Last Friday began with a thoroughly enjoyable road trip to Ellesmere Port with Prince Ameen. Ameen is a name many of those who were British wrestling fans in 2007-2011 will recognise, but Ameen has since taken a step back and doesn’t work as regularly as he used to. Which, in my opinion, is a massive shame as he’s someone who gets the job so well, understands his role to perfection and is brilliant for locker room morale. His ideas are so creative that he’d genuinely make a great booker somewhere. More Prince Ameen on British wrestling shows please.
Credit: Plentiful Pictures & Photography
The show itself was an EPW event that played out to over 300 people in the gorgeous Civic Hall. I was matched up against one of the biggest roster members (size-wise) called Goliath, and whilst I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into this, I ended up liking the hell out of this. It told a simple story of big vs small (or David vs….Goliath), but it was the right audience for it and the crowd were molten for it. The reaction when I finally took him off his feet near the end of the match told me we’d done our jobs well and kept them invested the whole way through. I didn’t end up beating him for the European Championship, but I did win the Buddy Ward Memorial Trophy Battle Royal, which was a nice honour to end the night.
Saturday was a double for Southside, as the company journeyed to Sheffield, back to the dusty and cold, yet somehow charming Corporation. After trading some nice moves and overcoming gobshite Ryan Smile in a fun opening encounter on the afternoon event, I then had a long long wait till I headlined the evening show, in a street fight against Jimmy Havoc. In the meantime, I hung out with the boys, got told an infuriating story about how one roster member had fast-forwarded through the original Jurassic Park because he needed the toilet and thought the plot was too obvious (he watched the opening credits) and watched with glee as G-Man went foraging for weapons to use at night.
Credit: Brett Hadley: Photography
When the time finally did roll around for the main event, the crowd was ready for it. How was the street fight? Painful. We pretty much annihilated each other, with the weapons starting out harmless (to an extent) enough (pink Xmas tree, box of donuts, used toilet etc) but then becoming more extreme as tables, chairs, drawing pins and a barbed wire board became involved. By the end of the match, one I suffered a loss in thanks to a barbed wire Rainmaker, my elbow and chest were covered in blood. Matches like these aren’t one I normally make a habit of, but I will go to said lengths if I feel a situation or feud warrants it. I felt it was needed here, and it’s the match that people seem to be talking about the most coming out of the event. Looking out into the crowd afterwards and seeing a standing ovation is one of the biggest compliments we as wrestlers can be given from the audience, and it can make even the most painful experiences worthwhile.
Credit: New Generation Wrestling
The next morning, after about 3 hours sleep, I bandaged my elbow up and hit the road again for another double. A slightly more family friendly one this time around, as NGW provided a camp show at 11:30am and the 28th edition of Proving Ground at 5pm. That meant the entire crew had to be sharp to get the ring up, work a show, take it back down again, transport it 30 minutes away and do it again, with a lighting rig, guard rails etc as an addition to the second event. Luckily, the NGW crew is one of the hardest working in the country and are so fluid with the set-up that they make it look easy. I had the fortune of working 2 very fun tag matches that day. At Barmston, I teamed up with a hard-grafting young lad called Reece Riley against the oddball team of JD Boom and Dan James. Much shenanigans and rhubarb followed and whilst everyone had stuff they could improve on in the match, it was an entertaining outing. At Beverley, which was packed again and is likely the hottest PG venue, things were a little more serious in a 6-man tag as myself, Reece and big Yorkshire heavyweight Dan Wrightson teamed up against Dan James, and 2 guys from the north east NGW school, Leon Marvell and Stan Kellitt. Whilst the match may have had a bit too much Dan James in it (like a car journey with him), it was good to get to work with some new people (who have a great trainer in Rampage Brown), and as much as I mock him, I do really enjoy being in there with Dan. I culminated my weekend by kicking Sam Wilder in his beardy face as part of some main event stuff. Class way to finish off.
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Where You Can See El Ligero This Weekend
Oct 16th: Swiss Wrestling Entertainment ‘King Of Switzerland 2’. SWE Championship Opportunity Six-Way Ladder Match: El Ligero vs Cash Crash vs Chris Andrews vs T-K-O vs Marius Al-Ani vs Chris Colen. Sternensaal Bümpliz, Bern, Switzerland.
Oct 17th: PWA-UK. El Ligero vs Kieran Young. The Sydni Centre, Leamington Spa.
Oct 18th: Progress Wrestling ‘Chapter 22: Trust Encouragement Reward Loyalty…Satisfaction’. 8-Man Tag Team: The Origin (El Ligero, Nathan Cruz, Zack Gibson & ???) vs Sumerian Death Squad (Tommy End & Michael Dante) & The London Riots (Rob Lynch & James Davis). The Electric Ballroom, London.
*Our thanks to Nik Towers for the use of his artwork in the column header. You can see more of Nik’s artwork at the Wrestling Artwork NT Facebook page.
Additional thanks to Plentiful Pictures & Photography, Brett Hadley: Photography & New Generation Wrestling for the images used in the column.
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