One of the saddest stories I had to report on happened on this very website, and was sad because the person thestory was about was, at the time, a good friend of mine.
Chris Bullard was one of the first people in WAW who actually took the time to come up to me and to introduce themselves. I met Chris in Lowestoft in December 2001, the first show I covered for WAW as their official reporter.
Chris was a really kind and nice bloke, and was actually a wrestler who had been trying to make it in the wrestling business for quite some time. In fact, he began his training at the same time as Mike and Dave Waters, who went on to achieve great success, of course.
Chris Bullard was one of the first people in WAW who actually took the time to come up to me and to introduce themselves. I met Chris in Lowestoft in December 2001, the first show I covered for WAW as their official reporter.
Chris was a really kind and nice bloke, and was actually a wrestler who had been trying to make it in the wrestling business for quite some time. In fact, he began his training at the same time as Mike and Dave Waters, who went on to achieve great success, of course.
I suppose the reason I kind of clicked with Chris was because deep down we were both wrestling marks. In fact, Chris was probably the biggest wrestling mark I'd ever met. He was a massive NWO fan, had every single piece of NWO footage on about fifty-plus videos, and also he apparently had dozens of boxes filled with old wrestling magazines.
Chris had been given the ring name Triple X, before the famous Vin Diesel film was released. Chris had been to several training schools, and had mainly competed on the holiday camp circuit for WAW. He had appeared in several battle royals and rumbles, as well as a few quite unsuccessful matches at arena shows, but his career just wasn't getting anywhere.
Chris just didn't have that "it" factor that a wrestler needs to succeed in the business. He trained hard, and certainly knew his stuff, but put him in front of a live audience and he froze. He just couldn't do what he was meant to do in the ring.
The first arena match I saw Chris in was in Clacton in February 2002. Chris teamed with Hot Stuff against the Pitbulls. The match wasn't pretty to say the least. Chris showed some good moves, but to say he stunk up the place would be an understatement. Those involved in the match, and the powers-that-be in WAW were not too happy about his performance that night.
Yet because he loved anything to do with the wrestling business, Chris tried to continue with his career. He would edit the magazines that were sold at the shows. He would try to get to as many shows as possible, and he attended every training camp.
Taking a step back from the situation, I began to wonder why Ricky or Julia Knight just didn't tell Chris that he would never be able to cut it as a professional wrestler. It was probably out of loyalty. Chris was certainly a loyal member of the WAW team, even though he was considered a figure of fun in some quarters.
The murmuring of discontent began last summer. Chris stopped going to the arena shows. I wondered why this was. Chris was the company's photographer, among many things.
But then, towards the end of the summer, as the planning for October Outrage IV began, Chris would be given another chance, wrestling Fabuloz at The Talk.
The match plan was a relatively simple one - Triple X had to be totally destroyed by Fabuloz, before Fabuloz signed for Lloyd Ryan's stable. To be honest, when this plan was first formulated, several other wrestlers were mentioned with regards to this match. Yours truly put forward the name of promising trainee Karl Moore, and even the veteran Steve Quintain. But the decision was made - Triple X would be staring at the ceiling for Fabuloz on October 19th.
Although he was not happy with having to do the job that night, Chris agreed to it. But then the murmuring of discontent began. Chris began to complain about how the match was going to kill off the Triple X character. He began to complain to everyone who would listen. However, Chris made the drastic mistake of not taking his concerns about the match to the man who mattered - his promoter.
When October 19th arrived, Chris was nervous. It didn't help that his opponent turned up less than thirty minutes before bell-time. Backstage, Chris seemed to see this as the night his wrestling career would die.
Fabuloz v Triple X was the second match on the card, and like the Clacton match eight months before, it was not a pretty thing to watch. As the crowd chanted "Frank Skinner" because of Chris's likeness to the well-known comedian, Chris took bumps that looked awkward, before tapping out to a submission hold just three minutes into the bout. It was then that, as agreed, Lloyd Ryan came down to the ring and signed Fabuloz to a contract.
After the show, you could tell he was unhappy. For all intents and purposes his wrestling career had been killed that night, there was nothing else for him to do. He was through with WAW.
As 2002 came to an end, a visitor to the WAW website posted a link on the message board hyping the backyard wrestling company he competed for, Wall Road Wrestling, based in Norwich. As someone who is against backyard wrestling, I deleted the message, and visited WRW's website asking them not to promote something on the WAW website that WAW doesn't condone. I left it at that.
