The Yearly Update...

Well, looks like I'm back. For how longer, who knows? So. The past year. It's been quite an odd one, and probably the year which has seen the most change in me. I am still wrestling, and I'd say I'm now a far more confident person. Why, I don't think I could definitively say. After my last post, I stayed with NAW untill Britfest 2008, where I wrestled Dave Williams. Which was a big test as to whether or not returning had been worth it. I managed to get through it just about, but felt the effects of it for weeks afterwards. We had a pretty great match though, so the match itself was definitely worth it.

I didn't wrestle at NAW again untill the 3 Year Anniversary show in October, in which I faced LB Voltage and lost, signalling my exit for a while. I didn't wrestle there again for 6 months. A lengthy break was most definitely needed. Also in October of 2008, I won the WCWe Championship back from The Touch in a triple threat match also featuring Denzel, at our indoor supershow, Halloween Hangover. Not only that, but on a whim, I somehow ended up travelling to Canvey Island and wrestling Ozzy Mayhem at PVW, a small fed LB had started up. It was the match that made me happy with my decision to return to wrestling after Britfest 2007. I'd been wanting the match for 4 years and it didn't disappoint. It was a lot of fun finally getting the chance to wrestle him, and it was a really good match.

I then took the long break, to let my back and knees rest. It worked wonders, as I felt fresh coming back in 2009. I started making a few appearances, at other feds, NWW and PVW again, as Razorwire Ryan. I had dyed my hair blonde at the start of the year, and Farrell started having a go at me for dying it to 'be like Barnesy' which was such a ridiculous comment. So I got together an attire that was quite similar to VooDoo's and started using Razorwire Ryan as a name, which was quite fun and worked well in pissing a few people off(Billy in particular, he HATED it).

Thus I returned to NAW in April 2009 under the name, and began a very good feud with Ads. It was everything we wanted it to be and more. I used my new found confidence or rather, new found lack of insecurity, to really dig myself deep into a couple of promos, which really worked I think. And we ended up having an awesome, if unique, and very bloody match, at Britfest 2009 a couple of months ago.

WCWe started back up again and so far have had a fantastic new run. We did a few ground shows at the Cage arena, invaded NWW for a supershow, and found a new arena with a ringbase in the Marshys garden. I defended the WCWe Championship against pretty much the whole fed and had some matches I REALLY enjoyed(Vs. Blaze, Vs. Denzel, Vs. The Touch, Vs. Dave Williams). Plus I really got set into an ongoing feud with Howler and The Touch over the title which spanned half the year and culminated in a really fun match at our supershow, Last Action Hero.

There was also Heatfest, which was one of the best weeks of my life. In all aspects it was fantastic, I met some great new people, got to see VCW wrestle, and generally be at one of the best/hottest events ever. I had another outing with Alex which was very good, even if I threw up straight after, and helped out the main event of Day 2(the much hyped Old School Vs. New School Tag Match) by taking Dave's place, teaming with Jack Fox, Chris Goodwin and Josh Wall against Farrell, Ads, GBH and Oz. It was an absolute pleasure to have the match in the end. Just a really fun on the fly match, in darkness, with a mad crowd and wrestling against some legends. A very cool moment.

So that just about covers all the wrestling stuff. I was supposed to wrestle on XPB's first pro show, which went really well, but couldn't make it. I hope to make the next one. A lot of other stuff has been going on, but I'm gonna leave it at that for the minute before I deit this page.

Oh, and, it's 5.25AM...I really can't sleep. Am listening to Mogwai's "Young Team" album for the third time in the past 48 hours...still trying to figure out why I like it and why I don't like it...

Insomniacly(Yes, I know that's not a word),
Luke

NAW Collision 20 - Newcastle Trip

Friday

Not having a job right now, I had to go and sign on again down Barry. The Welsh guys Dave, Gav, Hitch and Nicky were planning on leaving for Newcastle earlyish so I had to take my stuff with me to the Job Centre. The woman there was quite helpful and I was out in 10 minutes, ready to go and meet the guys. They were all at Dave's house with Ben playing on Guitar Hero 3. Nicky kept saying 'you guys realise I'm not actually going' and he also kept laughing, so I knew he was playing the old I'm-not-going joke, that, whilst being a joke, is actually serious.

