravagent production quality show, with Powers running the wrestling side of things.   A falling out over their visions for the company caused Powers to leave (still running successful shows in places like Weymouth and Clacton), and Len took over the wrestling side of things too.  Small crowds continued to attend the shows in venues in places like Eastleigh though, despite good lineups and great production.  People like Alex Shane are now involved, and RQW's new home of York Hall in London was a curious one, given that it holds 1000 people and their last show in August drew less than 70.  Al was revealed though, as in 2 weeks they present a huge lineup with free tickets to anyone.  Their plan makes sense, and I hope it works, but why the first show in their monthly series was not free is a mystery.  Why would anyone go in November and pay up to 25 quid, when December is free?  So, I with about 250 others crammed into the hall (the setup they had made it look full, smart move!).  The show however, was absolutely awesome.  A couple of duff matches, but some great ones, and an amazing setup for the most part, which should look great on their TV show, which starts next week on TWC: Fight.  Looking forward to it.  I can't attend the december free show, but look forward to further events there next year.

Nearly forgot to mention the absolute freetard I have since found is a backyard twerp who thinks he is actually a wrestler, sitting behind us nearly ruining the show for us, and the people in front of us.  We moved in the interval, to sit with Jay Knox and his buddies.  But the view wasn't as good, and we figured why let the idiot win?  If he annoyed is anymore we'd simply turn around and tell him to shut his stupid curly haired mouth.  He did and we did, and amazingly he calmed down a little.  It makes you ashamed to be a wrestling fan when you have idiots like that at shows.  Anyone reading who knows who this guy is knows what I am talking about, anyone who doesn't just stay away from him.  Sit elsewhere at all costs. 

The next day was finally All Star's return to Croydon after 6 months.  900 people packed Fairfield Halls, and were treated to 1 comedy Flatliner match, 2 good matches, 1 rubbish one, and 1 awesome 4 way match to crown a new Heavyweight Champion of Britain, which James Mason won after 30 minutes! 

The weekend after that was the Under 23s tournament, hosted by IPW in Ware.  I was on hand before the shows (another afternoon mini show) as John Chapman's personal cameraman to film a bunch of mad skits of him being the LifeCoach.  We also filmed some hilarious stuff with John Atkins trying to sell Chapman his new book, and some stuff with fans inside the venue, some hilarious, some embarassing.  Check out youtube for the best stuff!  The shows themselves were cool, with some great stuff, and WAW's Sam Slam winning the title.  I was rooting for him, being a WAW guy myself, but never actually thought he'd win!  He impressed all in the crowd with his awesomeness, and for 1 year in WAW he's been impressing, and has gone by with little acclaim for the ever present internet crowd.  Now everyone knows who he is, and in the next 2 years, this guy will be the man.  He's reminding me of Martin Stone's rise to the top.  Stone had been around for a while in Dropkixx/FWA Academy as just another guy, did a couple of All Star shows, then started appearing as Alex Shane's security guy in FWA.  Still no one really knew him.  Then he won the RAMWA title and had some amazing matches, but still not much internet acclaim.  Then literally out of nowhere, thanks to having some loyal support he got "over" with the IPW regulars, and won their title and held it for 18 odd months, becoming a huge star in the meantime.  Now he has headlined a show in York Hall in Bethnal Green, where just 4 years earlier (I think) he was doing legit security for FWA.  He was also LDN champion.  I can see Sam Slam's rise to the top of the UK scene being similar over the next 2 years.

I haven't been to any shows since November 18th, but will be going to Rage Entertainment's event in West Drayton next friday, LDN or IPW on saturday (prob LDN) and XSW/IPW in Colchester (yay!) on sunday.  The weekend after that is WAW in Great Yarmouth.  That will be it for an amazing year.  My next diary probably won't be til february at least, so until then, happy new year, and goodnight. 

SEPTEMBER 21st 2006

One of these days I'll learn my lesson.  I've left it ages again since my last Dart Diary, so therefore have nearly 20 shows to 'diartise'.

So we begin in mid July, in the middle of a tremendous heatwave around these parts.  I was scheduled to attend my first Best of British Wrestling show. 

