2019 Post of the Year Thread

[PowerButchi]

Half yes as the literary content is great, but bloody pictures like a blog. 

 

But yeah +1.

Edited January 16, 2019 by PowerButchi

[tiger_rick]

5 hours ago, PowerButchi said:

Half yes as the literary content is great, but bloody pictures like a blog. 

 

But yeah +1.

I'm with you on the pictures generally  but in this case, they're extras.

+1

[HarmonicGenerator]

That thread has produced another beauty. I love this post by @PunkStep:

51 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

Tremendous!

You joke, but I started training at the same school at the same time as him and he constantly mimicked Razor's mannerisms and moves in training. Seriously, it was ALL the time! Pretty sure he once did a fallaway slam on his friend once on the cold, hard, slightly-matted dojo floor. Fuck that! He wasn't around for that long, maybe a few months? Seemed like a nice guy. We both appeared in the Enfield Gazette when some reporter came along to do a feature on the school. It was at this school where I also met @Carbombfor the first time, his jokes haven't changed

This must've been around 2003, because I'm sure I was 20 when I started training and my friend was 18. We became massive FWA marks after catching a local show at the Civic Hall and my friend wanted to go FWA's academy in Portsmouth to train to become a wrestler but he couldn't drive at the time. At one point he was arranging a lift with a female trainee (Kaos perhaps? That sounds familiar) but that didn't happen in the end. His brother (and my closest friend, Burchill's Buddy of 'I sell yorkie meat to Ji Sung Park fame on here) found out about a school in Enfield and suggested he tried it out, as it was only a short drive from home and their dad could give him a lift. He went once with another friend (who didn't want to go again), said it was awesome but would only go if me or his brother would go along with him. However we both played for a 5-a-side team on Sundays and neither had any interest in training to become a wrestler. When the 5-a-side team folded, he persuaded me (but not his brother) to go along with him.

It was bloody great. It was a very small matted dojo with a couple of crash mats and an even smaller room adjoined to the back where a couple of people could train alone. No ring. We went through rolls, bumps and a lot of chain wrestling- really early basic stuff but I loved it all. Jorge Castano was our trainer and he was thorough- would make sure you would got it right and would coach you well. He wasn't strict but he had the respect of the room and everyone just got their head down and cracked on whenever he took training, a very good trainer. Me and my friend trained hard and managed to pick up the basics very quickly. The other trainer there was Johnny Kidd, who I immediately admired and liked as he was such a gifted guy whilst probably being the nicest guy I've ever met in BritWres to this day. Watching him VS Cameron Knite on a show around that time blew me away and completely opened up my eyes to World of Sport and the old British technical style, which I then became rather obsessed with. We had quite a few other trainers at the time, and one piece of advice they all agreed on was 'don't post on the UKFF!'. So I didn't- well not for a while anyway.

Other trainees that had been there longer than us were given spots in the rumble for experience, which was where we wanted to be. That was our first goal. After several months of training we were given spots in the rumble and I don't think we disgraced ourselves! Aside from the fact our ring gear was MMA gear (Hunter shorts for my friend - like MANY wrestlers wore at the time - and Sprawl shorts with a vest for me), we did ok. We were the first two entrants in our first rumble and like most keen debutants wanted to get our shit in! So in the 60 seconds we had before the third entrant entered, I got in a snap half hatch suplex (stolen from American Dragon/Daniel Bryan) and a t-bone suplex, while my friend busted out a flying headscissors and something else which I forget. Such shitarses! I can't remember who eliminated me, might've been Spud/Drake Maverick, Dave Mastiff/Moralez or Jack Storm. Prior to the rumble we had our first in-ring training, which I believe was taken by Stixx and Spud.

