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