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the Dirtbike Kid


C-Rock

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Just watched a video on Youtube about wrestlers sabotaging matches on purpose and one of those matches was the Dirtbike Kid against the Great Sasuke, the match was meant to be a lucha libre match as part of a tournament but before the match started Kid removed his mask to the upset of Sasuke who was also the promoter of the show. Sasuke then went on to beat the shit out of Kid eventually making him tap out via a guillotine choke hold

 

Id heard of him before and vaugely remember him in ECW but didnt realise he was British and only worked a small number of matches during his career and was see n overall as a bit of a prick.

 

Anyone know what happened to him?

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When I was a kid I saw one of his ads in the back of Powerslam for what I think was the Sabu show.

 

It was about midnight but in my naivety I assumed the number in the ad had to be some sort of automated Hotline and not his personal mobile that I was ringing.

 

I woke him up and he was fuming. He rang our house in the morning and told my Mum off and everything.

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When I was a kid I saw one of his ads in the back of Powerslam for what I think was the Sabu show.

 

It was about midnight but in my naivety I assumed the number in the ad had to be some sort of automated Hotline and not his personal mobile that I was ringing.

 

I woke him up and he was fuming. He rang our house in the morning and told my Mum off and everything.

 

He clearly has a nack for attacking parents then....My Dad took me to the Valentines Massacre Show with RVD, Sabu and Whipwreck on in Walthamstow, during Dirtbike's entrance he wrecklessly smashes a glass bottle on the ramp, sending glass into the crowd and splitting my Dad's hand open in the process!

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When I was a kid I saw one of his ads in the back of Powerslam for what I think was the Sabu show.

 

It was about midnight but in my naivety I assumed the number in the ad had to be some sort of automated Hotline and not his personal mobile that I was ringing.

 

I woke him up and he was fuming. He rang our house in the morning and told my Mum off and everything.

I can understand being a bit pissed but no need to contact your mum. 

 

 

Jody Fleisch was also in that years Michinoku Pro Masked Man League I believe. Dirtbike Kid knew it was a masked man tournament and gives his reasoning for taking the mask off as "I didn't wear one before so why did they expect me to wear one now". He was given a chance to wrestle big names and treated it like shit. However I think Sasuke went a bit too far, I have heard he was a bit of a loon himself. The match itself is strange as it is about 7 minutes long, mostly Dirtbike Kid with the offence (not very good) and then suddenly Sasuke kicks the shit out of him. 

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Jason Harrison "left the biz" to apparently pursue a career as a stuntman.  He didn't have a good reputation with many people, & the UK boys on the cards he ran were only paid if he felt like it, & they sucked up to him enough, so I'm told.  He claimed that Jody & Jason Cross were only in MPro because of him.

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When I was a kid I saw one of his ads in the back of Powerslam for what I think was the Sabu show.

 

It was about midnight but in my naivety I assumed the number in the ad had to be some sort of automated Hotline and not his personal mobile that I was ringing.

 

I woke him up and he was fuming. He rang our house in the morning and told my Mum off and everything.

I can understand being a bit pissed but no need to contact your mum. 

 

 

Jody Fleisch was also in that years Michinoku Pro Masked Man League I believe. Dirtbike Kid knew it was a masked man tournament and gives his reasoning for taking the mask off as "I didn't wear one before so why did they expect me to wear one now". He was given a chance to wrestle big names and treated it like shit. However I think Sasuke went a bit too far, I have heard he was a bit of a loon himself. The match itself is strange as it is about 7 minutes long, mostly Dirtbike Kid with the offence (not very good) and then suddenly Sasuke kicks the shit out of him. 

 

 

I remember reading in my very early years on here that it wasn't just the mask thing; it was a combination of that, his backstage attitude, and the fact that during that match he gave Sasuke absolutely nothing during his offence, so Sasuke decided then and there not just to administer a kicking, but also to job him out utterly by making his offence look ineffectual, and having him submit after only a brief bit of offence from himself.

