Easter (Part 2)

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

Easter (Part 1)

Firstly, my apologies for the lack of updates recently! A poor excuse, but I just have not had the time juggling wrestling, along with my other work! Wrestling has continued to be extremely busy working for Megaslam, along with Grapple continuing to flourish with a recent sell out show in Bradford and now offering an extra training session a week too. 

The month of April was especially hard for the British wrestling community due to the passing of the ‘Shooting Star’ Kris Travis. An awesome wrestler and more importantly a family member and a close friend to a lot of people. Obviously a very tough time for all those who knew him and something I go into a bit more detail about below.

Ugandan Challenge!

All the way back in late March, Grapple had its debut show at our new training facility at Fight Science. A small draw of 80, but considering this was essentially a show in a gym I was pleased. The show itself was decent too. I did double duty as firstly I masked up in a team called Ward 13 in a fun match against Ryden, Shadow Smith and Thomas Andrews. I then faced off against our champion the ‘Ugandan Warrior’ Nsereko as JC Thunder, which seemed to get a very positive reaction from the crowd so job well done on that too. Nsereko is definitely a guy to watch.

Easter Prelude

The weekend before Easter we had two shows. Firstly Boris faced Terry Isit at Rotherham football stadium (erm a conference room in the stadium) followed by a tag match with Cousin Jake against Terry and Bully Boy. The crowd was very much into the two matches and surprisingly a man named Bully Boy can be a huge fan favourite!

Later that weekend we were in Withernsea, a quick persona change and a good guy JC Thunder had a rematch with my Sebb Strife (housemates collide part 2!). I always enjoy wrestling Sebb and both matches have been great. Looking back I remember both these shows very fondly. Both smaller shows, but sometimes that can lead to the most fun type of matches and there was a great atmosphere at both of them!  

The Easter Tour Begins

The Easter Tour started in Bridlington where I faced off against The Muscle Cat Saxon again as a babyface (good guy). As with the day before I really enjoyed this and am fast becoming a lot more comfortable with this position. The only problem was a few fans at this venue were asking me why I’m not Russian anymore! Don’t know what you’re talking about!

The next two shows saw me in mixed tag action. Tuesday in Southport Boris, Cousin Jake and Lizzy Styles faced David Graves, Saxon and Nixon. From memory this was a bit dis-jointed. I enjoyed the start as I wrestled my old nemesis Graves, but then we were a bit all over the place and I managed to smash Dave’s nose up which I felt very guilty about! The next day Styles and Boris faced Ligero and Nixon in Prestatyn. This one went a little better and the hot crowd at the Welsh Pontins was fully behind the team of Ligs and Nix.

Some Tragic News

On the Wednesday morning I received a phone call from Brad Taylor who broke the news that Kris Travis had passed away that morning. Kris was a good friend of mine and we used to be very close in our early days of wrestling. The news cut through me like a knife. I felt a mixture of sadness and guilt that I could have done more for him. Feelings I kept to myself as I ran our next show in Brean. I also had two matches that day, against Saxon and then another tag with Jake against Saxon and Terry. I don’t think they were that good. I can’t really remember now and I didn’t really care as I just wanted to get through it if I’m honest. It was difficult being in this strange little place called Brean with no one that really knew Trav. I compensated by getting very drunk that evening and going to bed at 4am, maybe not the most sensible mid-way through a wrestling tour but that’s how I dealt with it.

Quite rightly everything then became about Trav that weekend and the weeks that followed. The next day we travelled up to Nottingham for a Megaslam show. This was started by a 10 bell tribute with all the wrestlers out by the ring. I wrestled Joseph Conners, which was a good match given the circumstances and it was nice to wrestle against someone who had also been close to Trav. The night was capped off by an excellent main event of Ligero and CJ Banks in memory of their friend. It was a joy to watch. 