So we wasted about 2 hours walking down to Nicky's procrastinating, culminating in a half hour wait outside Nicky's house for him to get his stuff together for the trip I don't think he ever intended on going on. At least Dave and Gav were on hand to amuse, as Dave promptly locked Gav in a full nelson and started humping him vigourously. Coupled with Gav's hat slipping down making him look like an actual cancer patient, it was a sight that had me and Hitch in stitchs. Then Gav started doing sock puppets behind the wall outside Nicky's, also trying to hang himself off a telephone mast with a wrist wrap. Dave then got annoyed with Nicky and decided it was time to leave, he wasn't in a good mood for a while.

We went to Cardiff at about 5pm, and they got the supplies to make Sex on the Beach, as Gav had a mixer with him. We got on a train to Birmingham New Street and Dave tried putting the concotion together. After quite a few attempts, apparently they got it spot on as Hitch took a sip and pondered a few moments before saying 'you know what Dave...I think you've done it.' I wasn't in the mood to get drunk so I settled with a few sips of Cranberry juice. At Birmingham we quickly caught the connecting Virgin train to Newcastle. Luckily, especially on a Friday night, we found a table seat for the four of us, unreserved. This is when Dave started to get really pissed, with Gav and Hitch not really drinking at all.

In his inebriated state, Dave was quite bemused with the fact he was the only one getting drunk. He then started getting physical with Gav and was saying that if he ever hits someone he'd let them have a shot back, before headbutting Gav out of his seat. Gav's eye was quite hurt so he nutted Dave back, they were a bit dazed after that. Then Dave was bugging Gav to ask around for a fag for him. He also set one of the juice cartons on fire, causing the conductor to ask him if he was smoking. Dave acted all innocent and vehemently denied any such thing, before shouting at the rest of the carriage that he wasn't impressed with people smoking on the train. Typical Dave.

We got to Newcastle about 11ish, and a guy walked into the station with a full-on replica WWE belt just strapped around his waist. I then spotted a young kid with a WWE program and figured WWE must be doing a show in Newcastle that night, on their European tour. We got a taxi to the cheap Metro hotel, formerly known as Formulae 1. We went into Alex's room for a bit, which was housing at the time, Alex, Chris Goodwin, Rob Darby, Ross and Katie. It was cool to see Katie again, and we were up to our usual jokes within no time. The Welshies went to Tescos but I stayed there to watch Balls of Steel with my favourite, Militant Black Guy. Actually the man.
We went to bed soon after, I was in one of the tiny rooms with Dave and slept on the top bunk. I had quite a cold night's sleep with just this crappy sheet thing. There was also a woolly kinda thing but it made my chest bad so it was quite a restless night.

Saturday

I think Ross woke us up, saying that we all had to be at the leisure centre for 10am to help setup everything. So we got a taxi over there and entered the hall around the back entrance. It looked quite different from the previous times I'd been there, as the net was drawn back so the whole hall was in view. The skeleton of the ring had been set up in the middle, with a few boards in the corner for the entrance way. Beyond the entranceway was a door to our makeshift locker room which in actuality was part of the gym facillities, housing the treadmills. Farrell was bouncing around the place as usual speaking to everyone and sorting out 20 different things at once. Me and Katie spent most of this time joking around and then in came Ross...Switchy. Hitch cracked me up as he turned to Gav and mentioned how ugly he looked clean shaven.

Alex was tinkering away with his camera filming stuff for his uni project, so I left him alone for a while. The ring didn't look to have much give as the guys who owned it were setting it up. Only with a few thin mats over the wood, leaving a fair bit of the apron unprotected and solid wood, we were all dubious as to how stiff this thing was going to be bumping on. I was quite wary of it and a little disappointed at how saggy the ropes were, this surely meant my end spot would have to be changed. But the woman who was with the ring guys assured me they would tighten the ropes up, which they did, so it was okay in the end. We all got into the ring when it was ready and checked it out, ran the ropes a little and measured it up a bit.

