Given that The House Of Smith is within reasonable proximity to St Andrews, I always look forward to wrestling in the home of golf and it is often a dream travelling there in comparison to some of the wild goose-chases, cross-country journeys and road trips I am often faced with in this sport, especially with the Guardbridge Road re-opening after weeks of roadworks. I drove to Cosmo’s Community Centre, the venue for the afternoon’s entertainment whilst listening to The Beautiful South (cracking band!) and whilst operating on a few hour’s sleep.
The ring van arrived in plenty of time with no hiccups and the set-up was stress free in comparison to the manic rushes that came before it. The show itself had a stronger and more vocal turnout than last year in St Andrews, with matches such as Joe E Legend vs Liam Thomson and Jason Reed vs ‘The Oriental Menace’ Matsuo Kazuma featured on the bill. The event also featured the amusing ‘No Blading’ signage in the hall of the venue, the destruction of a piece of merchandise featuring Grado and lots of inflatable hammer and foam finger wielding in the main event featuring Mike Musso and Nathan Reynolds vs The Contingency Plan.
Having beaten Joey Coffey and Liam Thomson in one of the first qualifying brackets, yours truly was put into the first triple threat tournament semi-final brackets against Morado and Mega Mackie Z AKA The Very Good Mister Euan G Mackie. Myself and Mackie showed some interesting double team chemistry (come to think of it, ‘The House Of Sanctuary’ has a nice ring to it) and there was a wide range of hard-hitting action and acrobats, but I ended up being double-crossed and walloped by Mackie’s Misty Flip, which took me out of the match and Morado picked up the win, advancing to the triple threat tournament final, which will be for the W3L Triple Threat Championship. Personally, I do not consider myself to be that well-versed in multi-man matches, but it was good to develop more confidence in this area of my game.
This day made the two and a half days of stress and potential calamity become a distant memory. Four matches, a seminar and plenty of travelling done, with just about enough energy to witness the shenanigans of WrestleMania in the early hours of the next morning. Many thanks to those who attended the shows and who were involved, it is very much appreciated, especially given some of the circumstances experienced.
The Life Of Smith is likely to be subject to a series of W3L Gala Days and training before W3L’s next set of shows in June (for more info visit www.w3lwrestling.com), which will no doubt be profiled here, as well as any other goings on. Until then, I have to say that I do look forward to what is next in The Life Of Smith. Good day.
– Lucian Maynard-Smith
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