RE-POST: Professional Wrestling and the Political Blogger

The name of Iain Dale will probably mean very little to you, so let me fill you in with a few background details.

Iain was selected as the Conservative party candidate for the North Norfolk constituency at the 2005 General Election. He announced that he was the first openly gay candidate to be chosen by his party to run for political office (although this has later been disproved, although Iain still claims it to be true). Iain’s campaign didn’t actually amount to much, and consisted mainly of publicity stunts, so much so that the winner, Liberal Democrat incumbent Norman Lamb, saw his majority vote rise from around 400 in the previous election to over 10,000 that year, such was the public’s dislike for Iain’s style of campaigning.

RE-POST: WAW, Watton/Clacton February 2002 - Live Show Reviews

WATTON SPORTS CENTRE, February 2002

I have decided not to begin this review by saying a few things about Watton. If truth be known, I had never been here before.

Having travelled to Watton via the training school in Hingham, I knew that at this show, I would get the opportunity to see some of the trainees in action in the climax of the show. But more on that later.

RE-POST: WAW, Canvey Island/Fakenham February 2002 - Live Show Reviews

THE PADDOCKS, CANVEY ISLAND, FEBRUARY 2002

Our evening started in the small Paddocks arena, and an almost capacity crowd greeted both Team WAW and Team Essex as they came down to the ring. To help kick start the night's tournament, our ring announcer Michael Mann asked for the help of the crowd in picking tonight's four single matches. The decisions made, it was on with the show.
  

RE-POST: Patrick Viera (Originally Written in 2001)

Once again a Premiership player has hit the headlines for publicly criticising his team. Patrick Viera, French World Cup winner, has gone on record assaying that his team, Arsenal, are just not good enough to win anything, and because of that, he wants to leave.

RE-POST: My Plan for the County Championship (Originally Written in 2001)

As the sport content of this English-based newsletter seems to mainly revolve around American sports, I thought I would add a little home-country value by writing about the most English of sports - the gentlemanly game of cricket, and in particular, out esteemed county championship, which, as some records would have you believe, dates back to the early 1800's.

In recent years, the county championship had become rather boring. With a massive 18 teams competing in a single division, games towards the end of the season, between teams that had no chance of winning the championship, seemed meaningless, and the counties would often put out understrength sides, often playing in front of crowds numbering under a hundred.

RE-POST: WAW, Lowestoft December 2001 - Live Show Review

It was a cold winter's night as I entered the arena, taking my seat at the ringside table as the new official WAW Internet reporter. I had the best seat in the house, but at times I wished I had another! (Read on and you'll find out more!)

Our ring announcer, Michael Mann, reminded us all exactly why we were there, to help raise money to help local children get some much needed medical treatment in America. But I have the feeling that in the minds of the majority of the fans, they were there for a whole different reason. Yep, you guessed it; Snake Man in da house.

RE-POST: WAW October Outrage III, October 2001 - Live Show Review

After the success of the Fightmare event in April, and their failed attempt at getting a television contract with Sky, I attended this event with some doubts, the main one being the main event was the WAW Women's World Championship contest between Sweet Saraya and Klondike Kate.

RE-POST: WAW Fightmare, April 2001 - Live Show Review

In years gone by, it has been said by many British wrestling fans that home-grown wrestling shows...well, they basically sucked. I admit, I was one of those people. But last night, my opinion of British wrestling changed - for the better.

The World Association of Wrestling Fightmare event had been hyped up in the local press and television for close to a month. WAW owner and promoter Ricky Knight had told everyone who would listen of his dream to see British wrestling once again with a regular slot on British television. He wanted to make home-grown stars as popular and familiar as those from across the pond.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: United Kingdom Wrestling Alliance: The New Age Pay-Per-View

"Every age has it's beginning. Every thing must have a start. Eight me are vying to bring in a new era in the world of sports entertainment. STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN - former WWF champion - NATURE BOY RIC FLAIR - former NWA, WCW and WWF champion - GOLDBERG - former WCW champion - THE CRIPPLER CHRIS BENOIT - former WCW champion - TRIPLE H - former WWF champion - Y2J CHRIS JERICHO - former WWF IC and Euro champion - NOBOHIKU TAKADA - former UWFI champion - HULK HOGAN - former WCW and WWF champion. Eight men who have tasted success the world over. Eight men who want to usher the New Age of the UKWA."

Remember the UKWA? I've Found the Pay-Per-View!

Those of you with long memories may remember that way back in 2000 I toyed with the idea of running a fantasy professional wrestling game, or E-Fed as they were known back then. I discussed the idea with a bloke I knew back then, Basil "Junkpile" Richards, and to see if I could actually write a weekly wrestling show I undertook a little personal project called the United Kingdom Wrestling Alliance (UKWA), which involved writing four weekly shows, "Wednesday Rampage", and the pay-per-view, "The New Age", held at Norwich City's football ground, Carrow Road.

The four weekly shows can be seen in the Fiction section of this blog, but for years, after various computer and website problems, that "The New Age" had been lost forever. That was until last night when, with the help of the wonderful Wayback Machine, when I found the complete show on an old version of my website.