Around 1 o'clock, the crowd was being let in so we all went into the locker room area. Me and Alex had planned a few things for the match, and I was confident we could put together a good match by relying on stuff we knew we could do well. Soon we were ready to start the show, and Farrell's music blared out on the speaker system. He walked out with a big WOOO and I remember the reaction being distinctly average, perhaps it was from where I was standing, but the crowd seemed pretty dead. Then Rob Darby, who was the event's announcer, in a snazzy suit inside the ring, introduced Ashley Dunn the NAW champ. But there was a problem with the music and there was an uncomfortable silence for about 2 minutes. It didn't look to be going too well and I had a sinking feeling the show wouldn't be much good, thankfully I was wrong.

The first match saw Dan Van Virtigo go against Chris Goodwin and the crowd seemed to be livening up a bit. I went into the toilets and got ready for the match, trying to psyche myself up a bit, which never works. I felt quite nervous for the first time in a while, went through a few last points with Alex and got ready to make my entrance. Alex went out first with a few boo's and I waited for my music. It came on and I stepped out enthusiastically, trying out my new face character, perhaps more over the top than usual to try and get a reaction from the crowd. It seemed to work and I got quite a nice ovation for someone they knew fuck all about. We started the match quickly and started out with some technical stuff, a stark contrast from our past 2 or 3 matchs which were all heated brawls.

I was quite conscious of two things in the first few minutes of the match. 1, I was gassed out already and struggling to catch a breath and 2, it felt like we were losing the crowd a bit. I remember noticing Katie out of the corner of my eye trying to get a chant going for me, bless. Luckily though, my brief comeback seemed to go down well, so I got a bit of confidence back and we went for the old cactus clothesline out of the ring. It seemed to go perfectly like Britfest, and I saw Alex fly to the outside and hit the mats pretty hard. I kept hearing the kids shout 'go to the top rope!' which fit in quite well with the next planned spot, an elbow drop. I pointed to the ring post and the they shouted their approval so I jumped up onto the first rope.

I asked the crowd if they wanted me to go higher, which went down well, so I climbed to the second rope and dove off with a pretty nice elbow thankfully(the past few times I've tried one, they've been terrible). Then I noticed inbetween the mats, a 50 pence piece. The same 50 pence piece I'd lost out of my pocket planning earlier, damn! I had a match to do so we carried on and Alex caught me off guard with a catapault into the ringpost. We then exchanged a few big moves in the ring, culminating in Alex's new finisher the Cross Arm Bomb. I kicked out so he went to hit me with it off the top rope, and in a flashback from Britfest once again, I reversed it and managed, thankfully, to hit the Kudo Driver off the second rope. It really felt like I'd deited him, moreso than Britfest. I went for the cover and asked under my breath if he was okay. 'Fine.' was the reply as the ref counted to three. I got a pretty good reaction for winning and walked back to the locker room quite happy with the match.

When Alex came back, Stevo was there and dropped to his knees("Awesome!"). I then had that cool feeling of no pressure and being able to just watch the rest of the show. I missed the next couple of matchs when I went to get a drink, a little boy stopped me in the hall and asked me to sign his foam finger. I was a little taken aback and wondered why he'd asked me of all people. I soon found out when I went upstairs that they were asking all the wrestlers as Dave was standing by the window, surrounding by kids signing his name. Switchy turned up and a kid asked if he was a wrestler.

"Are you one of the wrestlers?"
"Yer I am."
"Are you wrestling today like?"
"No."
"Oh..."*walks off*

At the interval, all the kids came towards the ring and the wrestlers came out to sign things and take pictures. I was swamped by kids asking me to sign everything, take pictures the lot. I then turned to Katie and couldn't believe it, she let Ashley Dunn write on her arm...bad move. Katie had 'I <3> Cock on here arm for the rest of the day...

Then Ross faced Stevo in a pretty cool match, before the big main event, Dave Vs. Farrell. I really enjoyed the match, especially being up and close with it being a proper crowd setup and whatnot. The match was pretty simple and just worked really well, it was excellent and saw Farrell being more on form than usual. In the end, the nWo interfered and Lance Thunder came to Steve's rescue taking the nWo out. Steve then beat Dave with the FIGAH FOUR LEG LOCK, winning the match, the hometown hero. He loved it. Woooo'ing his way across the ring celebrating with Lance Thunder. It was a nice moment, because I knew it meant everything to Farrell and could tell he was a bit emotional at it all.