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He went into the stuntwork business for a while, then became a tube driver. Sabu met up with him on a recent UK tour.

 

Posted this before, but for those who haven't seen it, here's a recap of the shows he ran and their significance:

 

 

 

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the third and final show put on by Jason ‘Dirt Bike Kid’ Harrison in Walthamstow, arguably the first events specifically aimed at the UK’s ‘smark’ generation. Though they were far from spectacular business successes, many of today’s internet-based promotions and stars have their roots in the three ‘European Wrestling Alliance’ shows.

 

The first show (which, hard as it may be for modern indy fans to believe, had no official name) took place on 7 July 1995 and was based entirely around the UK debut of Sabu, to the point that no other match was advertised. While overseas wrestlers had made countless tours over the years, this was likely the first time a performer was flown to the UK for a single date.

 

Even with the £20 ($40) ringside tickets, which may well have been the highest-priced in UK history at the time, the event appeared to have been a big money-loser. Barely 150 fans showed up, with a truly unique crowd where virtually everyone on hand was either a newsletter editor or subscriber.

 

It was most fans’ first exposure to two men who’d go on to be among the bigger names in the British industry. The unanimous pick for star performer in an eight-man tournament undercard was Doug Williams, then a 22-year-old grappler with the Hammerlock group. And the referee for the night was a 15 year old trainee who would go on to be known as Alex Shane.

 

Meanwhile future FWA manager and current RQW commentator Dean Ayass was the evening’s ring announcer and ran a fan convention the following day. And the crowd included future wrestlers Jonny Storm, Jody Fleisch and Erik Isaksen (a Norwegian then studying at a British university).

 

Following the event, the Hammerlock promotion briefly rebranded as IWA-UK and portrayed itself as the most modern-styled group in the country, even putting together a self-styled ‘hardcore’ show the following spring. Ironically the group, now the British NWA affiliate, is today regarded as one of the country’s most old-school promotions.

 

It was seventeen months before Harrison promoted a follow-up Walthamstow show, reportedly because it took him that long to recover financially from the first show’s debts. In the meantime he had created his own title, the European Junior-Heavyweight championship, crowning himself as the first champion after a draw against Ian ‘Doc’ Dean on an All-Star show in Croydon. (It appears Harrison was unable to negotiate a win against Dean, one of the promotion’s top stars.)

 

The ‘Dirt Bike Kid’ then dropped the belt to Mikey Whipwreck on an ECW spot show, the intention being to build up the title’s prestige before Whipwreck came to the UK for the 14 December 1996 ‘Ultra Kaos’ event. Whipwreck was to defend against Harrison with the winner going on to face Sabu. However, a 15 minute draw led to a three-way main event where Sabu captured the title in a disappointing bout cut short because, with no crowd barriers, fans were surrounding the ring and causing safety concerns.

 

The undercard included Kerry Powers and Danny Royal, wrestlers then working the holiday camp circuit who went on to be part of several attempts at national groups. The opening match featured Erik Oslo, the new ring name of Erik Isaksen, who had made his pro debut for All-Star nine months earlier. Isaksen returned to his homeland shortly after the Walthamstow show with no expectations of wrestling again as Norway had no professional wrestling industry. But after running regular training sessions (between return visits to wrestle in the UK), Isaksen set up the Norwegian Wrestling Federation in 2001. The group continues running regularly today and has close links with Ricky Knight’s WAW group.

 

In a foreshadowing of the ever-increasing-import trend of later groups, the final Walthamstow show (14 February 1998’s ‘St Valentine’s Day Massacre’) brought back Sabu and Whipwreck and added Rob Van Dam. The show featured an eight-man tournament for the British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight belt, originally a Michinoku Pro based title which had been part of the eight-belt ‘J Crown’ and then vacated when holder Shinjiro Ohtani gave up all but the New Japan component.