After Nottingham we drove all the way to Camber Sands where we arrived at 7am! Drained in every sense, we were told there was no chalet for us! After waiting around for what seemed like forever we were finally able to get a few hours sleep before a midday show, which again I was running. It all seems quite crazy writing this down, but at the time we were just getting on with it and didn’t really think too much about how tired we were or anything.

The next day we were in Pakefield, which I was running too (as well as being on the phone to Grapple who were running up in York). That evening we raced up to Derby where I was against CJ Banks for HOPE wrestling who were doing a show in memory of Trav. It certainly was a fun and entertaining match and I hope one that Trav would have enjoyed. Boris even joined Juice’s life train as we downed vodka’s from the bar as a toast! Great job by HOPE wrestling and Harvey Dale for dedicating this night to Trav. 

This time certainly was difficult for many people. However, I must say how good it was to be around so many other people who knew and loved him. It was also amazing how the whole of British wrestling all came together and paid tribute that weekend and in the following weeks. C4l. RIP Trav!

Final Thoughts

This time was exhausting and emotional! It felt like a lot had happened, but in reality we were only half way through the Easter Tour. The next morning I would be up and off again to a different part of the UK. Check out my blog in a couple of days for part 2!

Thanks for reading!

JCT

The Scottish Invasion!

Another bumper edition as I’ve been away on a Megaslam tour recently – this time up in the real high points of Scotland. Before that we had two shows in Nailsea, Somerset and Urmston, Manchester too.

Yes!

We do go to some random places with Megaslam and Nailsea is one of those places! We entered the leisure centre hall with florescent yellow lighting and slightly suspicious staff members as we set up for that evening’s show. On this night I would be against the ‘Yes Man’ JD Bryant. Yes, a blatant rip off of Daniel Bryan, but works well and a good wrestler too. I wrestled JD in one of my first matches back (see blog March 2014) and didn’t seem very happy at the time re-reading it. This one was certainly better and it seems a lifetime away those first few months when I returned back to this crazy world!

Stupid minor injury in this match, as I somehow managed to sprain my own ankle standing in the corner as JD dropkicked me. That’s right I hurt myself just randomly standing! Despite this I was soon up and with the aided distraction from Cousin Jake I nailed (in Nailsea) JD with my deadly finish flagpole to the throat! There was revenge for Bryant later in the night as he eliminated Jake and I from the rumble to a chorus of Yes chants and another happy Megaslam crowd.

Housemates Collide!

The next day I was off to Urmston on very little sleep to wrestle the Dark Cloud Sebb Strife! Strife is a big mean wrestler, gimmick inspired by Game of Thrones as he smashes his opponents about and demanding them to kneel before him. However, what is more worrying is Sebb is also my flat mate and landlord - so I had to make sure I was up to date with my rent before this match!

Referring to that March 2014 blog again, another thing I seemed unhappy about was how uncomfortable I was being a babyface (good guy). This match again shows how far I have come, as despite my limping around due to my ankle, it was excellent. Sebb too, was on great form and has been on fire recently as every match he is in seems to be fantastic at the moment. The referee (another Grapple wrestler by the name of Jake Silver or Jack Johnson as he was announced) managed to get himself squashed in the corner and allowed a low blow and spine-buster on me for Sebb’s win. We then both continued beating the life out of each other in the Rumble later, presumably arguing over who’s turn it was to empty the dishwasher.

Dumfries

The following Thursday and we were off to sunny Scotland for a 4 day tour, starting in Dumfries. After hours of sitting in traffic, we arrived with less than an hour to put the ring up. The first match would be Boris and Saxon. This was probably the closest I have ever been to not been ready for a match, as I was still lacing my boots as the ref was making his way to the ring. Wow, those bumps hurt with no warm up!

