The Show Must Go On!
It felt like a lot had happened, but the reality was we were just
half way through the Easter Tour and Monday morning we were up and off doing it
all again! I was thankful we had Ligero on the team all week. He was obviously
extremely close with Trav himself and we have a lot of memories from the early
days. It also meant 5 more days of the International classic that is Russia vs.
Mexico!
We started in Mablethorpe. Memories of this show - being late and
being sore! Still I think it went down alright and the crowd was a lot fuller
and livelier than it has been previously at this venue. The following day we
were in Southport, where we had a different style of match as we did 2 out of 3
falls. This was a lot slower pace and had a real main event feel to it, which
is quite different to what we usually do on camp shows. That said, it was
probably my favourite of the week and was well received.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we were at Brean, Camber Sands and
Crazy Bear near Nottingham (did I mention I was driving the van the whole time
– this blog should be from Caribbean finance to the boyhood dream of being a
white van man!). These three were ok but not our best (especially Crazy
Bear - a quirky little restaurant in a
holiday park where we got changed in a cupboard and the crowd truly didn’t give
a shit!). However, they were still all great fun and it is clear that whatever
happens the handshake spot will always be over! Even in Crazy Bear where one
kid photographed my crossed fingers as evidence that I was planning on doing
something dastardly!
The remainder of that weekend saw a triple threat encounter in
Oswaldthistle - Russia vs. USA vs. England – Boris vs. Sebb Strife (yep American
now) vs. Terry Isit. I finished off this weekend with good guy Thunder taking on Bully
Boy Carter in our first singles encounter all the way down in Felixstowe. I got
very good at Rumbles this weekend too. Runner Up and then winner the next
night! Go me!
Easter Comedown!
So finished with a grueling tour and back to my non wrestling work,
but not long before we had three more shows the following weekend and a superb
seminar run by Marty Jones, Johnny Saint, Johnny Kidd and Keith Myett.
We were firstly back in Blackpool Tower as I faced JD Bryant (clear
hometown advantage for the former Blackpool Blond!). The crowd was a little
down from last time, but still enjoyable. The second show was in Lytham St
Annes as I faced off against Ace Matthews for the first time to a much livelier
and packed out crowd. The weekend finished with a small Birthday party show
with Boris against a babyface Danny Hudson (usually plays Cousin Jake). In
something I never would have predicted this was my favourite match of the weekend!
The month of April was then topped off by a fantastic Grapple show
in Low Moor Club in Bradford. We had a sell out crowd and a brilliant
atmosphere, especially for our Bradford vs. Leeds main event between Liam
Lazarus, Mark Rolls, Matt Marsay vs. David Graves, Danny Binks and Benjamin
Rock. I faced a familiar face in the Muscle Cat Saxon, but quite a different
style of match than we usually do but went down very well too!
And
Last Weekend
Last weekend started with a small show in Mexborough where I faced a
masked wrestler named Super Porky and then had a six man tag of myself, Bully
Boy Carter and Peter Pumpkin vs. Super Porky, Hillbilly Butch Brown and Dancing
Danny Duggan (Hudson). The first match we struggled with a bit and the slightly
lackluster crowd didn’t help either. However, we did still have a few ‘belly’
chants going as the Porkster did his top rope, no wait middle rope, no wait
bottom rope splash!
The 6 man was ridiculous! Dancing Danny Duggan issued a dance off
challenge and the match started with everyone doing their signature dance moves
(mine being bad out of time dancing followed by the Cossack leg thing). I say
everyone, but that’s not actually true. A great deal of respect was lost for
‘Dancing’ Danny as he feigned a knee injury right before and didn’t even do it.
Bully Boy Carter certainly upstaged Danny this time round!
The next day it was the debut show of Hereford Wrestling. This was a
show put on by Mark Gedge who used to wrestle under the name Domino. A bit of
JC trivia for you, Domino and JC started training on the same day and he is one
of the first people I ever spoke to in wrestling. Turns out he is a pretty
decent promoter, as this was all run very professionally, was a great show and
a good house for a debut too. I faced the Belgian Bull for the first time where
I was suplexed a lot and Samoan dropped off the top rope, which I actually
really enjoyed! Good job done by all.
The weekend finished with a show in Barnsley for Megaslam. The draw
wasn’t great, especially for Megaslam who have been absolutely smashing it this
year. That said I did enjoy my match as a faced off against Dancing Danny
Duggan (who has had a miraculous knee recovery). I did this as Big John Thunder,
one half of the Greatest Tag Team in the World – the Motorway Men (please refer
to last Summer’s blogs if this is confusing!). The show was finished off with a
rumble, which I so nearly won! Big John then went back to his life on the road,
driving the motorways in his pick-up helping broken down vehicles and generally
being a bit of a bad-ass.
Final Thoughts
So back up to date with the blog right before another week
long tour of the UK’s seaside resorts. It certainly has been tough juggling all
this wrestling, Grapple and my other work. That said, I am feeling in better
shape than I have in a long time and motivation is high to step it up a notch in preparation for the big Summer Tour.
Thanks for reading!
JCT