Then the whole NAW roster came out and the show finished with the kids coming up to the ring for more autographs and things. All in all it went really well and was a great experience. I still haven't seen my match back yet, but Alex said it was his favourite of ours for being fun and easy, so that's really cool. The ring guys packed it all up and we went into the locker room to get our stuff together. For some reason, Katie thought it would be a good idea to just jump onto a treadmill going full whack. It forced her off her feet, crashing onto her knees, then straight onto her face which bounced off the treadmill as the rest her got thrown into the wall. Definitely an Oh Dear moment, the silly arse. Gladly she was alright though, but got ribbed quite a bit, as usual.

In the night we all went to the Metro Centre and to Big Luke's the annual Newcastle tradition. All you can eat, yet this time + Switchy. Dan was cracking me up with his observations of Switchy getting food 'he may aswell pull a chair up to the buffet!' He actually had his plate piled up so high sausages were falling off as he went back to his seat. Billy was like 'I'd eat Killswitch under the table'. About an hour later, everyone was finished and Billy looked down the table in amazement '...why is he still eating?!' Ross was there, literally DRINKING a bowl of ice cream. We all winded him up asking if he was joining the fire service, another one of Farrell's realllly random jokes. However this time he didn't just respond to teasing by doing the infamous Mutley laugh, he actually snapped bellowing 'FUCK YU! and FUCK YU! You're DEED!' It seems that Nathan was getting good chip mileage out of Big Luke's which Dan noticed naturally.

After this we went around the Metro Centre a bit and just didn't do anything for ages, untill Farrell and Ty left. We went up to the pub where Billy, Ross, Dave and Katie had gone. They were all drinking jugs of cocktails and Ross was getting hammered. I was really tired and worn out by that point, and was getting increasingly exasperated by their constant ripping of Katie. At that point I really didn't understand why she just lets them say that stuff to her. Then we went back to the hotel and I just went straight to bed, this time making sure the heating was on. Big mistake. I woke up in the early hours, Billy and Dave were now asleep on the double below me, and it was BOILING. I actually just stripped completely, it was horrible. I had to turn it off at about 6am, I was gonna die.

Sunday

I woke up and noticed Billy had opened the window, thank God. Hitch was at our door at 9am saying 'we have to leave.' I had no idea we were leaving so early, but Dave wanted to be back for 4:20...like that was gonna happen. So we got ready and waited for our taxis. Katie was in the shower for aggges so we never got a chance to say goodbye to her, which was a shame and she seemed a little annoyed when she texted me. We got to the train station and caught a train pretty much straight away. It stopped in some random station though, as there was problems down the trainline. So we got a train to Derby which was packed so we had to stand by the shop. We passed the time by stroking Hitch's beard and he kept twitching it was actually hilarious. Dave then scratched him behind the ear and one of us said he's like a cat.

Thus, Catman was born. Every joke you can think of was henceforth utilised, much to the passengers amusement. Hitch wasn't fazed much though, which shows how good of a sport he is. He got a Cardiff train from Derby and had fun ringing up Prob and asking what Pokemon best reflects himself. We then played the whole Benny Hill theme tune down the phone to him and we started cracking up when he wasn't hanging up, towards the end of the song he started humming along. The funniest man. A stuffy bitch next to us asked if we were gonna be quiet, causing other people to complain about us, which we just laughed at really and started playing word association, revolving around Hitch saying 'swallows'. Then Gav said HUGE DICK to which I replied 'Black Man?' They all gasped and looked the other way as I noticed a token right next to me, how could I not have noticed...but I realised that I didn't actually care. We got home quite earlier but Dave missed 4:20, sad times.

Me and Dave got a taxi back to Penarth and I went back to my Dad's to chill out for a bit. Spoke to Katie on the phone for a bit and went home for a lonnng sleep. So a pretty funnn weekend altogether, I enjoyed it very much. The show went down well and the leisure centre people asked Farrell if we would do another show in August so hopefully that'll be happening and we'll get to do it again. Anyway, I better round up this epic piece of text, perhaps with a HUGELY funny picture?

Luke

A Fued Continues...