Bully Boy Carter is from Dumfries and we were expecting a huge crowd of his friends, family and other little bully boys and bully girls to cheer on their local hero……there were 33 people in the crowd! This led to one of the most awkward promos and National anthems I have ever done. When you have several hundred people booing and joining in the ridiculousness that is Boris (and make no bones about it, it is ridiculous - but a good show) I become completely absorbed in the character and situation. It feels awesome! With 33 silent people, it’s not fun at all!

We got through it though and went on to a 6 man tag later in the evening with Boris, Jake and Nightshade (team ginger!) vs. Saxon, Terry Isit and Lizzy Styles in a really funny tag match that I actually enjoyed a lot more than the singles as we were all so relaxed and just having fun. To Bully Boy’s credit, despite his lack of popularity in Dumfries, he had an excellent match with CJ Banks on the card too!

Cambletown

We were then on with a nice long drive to Dalavich in the Northern parts of Scotland where we arrive d in the wee hours of the morning. A nice cosy double room for 10 booked in The Old School, Apartments and we had a few hours sleep before we were off to Campbell Town for the next show. I would be a good guy again as I faced Cousin Jake.

The match was fine apart from referee Neil showing his super human strength by getting squashed in the corner by Jake and popping right back up as if it had no effect. I don’t usually go into the mechanics of a wrestling match on here, but erm yeah that wasn’t meant to happen. This led to confusion by all and in a strange twist the referee suddenly collapsed again out of no-where and for no reason. Jake cheated and picked up the win to a bit of a rotten finish! Thanks Neil! You’re still a good lad though.

Chinese food followed and of course the combination of one surly Chinese restaurant owner and the Megaslam team soon led to a massive argument and us eating half cooked chinese food in the Megaslam van. Standard!

Fort William

Stop number 3 on the tour we climbed the twisting turns and single roads in our huge ring van to Ben Nevis, Fort William. A point must be made how terrifying those small roads around Dalavich are in such a huge vehicle (especially the previous night when it was pitch black), but driver Brad did a great job getting us through it.

Fort William was the biggest of the shows with a whooping 350 in and it was a brilliant show. I was facing CJ Banks in the main event for the Megaslam title and the little Scottish tykes were chomping at the bit to see their champ destroy the Russian challenger. Anyone who has ever seen Banks wrestle will know just how good he is and it’s great to have him as a regular on the Megaslam team. The only slight hitch was Juice’s music stopping just as he made his entrance, but the crowd were so loud it didn’t matter.

It was also good to get some promo and interview practice with Euan, who is currently doing a documentary with Ross (Saxon). Looking forward to seeing some of the footage. Thank you Euan for coming to film Megaslam and the wrestlers.

A few drinks to celebrate in Fort William, a bit of random chaos best left for the autobiography and then we were off back to Dalavich!

Oban

The next day would be a smaller show in Oban. There were still about 100 or so in, but the other wrestlers were struggling to get any sort of reaction from the crowd much to the annoyance of Brad. ‘Time for you to show why you’re the champ’ were the words said to Banks right before our re-match from the night before.

The match started with my usual talking to the crowd, which seemed to work well. Strangely one party called me a beaver, I think due to my Russian hat. Of course I reacted in my thick Russian accent, ‘I’m not a Beaver!’ much to the hilarity of the crowd and beaver chants ensued. Banks entered, with no music stoppage this time. As he entered the ring, he looked at me puzzled ‘Beaver??’. However, he went with it and throughout the match we had Beaver chants, the ever popular ‘Chicken Beaver’ chant or even the ‘Hairy Beaver’ one as he twisted my arm pit hair as he had me in an arm bar (yes that actually happened!). Another great match and despite how silly the chants were the crowd were into in the whole way through.

It was then onto a Steak House for our final meal of the tour. Of course, Danny Hudson annoyed the staff, which led to one of the waitresses uttering ‘Ginger Prick’ under her breath (she has a point). Management were eventually involved and we were soon off back to merry England. A job well done….the wrestling I mean we aren’t very good at having meals out (we did get free drinks though, thanks Danny!).