Steve Morocco had recently taken over BOBW, which he originally co-ran with Stu Lake.  This suited me fine, as Steve's a very cool guy, whereas Lake, well he isn't.  So I had arranged to drive to Kettering with Steve, help set up the ring, and then film the show.  Steve had to leave early however as he had to sort some things out with the venue, and we actually ended up getting to the venue at around 10.30am.  Even going really really slowly, the ring was still up by about 1.30, and the show didn't start til 7.45!!  Luckily the venue is a Pavaillion in the middle of a kind of theme park/holiday centre place, which was really cool.  We managed to walk around for a while enjoying the scenerary, but by then all the facilities were just about closed.  The venue, the setup, the show were all really good though, and it was a very fun day.  Johnny Kidd vs. Blondie Barratt was an incredible highlight of the show, with the crowd reacting amazingly to it.

I got a lift back with MC Tom Thumb, who lives round the corner from my ex girlfriends, so I stayed at hers, rather than go home.

The next day I got the train down to Harold Wood for LDN's debut TV taping for their new series on TWC.  At the time of writing, we are one day away from episode 2, which will feature matches from this show, as did episode one.  The TV show is very good, doesn't try to be anything it isn't, and sticks to basic storylines, with good matches.  Hopefully it can continue well.  The live show was very enjoyable.  2 drawbacks - the Romeo Jones vs. Matt Damien match was awful, and they disallowed flash photography, and I couldn't figure out how to turn the flash off (I've since found out and it is stupidly easy).

Johnny Kidd vs. Majik and Chris Wyld vs. Curve were both great matches, and from what I saw, Ashe vs. Martin Stone was too.  I opted to leave slightly early so I could get the last train to my ex's again, even though my actual last train home was much later.

The next day was my first Summit Wrestling show.  Pinfall Productions were originally scheduled to be on hand, but SW pulled out for various reasons before the show.  I went anyway and filmed the show with one camera.  The show was very good, with a small but highly excitable crowd, who went nuts for local boy Dave Steele.  The show was in Rayleigh.  I liked there being 2 "local" shows to me on consecutive days.  Rayleigh seemed a nice place, I just found out last weekend that my mum lived there when she was a kid.

The next weekend IPW had another show in Orpington, along with a mini afternoon card.  Another enjoyable show from the Kent group, but looking back at the results, nothing stands out as being amazing.  The trouble with regular monthly shows, with on going storylines and 75% of the people on each show are on the next one too, the shows kinda meld into one in my memory!

A day later they returned to Essex, Leigh on Sea to be exact, a year after their debut (which I filmed).  I enjoy the journey there, as the train goes right along the coast from Southend to Chalkwell.  It's nice, but it's only about 4 minutes.  On my way into the town from the station I went the wrong way, and was even given wrong directons after sussing I might be going the wrong way, meaning I went even further in the wrong direction.  So, after walking about 7 or 8 minutes the wrong way, I went back on myself, asked somewhere else, and when I finally got there realised that had I turned right when I first got into the town I would have been there in about 15 seconds, but I turned left and yeh.  Seeing Doug Williams and Donna outside was a good thing, as I finally realised I was there.  Then I sat down to have a drink outside (I was still early after all that), and realised I didn't have enough money for a ticket, so went all the way back into town (about 12 minutes walk) to find a cash machine, then come 12 minutes back again to the venue.  And I was still early.  I sat with Doug Williams, Marty Scurll and QT McFluff during the show, which was a really good local show, with a nice small crowd. 

A few days later was the start of a really enjoyable and tiring few days.  BOBW were doing a show in the Isle of Wight in Sandown.  I got picked up by Steve Morocco at about 9am, we drove down to Orpington and met Rocker Richards there.  We then went down to Southampton where we met up with Sarah Barraclough (MC), Chris Hatch (referee) and Jay Knox.  We got the ferry over to the Isle of Wight where we met up with one of the venue staff who had 2 limosuines waiting for the wrestlers.  That was a really cool touch.  Knox and Richards went off with this guy to hand out flyers around town, while the rest of us drove to the venue in the van.  Isle of Wight is a lovely place, but I don't think I could live there!  The venue was a marquee tent on a field right over the road from the beach.  It was really cool.  All the other wrestlers for the ferry over an hour after us, and they all arrived in the 2 limos. 