Well, tomorrow I'm heading off the the toon, more commonly known as Newcastle. NAW are holding it's 20th edition of 'Collision' at Kenton Park Leisure Centre. It's the first show NAW has ever had with a paying audience. Asides from the tickets Farrell was given to sell to family and friends, I think about 150 odd have been sold so far, so nearly 200 people should be in attendance. The leisure centre, which isn't a government funded place, is paying for a proper ring to be there for the event, so the proceeds will be going towards them. I'm booked on the show to face good friend and old NAW enemy Alex McConnell.

We have quite a history, dating back to 2005, when funnily enough, in Newcastle, we had our first match. He came out at Northern Britfest 4 and started insulting me, so an impromptu match happened, with me getting pinned after a curbstomp. It was a fun little match, but I wanted to have a proper match with him. So a few months later down south in Houghton Regis, we had a scheduled match on Uprising. Another cool little match in which I outsmarted Alex and pinned him after a Spiral Spike.

A month later, I joined NAW's North territory(so to speak) and my first match was a tag team match against Kirt and Americana. Alex turned out to be my partner. We had a bit of a dispute and I left him to get beat before a fight broke out. So once again, we were scheduled to face in NAW, at the Northern supershow Long Way To Fall. A snappy little match with a few high risks in there, before Alex managed to beat me again, by giving me the curbstomp three times in a row.

Our paths crossed again towards the end of 2006, as Alex was going to be turning heel, so seeing as we had some good chemistry in the past, we were going to fued again. On Collision 1, I was found backstage bloodied up and beaten down. So I came out on Collision 2 to find out who it was, Alex appeared from the crowd and took my head off with a lariot and made a statement as he turned heel. It seemed to shock/please the crowd so we were off to a good start. On Collision 3 we were both in a big battle royal, he entered first and I came straight out behind him, cracking him over the head with a steel chair and eliminating him straight away. He then got me eliminated, so we had a lot of heat by Collision 4, in which we had a backstage confrontation. I angrily told him that a match had been booked for Love/Hate between us, a Last Man Standing match.

The Last Man Standing match, was probably the best match I've ever had. It went about 20 minutes and we really stepped up as the supershow's Semi Main Event. A lot of big name wrestlers had left a few months earlier, most of ECW, BBWF, so a lot of newer guys were getting a chance to prove themselves. I think we did ourselves proud with this match. We built it up really nicely into the dramatic climax which saw us shocking the crowd as I got busted open and Alex got powerbombed into thumbtacks. In the end, Alex gave me 6 curbstomps, the last one being pretty heel first, and I stayed down for the 10 count.

A few months later, at International Incident, Alex was wrestling Ashley Dunn for his UK Championship. Towards the end of the match, I climbed up onto the turnbuckle, ready to elbow drop Alex for revenge. Instead I jumped, sailed over Alex and hit Ashley Dunn, helping Alex to win the title. We shook hands and a team was born. As I joined the enemy, we went on to challenge Tyrant and Steve Farrell for the NAW Tag Team belts, which we won on Collision 8. We defended them a few times but the team's cracks were starting to show and eventually, we lost the titles to the nWo on Collision 10 after I abandoned Alex.

Cut an already long story short, we got in each others faces a bit and a match was set for the biggest show on the NAW calendar: Britfest. An 'I Quit' match, where the only way to win is to make your opponent say he quits. I had a chance to win Alex's UK title, and if he won, he would end my career in NAW. So on July 7th 2007, we had an epic match. I think it went too long at about 27 minutes, and with it being my last match I went in with a 'fuck it' mentality, doing my highest elbow drop ever. Alex was the man for taking the move that defined the match, a kudo driver off the second rope. After doing everything we could to win, pulling the ring itself apart in the process, Alex finally got me to scream I quit when he dug the turnbuckle hook into my head. Another bloody, brutal supershow match between us had ended and so had my career. It was a big match and at the time, what I thought would be my last. But this is backyard right?

I've done a few matchs here and there since, nothing special, whilst Alex has gone on to better things, having consistently great mid-card match against people like Napalm, Pyro and even Allan Creasy. Not forgetting his class 2/3 match series with Tyrant, ending in a match that I loved last month at International Incident. So now, Farrell is looking to book big past matchs for Collision 20, Tyrant Vs. Pyro being an example. So it looks like we'll be locking up once again, but without all the heat this time. I'm really looking foward to it, my fued and matchs with Alex are probably the best thing/s I've done in wrestling and wrestling him is always fun and easy. I'd like to think he's a good friend from wrestling, which I rarely come across personally.