 

Confusingly the show began with Van Dam insisting Sabu was a heavyweight wrestler and was vacating the European Junior title, which was then announced as an additional tournament prize. Clearly there had been some political wranglings as Sabu inexplicably remained in the tournament and won his first round match.

 

He and Van Dam were set to meet in the semi-final but refused to wrestle one another, instead closing the night with a spectacular tag match against their respective first round opponents Michael Kovac and Ulf Herman (who would go on to be a regular with the FWA and 1PW promotions). The Harrison-Whipwreck semi-final became the default final, with Harrison winning both belts.

 

Among the notable undercard events, future FWA performer Stevie Knight made his first appearance before the ‘smart mark’ audience, while the late Masakazu Fukuda put on a technical classic with British veteran Steve Gray.

 

The show’s video was produced by newsletter editor Ross Hutchinson, who went on to become a commentator with the UWA group, which achieved national TV coverage on the small L!ve TV cable station and featured Williams, Knight, Royale and Powers (renamed Kerry Cabrero) among its stars. Another UWA performer, Jody Fleisch, makes a little-known cameo on the St Valentine’s Day Massacre tape; by then a 17-year-old Hammerlock grappler, he is among the spectators interviewed on their way out of the building.

 

One UWA taping saw Harrison return the British Commonwealth Junior title backstage for the benefit of Japanese photographers; the vacant belt was then won by Tiger Mask IV and eventually wound up in the Toryumon Group. Also involved in the promotion was Dino Scarlo, who would go on to be a behind-the-scenes force with the FWA.

 

Later in 1999, Harrison took part in the Michinoku Masked Man Tournament where, apparently having failed to follow correct wrestling etiquette, he found himself brutalised by the Great Sasuke. His last known bout took place on a 2000 indy show and he is thought to have left wrestling to concentrate on a career in stunt work.

 

Following the collapse of the UWA, Hutchinson was taken on by Sports Mondial to run UCW, what was intended to be a full-time national promotion with a permanent office staff. The company even signed several wrestlers, most notably Doug Williams, Jody Fleisch, Jonny Storm and Alex Shane, to full-time exclusive contracts which paid a regular guaranteed wage. After two relatively successful shows, the financial backers cancelled plans for a national tour of mid-sized venues, believing the buildings would look too small scale for potential television outlets. With fixed outgoings and no income, the closure of the group soon became inevitable.

 

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I also seem to remember there being a story that Karl Krammer deliberately didn't catch him off a dive once because he was a dick pre-show.

These pretzels are making me thirsty.

You're not gonna do it like that are ya?

 

Why? You got a better suggestion?

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this is one of those stories that gets brought up from time-to-time, like Benno said i remember reading about it and about The Dirtbike Kid in Powerslam. It was pre-youtube stuff so i remember trying to get hold of VHS tapes to actually see the incident. How did The Dirtbike Kid end up at Michinoku Pro? there were very few British guys doing that kind of thing back then, especially someone who seemed to such a lack of experience in the game.

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this is one of those stories that gets brought up from time-to-time, like Benno said i remember reading about it and about The Dirtbike Kid in Powerslam. It was pre-youtube stuff so i remember trying to get hold of VHS tapes to actually see the incident. How did The Dirtbike Kid end up at Michinoku Pro? there were very few British guys doing that kind of thing back then, especially someone who seemed to such a lack of experience in the game.

I've run this through the old Google before actually, I believe there's a wrestlezone interview with DBK from about 01 or something out there.

His version of events is notably different to how the story will get told.

A lot of what he says sounds quite fathomable, a whole bunch of UK lads were on that tour and he believes there were troublemakers on that tour who singled him out and made it their mission to create tension between him and the company

All that sounded pretty plausible but I did have my doubts when it came to him talking about the in ring incident itself. He makes out like he's Shibata or something at some point and claims he could still be stood there no-selling his kicks if he wasn't already injured. Vaguely remember him trying to save face with the tap out and rejected handshake

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