On Saturday and Sunday the 13th/14th October, I went along to NAW's 2 Year Anniversary weekend, with the shows Collision 15/16 taking place. After finding out at the last minute that Dave and Nicky were travelling up on Friday night I frantically got my shit together and we went up to Luton. Arriving at the Luton hotel at stupid o'clock and after a very long, tiresome yet hilarious confrontation between Dave and the stupid Polish receptionist("You must have a passhport"), we had a room. Had a bit of fun in the other room with Farrell, Denzel and a few others, then spent all night watching one of those stupid quiz shows on TV.I couldn't sleep for actual ages, so I had a long bath and read a bit of the book i had brought: Relic. It's a horror/thriller about a mysterious killer beast lurking in the sub-basements of the New York Natural History Musuem, and as the qoute on the cover says, it is very much a cross between Alien and Jurrasic Park. I still couldn't sleep so wandered around the corridor reading for a few hours and got a drink from the vending machine. Heard someone having sex in one of the rooms, which was quite funny, as it was 4:30am. Some people just can't get enough.
Next day was refreshing because we were already in England unlike every other time we go to NAW. As we usually get up stupidly early on a Saturday morning and travel then wrestle straight away. This way however, we had a good nights sleep. It was cool to meet the foreigners, Lee Andrews from America and the Canadians, Allan Creasy, Austin and the other guy whose name I didn't catch. I was on Fusion, the pre-Collision show for low-key type matchs, against Mike McKnight. I've faced him a few times before, twice in his hometown of Manchester and once down in Wales at the second When Nature Calls event in the summer of 2006. I'd beaten him every time so would today be any different? Well the match was for me to 'win back' my 'contract' in 'NAW'. Seen as I 'lost' at 'Britfest' in the summer in an 'I Quit' match with my 'career' on the line.
The match went quite well in theory. In reality though three parts of the match really fucked me up. Early on I had Mike in a headlock and called for him to give me a simple backdrop. Well the timing was off and instead of landing relatively safely on my back, I was thrown up and dropped down backwards right onto the back of my head. So much so that my chin richoted off my chest, which was very painful. My neck was in a lot of discomfort all weekend. Then a really stiff powerbomb nearly knocked me silly.
Towards the end, Mike swanton dived off the horse onto me, with a chair across my front. Afterwards I realised he shouted 'Yippie Ki Yay Motherfucker!' as he jumped, in true Mike style. Then I managed to hit a Kudo Driver on him, onto the wooden floor. The move involves me dropping to my knees, and I neglected to think it through properly, as my right knee seemed to set fire in pain. In the end, Massey ran in and cost me the match. So where does that leave me in NAW? I don't really know to be honest. Or really care all that much. I'm taking every day as it comes in that respect.
The rest of the day was very enjoyable, even though I had to hobble for most of it and constantly massage my neck. I enjoyed Lee's match with Nicky as he had a ton of charisma that I wasn't expecting, especially infront of completely new people, that I respect. Dave had a standout match against Tyrant. I think it was the turning point for Dave, he's been constantly improving over the past year, I think he just needed to believe in himself and with the push he's been getting with the nWo, he achieved that and became a whole lot better. Whilst he solidified his status as a great wrestler with wins over Farrell, Apoc and Stevo, also having a top class match at Britfest, I think his match with Tyrant cemented his position as one of the best around today. He's done Wales proud I think.
The rest of the day was very enjoyable, even though I had to hobble for most of it and constantly massage my neck. I enjoyed Lee's match with Nicky as he had a ton of charisma that I wasn't expecting, especially infront of completely new people, that I respect. Dave had a standout match against Tyrant. I think it was the turning point for Dave, he's been constantly improving over the past year, I think he just needed to believe in himself and with the push he's been getting with the nWo, he achieved that and became a whole lot better. Whilst he solidified his status as a great wrestler with wins over Farrell, Apoc and Stevo, also having a top class match at Britfest, I think his match with Tyrant cemented his position as one of the best around today. He's done Wales proud I think.
