After Edinburgh fringe festivities, it was time to get back in the ring. Even though it had been just under a month since I last wrestled, it does feel like a lot longer but I have recently been putting more of an effort into getting into better shape and improving my craft further. The seminar hosted by Jigsaw last month gave me more confidence in my abilities as a wrestler and what I can bring to a show. I am also re-evaluating my character, but there will be more on that in later articles as I will be detailing my wrestling exploits for the weekend that has just been and gone.
SSW (Scottish School Of Wrestling) have been hosting monthly shows at the Regal Theatre in Bathgate for a few years now. They are always well attended and the production and set-up for these shows are always well attended. As I have explained before, SSW use a mix of local talent, up and coming stars from across the country and more experienced heads, along with the occasional special guest, with US independent wrestler Jigsaw being last month’s guest.
There was no special guest this month, instead it was SSW’s annual ‘Tainted Tradition’ event, which sees the SPWO UK Championship defended in a Ten Man Turmoil (TMT), a 10-man elimination match where eliminations can occur via pinfall, submission or being thrown over the top rope. Yours truly was in this match, as well as a singles match with GPWA standout and a familiar face to ICW fans in Flex Hunter.
I had wrestled Flex before, with us competing against each other for Showcase Pro Wrestling in Dumfries earlier in the year and I found our contest in Bathgate to be a much better outing. The match included me leveling Flex with the Spinning Heel Kick that has become a regular part of my repertoire, a top rope cross body from the very agile big man and him winning the match with a Big Boot. I also received some good feedback from Kid Fite, which was another confidence booster and it is always good to receive feedback from someone as well-travelled and experienced as him.
I was the third entrant in the Ten Man Turmoil, with me aligning myself with the debuting Benedict Thatcher and double teaming Lucha DS before Nathan Reynolds evened the odds as the fourth entrant. I found myself ending up in an arena wide brawl with Nathan before I was eliminated by a Spear after failing to wallop him with a Rolling Elbow.
The following day was a birthday party show for W3L, which takes place at our training facility in Kirkcaldy and involves matches between W3L wrestlers and party games hosted by Stevie The Wizard! (if that is not a selling point for W3L birthday parties I do not know what is!). This particular party saw me face off with Nathan Reynolds, where my attempts to defeat him with a ‘Chokeslam From Heck’ were ill-fated and saw me on the end of a Stunner.
I also decided to attack Kevin Williams during his match with Jason Reed (an interesting match choice by the birthday party matchmaker as these two are usually tag partners), as I felt it would make the party more interesting, before Nathan intervened and challenged Reed and I to a tag match. The birthday boy had final say on this matter, so the tag match was on……
I was not afforded the opportunity to channel the Chokeslam From Heck in the tag match, as Williams and Reynolds managed to gain control during most of the match and both Reed and I were on the ends of Stunner and Rock Bottom combinations, which sent the birthday boy and his pals home happy, but the same could not be said about myself and Reed.
All in all, despite my losses, it was a good wrestling weekend, with me wrestling four matches in two days. I have stopped counting how many matches I have actually had, but SSW’s next show is on 24th September and W3L have shows taking place at the end of September and the start of October.
More info on these shows can be found via their social media outlets and websites,
http://www.sswwrestling.com and http://www.w3lwrestling.com. Good day.
Lucian Maynard-Smith
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