We continued appearing in Rumbles over the next few months until the promoter said he wanted to give us our debut in a couple of months time. He wanted us to be on opposing teams, me being the heel and teaming with Ross Jordan/RJ Singh and my friend on a face team. This was ideal for us, because in our head we wanted to be the next Jody & Jonny- in the sense that we would have epic battles against each other up and down the country and would be remembered for our rivalry. We were all getting geared up mentally and at training for our debut match, but then a month before we were both asked if one of us could fill in for someone on a show VS Flaming Red. I was away on a work trip, so my friend made his singles debut. I was gutted, but really happy for him. A couple of weeks later, and a couple of weeks before my scheduled debut in the aforementioned tag, I was at home on a Saturday when the promoter called me. "How do you fancy wrestling in a singles match tonight? You'll be up against Jorge Castano, the British middleweight champion in a non-title bout". My arsehole starting puckering like Rick Rude making kissy faces and I was a bag of nerves.

I got there and Jorge was awesome- we worked through a couple of ideas in the ring and I naturally assumed, being a novice in my debut, that I would have very little offence and this would be a showcase for Jorge- which was absolutely fine, I knew my role and was just delighted to be out there. Jorge listed a bunch of moves and asked if I think I could pull them off- tornado DDT, high cross body from the top rope, flying bulldog from the second rope- these were moves I hadn't ever considered trying as I saw myself more as a technical grappler! I said I'd give them a go and we went over them a few times without a problem. He put together this match but constantly asked me for input 'what do you think about this? Do you think you can do this? Do you think you will be able to sell the leg convincingly?'- he gave me SO much. He wanted to work on my leg throughout the match and planned a good finish which he stressed would only work if I did a good enough job selling the leg. If he felt I didn't sell the leg enough, then he had a different finish planned, where he'd call an implant DDT out there and get the win. He also planned a little spot on the outside where we would do a posting spot, and bit of slamming faces into the side of the canvas. This was a lot to remember for a debut match, so naturally I was worried that I'd forget half of this. Just before the bell went, Jorge cut a promo announcing that he was a fighting champion and that he would give this kid a chance at his title. So my debut match and I'm in there challenging for a Mountevans championship!

The sequence for working the knee/leg was well worked. I would have him on the ropes and charge at him with a big boot- he'd duck, my leg would go over the top and he'd tie my leg up in the ropes and work on it quite a bit. From there on there was a lot of leg working and some hope spots (such as the middle rope flying bulldog). To show how much of a gent Jorge was, he asked me which impact move (but not finisher) I wanted to hit as a big hope spot. I said I liked to hit a t-bone suplex, but I knew that he used that as part of a sequence he had where he'd hit three different suplexes in a row, separated each time with a kip-up and 'WOOOOO!!!'. He said I could have the t-bone, and he'd think of another suplex he could use in his spots. This is a guy who's been working for all the top British promotions for several years with a 21 year old trainee and there wasn't a hint of ego whatsoever. I sold the leg like an absolute bitch and did a spot where I tried to hit a t-bone, my leg buckled, but then I let out a bit of a primal scream the next opportunity I had to hit it and used every ounce of energy to hit the move. I did, and the crowd (all 50 of them) roared in support. Limping, I posted him, he reversed, I put the boot up (the uninjured one) and hit a tornado DDT. Now if anyone has ever seen Jorge Castano, who has an amateur background and a neck seemingly made of fortified springs, might remember that he sells head-dropper moves such as DDTs a lot like RVD. I hit the tornado DDT and he spiked like a motherfucker, bouncing high up into the air before bumping onto his back. The 50-strong sell-out crowd cheered as I made the cover- 1-2-kick out! I then signalled to go to the top- got a so-so reaction. Asked them again, but more forcefully, got a much bigger YEAH!, from them, and whilst still selling the leg injury slowly scaled to the top. I went to hit a Doug Williams-like knee drop from the top and as planned, Jorge rolled out of the way and I acted as though I had blown by knee out- screaming and rolling around clutching my leg. Jorge applied the Texas Cloverleaf and I tapped out. In 10+ years of wrestling, I can honestly say that I don't think that match could have gone any better, I was fucking elated. And I had Jorge to thank because he gave me this wonderful debut.