I'm also quite looking foward to wrestling in front of a proper crowd, and wrestling in a ring is always a bonus. Just going to Newcastle for the weekend in itself will be fun, and seeing some of the Geordies again. My next entry shall probably include a few stories from the trip, but for now, I'm going to concentrate on forming a plan to beat Alex for the first time in 2 years:P

Luke

A Dark Hurricane

Well, asides from the wrestling bollocks, not a whole lot has changed recently. Looking for a new job pretty much and doing the rewrites on my book. Which is looking pretty cool, despite the fact I'm so self-deprecatingly negative about things that I create, I kinda like how it's turning out. At the moment it's title Hurricane Darkly, I guess you could call it a paranormal thriller? Perhaps I'm giving myself too much credit with the use of the word 'thriller'...In essence it's the story of a man's search for a purpose in life, after his life has actually ended. It's odd, yet I suppose I am, so it evens itself out no problem.






We recently got a new cat which is strange, as we've had Willow for years now and she's getting old. We got one from a home for animals that need a proper one, so she's quite young and is called Meercat, Meer for short, which is quite funny as our first cat was called Mia. And they actually look exactly the same, little bit of irony there I guess. She's always running around and playing with mid-air, it's fun to watch sometimes, but that bloody bell around her neck is ringing every second of the day. She also clawed me while I was sleeping the other morning. It's interesting to see her interact with Willow though, quite a contrast as Willow is so mellow and lazy, she never wants to play. I think she's feeling a bit off though, she's been sleeping in my room for the past week.

Hopefully they'll both settle into living together soon and it shouldn't be a problem, not that it's much of one now. Anyway I'll end this with an excerpt from my book, just because I can.

* * *

Morning had broken. The gentle dawn sunshine slowly poured over the town. A young man was walking his faithful Yorkshire terrier down a particularly posh street. The houses that lined that road were huge and lavish. The man was enjoying the peaceful morning stroll until the silence was interrupted. He heard a hoarse and loud retch that was followed by some of the most shockingly unpleasant coughing he had ever heard. He hurried his pace and left the street quickly as the retching continued.

The source of the off-putting noise was another young man lying on the floor of a balcony, high up on the third floor of one of the big houses. The doors to the balcony were wide open and the young man turned onto his back, rolling inside the room, scrunching up his eyes. Jeff moaned helplessly.

It had been a horrible dream. Vivid and horrible. He felt hung-over as his head throbbed persistently. Deciding not to spend any more time lying in his own filth, Jeff pulled himself shakily to his feet. After a few seconds he realised he had no idea where he was. The room was very messy. The walls were all black and decorated sparingly with about thirty posters. They were all hand-drawn in black and white, portraying a beautiful woman in various different mysterious poses. Some were covered in cracked hearts, coloured in deep red.
What the hell? Jeff thought.

A lonely looking bed up against the wall was covered in what looked like blood. A small breeze blew in from the open balcony. Jeff shivered and pulled his arms up around himself. Immediately, he knew something was wrong. Very wrong. He felt thinner and upon examining his hands he saw how bony they were and unlike his own. With a jolt in his stomach he also saw that his left wrist was plastered in what looked to be dry blood.
Noticing a small bathroom in the corner of the room, he drunkenly staggered inside. Hardly daring to believe his crazy suspicion, Jeff looked in the mirror. He screamed and backed up against the wall in horror.

Frantically, he started feeling his face and pinching at the skin. It couldn't be, it just couldn't be, he thought in complete and utter desperation. For the face looking back at him was not his own. The face was thin and unkind. With pale skin that stuck out sickeningly against its greasy black hair that fell to the shoulders. Not to mention the eyes. They were cold and lifeless, sunken as if their owner hadn't slept in days. Jeff gulped disbelievingly, examining closely every aspect of the face that now seemed to be his. Flecks of spittle glistened on his dirty stubble.

This was simply too much for Jeff. He couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it. There has to be a reasonable explanation for this. Maybe he had gone crazy and this Jeff character had never existed. No. That was even more crazy and far-fetched. It felt too real to be a dream but what was going on? How could this be possible? He wasn't in his own body anymore, the idea is simply ridiculous! Who'd believe that?