This was another really good show, had a really good time, filmed the show and helped out with the music.  We got back to the ferry place in time for the 11pm ferry.  Only trouble was, there wasn't one at 11.  We had to wait til 12!!  That was fun! 

We then got to Southampton at about 12.40, had to wait around a while while Paul Tyrell went to get his van.  Hade Vansen and Andy Simmonz went off as they had an FWA Academy show (I think) the next day.  We dropped Jorge Castano and Rocker Richards off near Oprington somewhere, then drove to Harlow, where Steve left his van at Charlie Rage's mum's house, and me and Steve got into Paul's van with those guys.  Jonny Storm and Paul Tyrell had got out to drive up to Great Yarmouth in Jonny Storm's car, and we met them there at 9am the next morning.  Paul Tyrell was running a holiday camp in Kaister, so they had a caravan there, which we slept in til about 1pm, then went and put up the ring, those guys did their show, which was good fun, and then we took the ring down and left. 

We then drove to Colchester, dropped Paul Tyrell off at his house, then I was dropped off at home.  I think they then dropped Burridge off at his place, then Charlie and Steve went to Harlow for Charlie's show the next day.  Jonny had made his own way after the show.

Rico was the referee for Paul's show, and was doing the whole summer tour.  His brother is a dance for Pink Floyd, who offered everyone complimentary tickets for their gig that night at the ExCel Centre in London.  Nice offer, but I don't think they went!!

This was just 2 full days of travel and shows, and I was knackered.  It gave me an even bigger respect for what those guys go through throughout the whole summer.  They do 6 or 7 shows a week, for 13, 14 odd weeks, sometimes with no days off a week, sometimes 2 shows a day.  While they all do it cos they love it, and I can see why they do, the schedule they operate is crazy.  Paul Tyrell actually had a pretty decent schedule going with most shows near each other throughout the week.  Still an incredible schedule though, and I think it's amazing. 

The next day I got the train to Harlow to watch the Playhouse Wrestlefest.  Really good show, but not quite as good as the Halloween one from late last year.  Awesome production values as always, and 2 really outstanding matches.

The next weekend FWA returned to Sudbury for a decent show, but nowhere near as good as the April show.  Tyrell, Storm and Burridge in a 3 Way Streetfight main event was the highpoint, while Aviv Maayan vs. Ollie Burns was the extreme lowpoint of the show.

The next day we drove up to Great Yarmouth for WAW.  We being me John and our new trainee Rob, to film the show.  After a bite to eat, we went in the venue, which was much better for filming than the Atlantis Resort WAW have run the last 2 years.  Great location too, as you go out the back door, you are on the beach!!  Can't beat that.

The show was highlighted by an amazing match between Sweet Saraya and Destiny.  Without a doubt, this was the best women's match I've ever seen live.  Saraya was ill too, which didn't harm the match, in a way it made it even better, as it added to the drama. 

The DVD of this show is definetly one to watch!!

The next weekend was another unique weekend.  Ring of Honor, critically acclaimed US indy fed made their UK debut.  They ran Liverpool the night before, with a crowd of 1000 ish, and came down to Broxbourne, with a really enjoyable show.  Take away the net geek smark chant duelling chants crap you get at this kind of show, and you have a really good event.  They had a good setup, with some really good lighting, and it was nice to see Broxbourne full for a change.  The show was really good, with a couple of very good matches, and nothing bad at all.