I got backstage and Johnny Kidd, who watched the entire match through the curtain, praised me. He said I put out an excellent performance and his only criticism was that he thought it should've finished after the tornado DDT, because it was so well-worked! I was on cloud 9 at this point, Johnny fucking Kidd of all people. Also a couple of those in the crowd posted on UKFF at the time (back in the day quite a lot of BritWres shows were reviewed on here) and they made positive remarks on my match and performance. Me and my friend's originally scheduled debut, the tag match, had also changed. The promoter wanted me to remain a face after that match VS Jorge so me and my friend were put together against Jorge & Tex Benedict instead. This was surprising as neither of us had considered becoming a tag team together until that point. We ran with it and started spitballing some ideas for team names, gear, style, gimmick, moves etc. That of course developed and evolved over time, but we had a really good run in the promotion until it closed. We then started working for a couple of new promotions based in and around London, both of which grew considerably. We wrestled up and down the country for various promotions to gain experience- I remember meeting @Nostalgia Nonceat a show we both wrestled on once where he was doing his surfer gimmick and I'm pretty sure on the same show Spud tried out the 'Rockstar' gimmick for the first time (or one of the first times, at least)

We did pretty well overall- over 10+ years we got to work some top talent, perform in front of some decent sized and hot crowds, wrestled on TV numerous times, won some titles (which I can honestly say didn't matter that much to us in the grand scheme of things), made a lot of friends and had a blast doing it. One year I even almost made the UKFF top 50- the little mark inside me found out from HatGuy that I was joint 51st one year! After several years I started to wind down a bit as me and my wife settled down and had kids, but until then we were wrestling most weekends and doing the camps where we possibly could over the summer. It was time consuming- gym 3/4 times a week, gymnastics once a week, wrestling training for about 4 hours every Sunday, a show on Saturday plus sometimes shows midweek and on Sundays, football once a week to help with cardio- plus sticking to a high protein diet for a few years. After kids and work taking over both of our lives we started wrestling more sporadically, still teaming together, until we unofficially jacked it in about 3 years ago. When I was 8 years old I told my teacher I wanted to be a wrestler but never, up until I started training, did I think it would ever happen. Not quite the heights of WWF as I claimed I would in my Year 4 'when I grow up' piece, but immensely proud nonetheless. Good times indeed.

We were both saying the other day, when I told my friend WWE had opened a performance centre in Enfield (where it all began for us!), that we were around at the wrong time. Had we got into the industry several years later, we might've been caught up in this current hotbed where opportunities for British wrestlers is rife. WWE, NXT, NXT UK, WOS, New Japan, ROH, Impact- so many British wrestlers are involved with these promotions but back then those opportunities were distant dreams- which is why Burchill going to WWE was MASSIVE at the time.

Sorry for the long post. I was originally just going to blab on about when I first started training after Chest mentioned SpursRiot, then I got carried away. Getting all nostalgic and emotional now.

 

[Chest Rockwell]

 

This thread is better than I thought it would be and this story really tickled me.

[Carbomb]

+1,000 for that post. My sides and the back of my head are aching from laughing that much.

[tiger_rick]

Very good.

[Keith Houchen]

Yep. That’s wonderful from Kaz. 

[gmoney]

 

Butch's Renegade thread. It really made me recall Renegade, by showing me pictures of him. I was also able to see that he was in a team with Joe Gomez, because of a picture. 

[air_raid]

+1

[tiger_rick]

Well, duh

 

[Kaz Hayashi]

Yeah that’s a corker 

[Otto Dem Wanz]

50 likes as well - never seen so many for a post on the forum!

[Kaz Hayashi]

27 minutes ago, Otto Dem Wanz said:

50 likes as well - never seen so many for a post on the forum!

There’s some great stories in there but nothing is topping that based on the fact it’s at a funeral. It’s brilliant, RIP.

[Onyx2]

It's no cardboard box funeral but Cannibal's choice of language here elevates this beyond "Ambrose is badly booked." 

[PunkStep]

+1, the final paragraph especially killed me