Final Thoughts

What a great team we had on this tour! Everyone gelled really well, it was so much fun and the shows were excellent too. The Scotland invasion of Megaslam was hugely successful and I’m sure our return will be just as good. Thank you Brad, Juice, Lizzy, Lucy, Ross, Danny, Dan, Bully and Neil. A really enjoyable few days!

Thanks for reading!

JCT

Home Sweet Home

After the busy tour of Pontins I had a relatively quiet week with just two shows. However, they were both pivotal ones as the first was in the massive Leeds Town Hall and the second would be the first town show I ran myself for Megaslam.

I must admit during the week I was absolutely exhausted after the tour! Feeling run down and my shoulder not being right meant my gym workouts weren’t as good as they could have been. I’ve taken a step back in that direction unfortunately. I suppose that’s what you get for riding around in a van for a week and eating pizza!

Leeds Leeds Leeds!

Friday was a big day for Megaslam as they put on their biggest show to date at Leeds Town Hall. It is not cheap to run and I know promoter Brad Taylor must have been worried about ticket sales. However, the risk paid off as a whopping 750 came to watch. Bar WWE, this is by far the highest attended wrestling show in Leeds in years. A job well done by the team.

I would be facing Paul Malen and Frankie Sloan in a triple threat match in what I think was Megaslam’s attempt at a Plus 30 category! Paul and I had wrestled a couple of times before and I always enjoyed it. This was my first opportunity to wrestle Frankie Sloan, who has a wealth of experience having wrestled for WWE and TNA and is generally a great person to have around the team as well.

The atmosphere was electric in the Town Hall! The acoustics were brilliant too, only to be ruined by my Russian National Anthem! The match was a triple threat. They can be a bit hit and miss sometimes, but I don’t mind them as much as others seem to. Paul and I teamed up on Frankie until we fell out and he got the best of us with a cross body onto the pair of us for the win to an almighty roar of glee from the crowd.

Some feedback from other wrestlers watching was I lost my Russian accent a few times and for some reason was only waving half a flag. Not really sure why I did the latter and that can easily be rectified next time (note to self, unravel more!). The accent may need work. I have started to take it a bit more seriously this year and learnt a bit of Russian to add some authenticity to the gimmick. If you do see me wrestle as Boris and I sound like a bloke from Leeds, please do tell me!

A Different Perspective

Megaslam had a double the next night, so I was left in charge of managing the show in Lytham St Annes for the evening. As well as sorting out the card, music and other management stuff this also meant I would have a different role on the show for the evening as the ring announcer (usually done by Brad). This was certainly a fun and different experience. I usually try to watch as much of the show as possible, but this gave me a chance to actually see the show in its entirety.

It was an awesome show! I was really pleased with how well it went and how hard everyone worked. Half of the card was made up of Grapple wrestlers and they all did exceptionally well. David Graves and Nsereko were on good form as usual. Sebb Striffe had a brilliant match against Frankie Sloan and did a great job of antagonising the crowd before hand with his verbal onslaught. We also had JD Bryant and RJ McKenzie on the show, who are both extremely talented too. The night finished with a 6-man tag involving all 6 of them and the crowd left happy.

I was delighted too, to be referred to as WWE star Triple H by members of the crowd as I strutted out to the ring in my 3 piece suit microphone in hand ready to announce matches. Well, delighted until I thought about it and realised they are actually saying I look like a 46 year old man! For Gods sake, I’m only 32 everyone! Not even funny now….

Final Thoughts

An easy week on me physically, which is possibly what I needed after the previous week! However, with a tour of Scotland coming up in March and then the huge long tour of Pontins over Easter I won’t have the opportunity to rest. More miles, more ring jobs, more sleepless nights and eating on the road. I’ve often heard veteran wrestlers say that wrestling is the easiest part of the job. I’m starting to see why, but ready for the challenges ahead and wouldn’t change it for anything right now!

Thanks for reading!

JCT