I got on with Alex a lot more at this event, which was cool because we haven't really spoken much in recent times. He defended his UK title(which I helped him win by the way) against Canadian 'Greasy' Allan Creasy from VCW. It was a pretty entertaining match with some funny spots and hard-hitting moves. In the end, we were all shocked to see Creasy beat Alex with 'The Pounce' and became the new UK Champion. The main event was Pyro against the new NAW champ Ashley Dunn who is really coming into his own more than he has in the past couple of years. I bought him being the champ 100% it was good to see.
Denzel's new gimmick debuted also, as he was paired with Chris Goodwin who is now his personal trainer. It's wicked to see Denzel being naturally funny in NAW, like he is all the time. There was a brilliant segment where Denzel and Goodwin were guests on Moxy's Miracles, it was great. Steve Farrell also hosted the NAW End of Year awards. It was good to see Dave getting recognition and I was even part of the 'Best Match' of the year. The 4 way match from Collision 7 between myself, DoD, Tyrant and Pyro. So that was nice, that was probably the last really enjoyable and fun match I had in NAW.
In the night we went to Go Bowling which was a bit of a blast from the past, reminding me of some of the earlier NAW events in 2006. Was cool chatting to Lee Andrews and some others there, I was really feeling the effects of my match though. I was scheduled to face Costa the next day in a Contract Match, but had a sinking feeling all night that I just wouldn't be able to do it.
I ended up sleeping on the floor of Alex's room. The next day we went back to Houghton Regis for the Day 2 show. We had an hour in the other hall were a bouncy castle was still standing. So we all had a laugh on there, even though it was rediculously under-inflated. Still feeling sore I tried doing a diving elbow on someone and it was excruciating. I was out of the match.
I ended up sleeping on the floor of Alex's room. The next day we went back to Houghton Regis for the Day 2 show. We had an hour in the other hall were a bouncy castle was still standing. So we all had a laugh on there, even though it was rediculously under-inflated. Still feeling sore I tried doing a diving elbow on someone and it was excruciating. I was out of the match.
In the end Dave faced Costa in a pretty cool match. Lee Andrews went against Ashely Dunn in the main event in another good match, but the showstealer turned out to be the 'Fans Bring Weapons' match between Pyro and Moxy. They really pushed each other to the limit, using everything ranging from tables and chairs to thumbtacks and broken glass. Moxy's back was cut up really badly and some of the stuff they did was breathtaking and maybe even too much. Denzel was just concerned and felt the bar was being raised too high. Alex later screwjobbed Creasy out of the UK title in a pretty funny moment. After the show I travelled back to London with Dave, Nicky, Denzel and Scott Smith. When we got to Kings Cross we went our seperate ways as I had planned on going to see Katie. She wasn't feeling very well though, so I just got something to eat and went back to Luton.
I had a long walk from Leagrave station to the Travelodge, but eventually got there at about 2am. I knew Steve's room number so got a spare key from reception and let myself in, sleeping on the spare mattress. Steve and Lee left early as Lee had to catch his flight, so I got up later, handed in the key and walked up to Tescos to get something to eat. I then realised I was much further away from Leagrave station now I was at Tescos, and after an hour's walk, eventually got there. I went to see Katie again after she finished college and just stayed around hers for a few hours, she fell asleep for quite a while when I was browsing the web, but it was still nice to see her and we had a few laughs as usual. I then left in the evening and got a train home from Paddington.
I'd finished Relic the night before, so started reading a Jeremy Clarkson book that compiled all of his articles from the Sunday Times. I read about half of it and really enjoyed it. Spent the last half hour of the journey with my head out of the train window, it was quite refreshing.
I'd finished Relic the night before, so started reading a Jeremy Clarkson book that compiled all of his articles from the Sunday Times. I read about half of it and really enjoyed it. Spent the last half hour of the journey with my head out of the train window, it was quite refreshing.
All in all, a lovely weekend that turned out better than I thought it would.
Luke.
