The main thing I took away from last weekend, was just how ridiculously fun it was. A lot of this can be attributed to the pure brilliance of Martin Kirby. Kirby is, in my opinion, one of the top 3 talents in this country (alongside CJ Banks and Rampage Brown), and a lot of this is due to how versatile he is, and what a superb brain he has for wrestling. Even now, I’d consider him vastly underrated.
Another contributing factor, would be down to just how much fun he can be to work with, especially when he’s one of ‘those’ moods. He knows exactly what I’m talking about! One such occasion was this past Friday, as we headlined the latest Darlington show presented by Tidal Wrestling. One excellent bit of advice and logic I’d talked to Sami Callihan about the previous week was to make sure your match is completely different to every other on the card, thus making it memorable and stand out. This Friday night with Kirby was exactly that. Mainly down to popcorn. We went out there with a semblance of an idea of what we might do for some of the contest, but when Kirby is in one of these mischievous moods, the best thing to do is to let him do whatever he likes, and then react to it and go along for the ride. Because either way, he’s going to win! That’s why, when I saw him roll out of the ring halfway through a match that was going swimmingly anyway, grab a massive bag of popcorn and pour it all over the ring, I had no choice but to just go with it. What ensued was a ridiculous closing 5 minutes of the match, including us both taking some hellacious falls onto the kernels!! Surprisingly enough, popcorn actually stings!! Luckily, the absurd chants of ‘best match ever!’ following the closing bell helped ease the pain….
I also wrestled Kirby on Saturday night in front of a MASSIVE crowd for Pro Evo Wrestling in Gloucester. Having both worked for Pro Wrestling Chaos about an hour down the road, we arrived about 15 minutes before our match, but having wrestled each other so many times, it was so easy to just go into the ring and have a really fun 10 minute match. Pro Evo did a tremendous job in packing out the place, and coupled with excellent presentation, this show seemed like a huge deal, and it’s a shame I was only able to catch the end of the main event, a ladder match between Justin Sysum and Bram, who sounded like they absolutely tore the house down.
As alluded to, I also completed for Chaos earlier on in the night, who sold out their latest show in advance, a great achievement. Chaos is a promotion that I love working for, and the management there are so good to deal with, which is so important as it makes the talent work even harder for a product that they feel extremely rewarded by. I had the pleasure of working with Flash Morgan Webster, who turned his back on the crowd about a year ago, and is in the middle of a run there as a villain. Our 3rd singles encounter with each other, this was likely our best with each other. Webster is another wrestler going from strength to strength, and whilst still finding his feet as a villain, he’s an extremely talented guy. This match also helped further the ongoing feud between Mike Bird and I, which is headed for its 3rd violent instalment on the 9th of April. Meanwhile, feel free to catch our 2nd match, a brutal No Holds Barred Match, here: https://youtu.be/-05dBRBCJes
And finally, Tidal presented the its penultimate card at Leeds Uni on Sunday, in front of the hottest crowd they’ve had in ages. Some of the cards/booking at the venue have been hit and miss, but I’ve really enjoyed working there. In fact, I’ve got a lot of great memories there, from one of my favourite matches with Kirby, to a riotous 4-way Chairs match, to a match that served to elevate Liam Lazarus to main event level, to capturing the TCW Championship for the 2nd time in an ultraviolent hardcore match against Lazarus and Dara Diablo. However, if this was my last ever match at the venue, it was a fun one to go out on! Frenetic 4-Way action with HT Drake, the charismatic Chuck Taylor and world renowned Jr heavyweight Ricochet. Closing the first half, this was a 10 minute rollercoaster that highlighted everyone involved and was non-stop from bell to bell. A really fun match to finish off my Leeds Uni run off with. A combination of hi-jinx and high octane offence, I was really happy with this. Here’s hoping that Tidal manage to find a new home, as if they find some more solid footing with their booking, they still have a lot of potential, coupled with a very loyal following.
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Where You Can See El Ligero This Weekend
Mar 18th: Fight Factory Wrestling ‘Breakout’. El Ligero vs Aiden Drake. Town Hall, Louth.
Mar 19th: Phoenix Events ‘One More Round’. Project Lucha (El Ligero & Martin Kirby) vs Prince Ameen & ‘Iceman’ Sam Goodison. Crookes Social Club, Sheffield.
Mar 19th: New Generation Wrestling ‘Collision Course’. El Ligero & Matt Myers vs The Proven. Borough Hall, Hartlepool.
Mar 20th: WrestlePro ‘The Fighting Irish’. El Ligero vs Liam Lazarus. St Philips Church, Manchester.
*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 Turning Face Photography and Mike Mess for the images used in the column.
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