He returned to the bedroom, trying to ignore how much he was shaking. For the first time he noticed a few bottles of pills on the floor by the light green puddle of vomit. Empty pill bottles. Again he looked at the dried blood on his wrist. He had obviously tried to kill himself last night. No, whoever this was obviously tried to kill themselves last night, not me, Jeff corrected himself angrily.

But had they succeeded? Everything started to mount up in Jeff's mind and it made him feel sick to his stomach. This was exactly the sort of thing that he could never believe in. He thought of Kate and it all became too much. He threw up again, moaning in discomfort at the burning sensation in his throat. When he was finished, he wiped his new mouth with the grubby black t-shirt he was wearing. It felt and tasted like someone had shit in his mouth.

Luke

Back once again...see a pattern emerging?

Well it seems I only ever make a post on this blog once every 6 months or so. Not necessarily a bad thing, and I'm terrible at remaining consistent in pretty much everything so I doubt it'll change. Anyway, a topic for this here blog, in the forth month of 2008. Well a couple of weeks ago I went to the NWW interfed, NWW being a wrestling federation in Blaina, about an hour away from me. Since my last blog I haven't wrestled much, after the match with Mike at NAW, I stayed inactive for a few months, returning to NAW in January against old opponent Short Round in a short match. Once again I got a little messed up, after getting bust open to hard way from a DDT...that has to be a first. After the match, as apart of our storyline/fued, we fought into the carpark and I ran him over in his own car.

Yet, that was the last we saw of Short Round as he pulled out of our payoff match in March, I don't think he was really into wrestling anymore, which is a shame, but I wouldn't have wanted to do the match if he wasn't into it. It's also a bit of a shame that I probably won't see the guy again, one of the nicest people I've ever met through backyard. WCWe, my hometown fed in Penarth did a one-off show a few weeks ago which was a lot of fun and I had a cool match with Probert from Blaina. I'm kinda getting back into the wrestling thing, but I'm not as into it as I used to be for obvious reasons. Annnyway, the NWW interfed. Well the purpose of an interfed is to bring all different wrestlers from different feds together for a one-off show featuring lots of different people. Gav went ahead and booked loads of big matchs for the interfed, yet by the time it rolled around, hardly anyone was coming, not even guys from Penarth.

The only real non-NWW people there were myself and Farrell. On the Thursday after waiting around for such a stupidly long time, I met up with Denzel who I was going to be wrestling on the first day. We arrived at the arena at last and only found a few people there, yet, for once the weather was nice! Not much was going on really people were just pissing about, a few matchs happened but nothing special. Everyone was picking on Fat Eddie again, who I rip mercilessly. I don't go to the extremes of physically bullying him though as others like to indulge in :p The reason I insult him so harshly all the time is because he once called me a cunt for no reason, so that's my cue to give him a lifetime's worth of 'alright fatboy?'

In reality though, it's all in jest, and he does get really riled up by the others when it becomes endless. I find him quite funny though, unlike most. In the evening, we met up with Farrell as he arrived in Wales. Myself, Hitch and Farrell went back to Hitch's house where we were both staying first. Then after a while browsing around on the Hitch's computer, we got a lift to the Bridgend Inn for a meal. The prices were quite silly and the only thing I wanted, they didn't have, so I just ordered chips. It was a fun night though for the most part, as ripping of Eddie continued once again, not forgetting the legends at the bar. Me and Steve were cracking up over the old barman who was laughing at all our lame jokes, and I put him on the spot when I bought my Pepsi giving him a wink and saying 'so how watered down is this exactly?'

But the written word cannot do his random laughs justice. There was a younger barman too, who was the spit of the older one and I asked Farrell if I'd just walked back in time. Denzel was entertaining as ever, playing us about 50 different TV themes from his phone. He then had a hilarious conversation with Brian, an oldie sitting by the bar.

Brian - 'Where are you from then, son?'
Denzel - 'Dublin'
Brian -'Dublin! I've had many a good time in Dublin.'
Denzel - 'Yeah...me too.'
Brian - 'Not before me you haven't!'
Then the night took a shitty turn as we walked to the taxi rank that didn't exist. I was getting really pissed off as it was just a patch of concrete, and we were standing in a ghost town at 11pm, in the pissing rain and cold. Apparently the Valleys don't do taxis that you can actually get ahold of or unless you book a day in advance. I was in a foul mood and eventually Hitch phoned his Dad to give us a lift back. This was about 1am. Not a happy chap.