The next weekend had a show I was looking forward to even more.  Frontiers of Honor 2.  The first one, over 3 years ago, was an amazing show, and at the time was really unique.  But, with so many feds using American guys regularly, shows like 1PW, and even moreso, ROH themselves doing shows, this wasn't going to be as unique as the first.  However the lineup was outstanding.  We overestimated, as we often do, how long it would take to get there, so had some lunch in the canteen of the leisure centre.  Eventually we got in the que.  Time passed and we started to get restless.  Eventually we were told the reason doors hadn't opened (about 30 mins late) was that the lighting rig hadn't arrived.  This annoyed me to endless degrees.  The lighting rig?  It's hardly an essential part of the show.  And when we got in there and saw the lighting rig, which wasn't even for the ring, it was for the entrance, we were enraged even more.  Furthermore, when we got in there it was up, so why the hell did the show not start for ANOTHER 30 minutes?  We were seriously pissed off, so when the MC gave us a different reason for the show starting late, we knew someone was lying, and we can assume, based on John Atkins being a stand up guy, and obviously just saying what he's told to say, the MC wasn't the one lying.  Then I've heard neither of those were the real reasons, and the reason was to do with the merchandise not arriving.  Obviously if they let us in and there's no merchandise for us to buy they are going to lose money.  Complete crap in my opinion.  Therefore the show didn't finish until about 11.25, and our last train was at 11.15, so we had to leave right as the main event started.  More annoyance.  Add to that that the show wasn't very good, and the seating was crap, with the front row being about 20 feet away from the ring, and that the sound system was rubbish, so we could barely hear the MC or any of the promos, and it made for a rubbish evening.  My mate Lee who has spent amazing amounts of money over the years on British wrestling shows, was so annoyed by all this he didn't even bother stating.  Deciding the show's quality didn't warrant his taxi fare home, he left after the 3rd match so he could get the last train to a further station so he didn't have to get a taxi.  That was a big thing for me, as it showed a lot from him to leave the show that early when he didn't have to after he'd paid 24 quid for tickets.

Luckily IPW ran an amazing show the next afternoon in Ware at the AWA's old venue, Drill Hall.  Not as hot as July 1st, but still a really hot day, and boiling in the venue!!

6 matches, all were great.  Seriously.  With 3 or 4 being really great.  Another smallish crowd, of about 100, but they enjoyed it.  Was very happy, as after the night before, I was just about ready to not bother.

Went to my first HEW show that evening in Takeley.  Hadn't bothered with HEW before as I thought it looked impossible to get to Takeley by public transport, thinking I had to get a train or bus to Stansted then a taxi to Takeley (yeh right).  But there is a bus from Chelmsford-Stansted which stops at Takeley!!  And the last one is at 11.20!  So I was able to get that bus, then get a train to Witham.  Cool.

Show was very good, saw a few guys I'd never seen before.  No amazing 5 star matches, but a really good show for the local crowd who come every 4 months, basic storylines etc.  And in a small venue, a very small venue, they got about 110 people.  IPW that afternoon in a venue with a 600 capacity got a crowd of 100 with American Dragon, Tacy Smothers and Austin Aries on the show!

Went down to Orpington once again for IPW the next day.  Was absolutely shattered though as this was the 4th show in 3 days, which I've only done once before, and that was 2 years ago. Had a couple of good matches and then a really good one with Williams & Shiozaki vs. Briscoe Bros. main event.

The next monday we went up to Great Yarmouth again for the final show in WAW's summer season.  We weren't officially filming the show, but the lineup drew us to it, as fans, and also wanting to get some bonus footage for DVD use in the future.

I also had my first stab at taking ringside photos, which I really enjoy, and I was very good at it too, so will look at it as an alternative service in the future, and if I ever get bored of filming, I got that as a backup.  Kinda annoyed though cos I was offered a job with Fighting Spirit magasine as an official photographer, but turned them down, telling them they had been misinformed and I had no professional experience.  A well paying job too, I could have lied and taken the job!  Now though I have the experience, and know I'm good at it.  Also the person who got the job didn't have any experience from what I know, and isn't very good from what I've seen!

That weekend was our first official Summit Wrestling show in Ely.  This was another very good show.  Another smallish crowd, but they really got into it.  2 more outstanding matches with Wiliams vs. Aldis and Pac vs. Robinson.  They also had a live band, which was a nice touch.

As always I've probably skimmed over some details as there was so much to get through and I've been typing for ages now, but that's been my wrestling life for the last 2 months.

October there's a lot coming up, with XSW's debut in Colchester, 1PW in Docnaster and loads more.