When we got back, Hitch started to watch RAW and was falling asleep, me and Steve were cracking up. Especially when Finlay came out on RAW and Hitch woke up for about 3 seconds with a grin on his face, muttering 'yesss...' The next morning I played a little Guitar Hero on Hitch's Wii as he rang up a hall in Abertillery for the day 2 show, seen as it was pissing down. So we went down to the hall and it was a pretty cool setup in this small dance studio. We had a few hours so pissed around for a while, I kept wrestling Eddie and taking him down with armbars, he was getting too into though and would randomly hit me, so I stretched him a little bit:p Farrell did an interview segment with him and tried to bring back the Arbuckle Jr. joke I started the night before at the Bridgend Inn but noone seemed to get it haha.

Hitch asked me for a match during the show but I was hesitant. For one he hadn't wrestled since breaking his leg and I just wasn't up for a really physical match that day. So he ended up facing Gav and Adam in a cool 3 way match. Steve then ended the show in a nice match against Randy Orton...I mean Josh Bell. A few girls were there and Emily told me that she had finally found out what ambiguous meant...good for her lol. That night we went out to a pub which was pretty shit in my opinion, loud kareoke, characters that seriously wouldn't look out of place in Star Trek, no humour intended, and of course the fat slags, one of which kept telling Steve 'I'd fuck you!'

At one stage I proper zoned out and felt really depressed for no reason at all, it was pretty weird. I went down the road for some food and cleared my head, and was fine. Everyone was hammered, Hitch really came out of his shell, proper roaring at everything. He tried to offer Steve a triple vodka and lemonade hahaha, he shouldn't have bothered. I attempted to get drunk seen as everyone else was, but I just wasn't feeling it that night. After what felt like a day, we left and stopped by the kebab place, and Dave was completely recked. He had his white hood up and Prob was getting really hot under the collar! 'Come on Dave, get it off..' he kept muttering and pulling the hood down. Dave then started mouthing off to the people working there and nearly got into a fight. We left at about 1 and now this time, it was Dave and Gav stuck in Blaina. So we stood around pointlessly again for ages untill they decided they were just going to have to walk.

The next morning I planned on leaving with Farrell but he was leaving so early I just couldn't be bothered, so he left and I went back to sleep, having funny dreams, as usual. I left Hitch's at about 12 to get the bus home, there was an event planned that Saturday aswell, but it was pissing down still. Scott Smith was coming and when I woke up I said to Hitch 'what's happening?' and he replied 'well...Scott Smith phoned about an hour ago...I have no idea what he said.' After a few hours on the bus I made it back home and went to look after my Uncle's flat/dog. All in all, it was a fun couple of days, but the nights had some annoying points. It was quite a laugh for the most part anyway, but not much of an interfed in the end:p

Luke

NAW's 2 Year Anniversary Weekend

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.

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.

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.

All in all, a lovely weekend that turned out better than I thought it would.

Luke.

Hello Again

Well I'm back doing this again it seems. Why? Well anyone who regularly uses the internet will have invariably at some point experienced that mind numbing boredness. When you have nothing to look for, nothing to search for and you find yourself subconsciously browsing through the same pages over and over and over and over. Untill you realise how bored you are and enter a state of near comatose.

Ok, I'm overdoing it, but you know what I mean right? Well I experience that too often so I want to spend some time in writing, because I love to write. It's very theraputic and quite fun really. Noone is really going to find any interest in this, but I will, in the future, which is all that counts I think. If anyone else does find interest in it, great, but no big deal.

A lot has changed since my first attempt at regularly keeping a blog, oh yes. For one all my hair is gone, but that's nothing. For I have quit one of my biggest hobbies wrestling and then found myself being allured into coming back every now and again. Oh and that little thing where I loved and lost...yet came out of it, I think, with a really good friend. So ups and downs, swings and roundabouts...every cloud, eh?

I have a lot of things I want to write about, so I will add them regularly, just my views on things that I'd like to record for future reference, because I like to reflect.

Thoughtfully,

Luke