Then, a few days later, a friend who had seen the link on the WAW message board e-mailed saying that I should take a closer look at the WRW message board, because I would find on it something very interesting.
He was right. I visited the site, and I couldn't believe what I was reading at first - Chris Bullard, the wrestler formerly known as Triple X, was apparently trying to join the roster of a backyard wrestling company.
My first instinct was to pick up the telephone and call WAW. But I didn't. I didn't want to cause any trouble. Chris seemed like an intelligent bloke, and I put it down to the fact that Chris was obviously winding these kids up by posting on their message board. He was just having a bit of fun.
I soon realised I was wrong when several other people got in touch with me drawing my attention to the WRW message board. Over the Christmas period, Chris had visited the WRW site many, many times, and was trying as hard as he could to put himself over, calling himself a "Norwich legend" and a cross between "Kurt Angle and Scott Steiner". These backyard kids were lapping it up, hanging on every word. It was then that I knew I had no choice, I had to tell WAW.
But someone beat me to it. When I told Ricky Knight of this, he told me he already knew what had been going on. He also knew that Chris had been complaining about his lack of a professional career to everyone he spoke to, except him.
Things came to a head when things came to a head, and it was announced on the WRW message board that Chris had made an appearance at one of WRW's shows. Okay, he only held a ladder as one of the backyarders climbed it, but that was enough for WAW. As far as the company was concerned, Chris was history.
This wasn't the end of things of though. Chris continued to go on about his links to WAW, therefore continuing to link WAW with WRW, which would do nothing but harm WAW's reputation. This included doing a "run-in" at one of their backyard shows. In one of our regular meetings, it was decided that WAW had no choice but to publicly sever all links with Chris, doing this through several sites, including this one.
Chris, to his credit, showed a great deal of remorse for his actions. With his links to WAW severed, Chris himself cut all ties with WRW. Everyone concerned was deeply hurt by this chain of events, but the backyard kids seemed to enjoy it, even hyping their "war" with a professional wrestling company.
The hostility between the two factions calmed a great deal, so much so that Ricky Knight invited some of the backyarders to the Who Dares Wins show in Norwich last April, and one of the backyarders attended one of the training schools, as Chris did. But the old problems soon resurfaced, as Chris soon went back to his old ways of complaining about his lack of opportunities as a professional wrestler, complaining to everyone excepted those he should have talked to.
The sad thing is, I could tell during the early part of my tenure with WAW that Chris just couldn't cut it as a professional wrestler. No matter how hard he tried, no matter what he did, there was just no way he was going to make something of himself, and the way he carried himself outside the ring not only harmed his chances of any sort of job in the wrestling business, it also hurt a great number of people, people who were close to Chris, who had helped him out a great deal, and who considered him a friend. I count myself among those people.
Chris made a great number of mistakes with regards to his career, both in and out of the ring. Things could have been a whole lot different if he had thought things through, and had not been afraid to speak to the people who could have really helped him. Now one of the biggest wrestling fans I have ever met has lost a great deal, all because he was foolish.
This wasn't the end of things of though. Chris continued to go on about his links to WAW, therefore continuing to link WAW with WRW, which would do nothing but harm WAW's reputation. This included doing a "run-in" at one of their backyard shows. In one of our regular meetings, it was decided that WAW had no choice but to publicly sever all links with Chris, doing this through several sites, including this one.
Chris, to his credit, showed a great deal of remorse for his actions. With his links to WAW severed, Chris himself cut all ties with WRW. Everyone concerned was deeply hurt by this chain of events, but the backyard kids seemed to enjoy it, even hyping their "war" with a professional wrestling company.
The hostility between the two factions calmed a great deal, so much so that Ricky Knight invited some of the backyarders to the Who Dares Wins show in Norwich last April, and one of the backyarders attended one of the training schools, as Chris did. But the old problems soon resurfaced, as Chris soon went back to his old ways of complaining about his lack of opportunities as a professional wrestler, complaining to everyone excepted those he should have talked to.
The sad thing is, I could tell during the early part of my tenure with WAW that Chris just couldn't cut it as a professional wrestler. No matter how hard he tried, no matter what he did, there was just no way he was going to make something of himself, and the way he carried himself outside the ring not only harmed his chances of any sort of job in the wrestling business, it also hurt a great number of people, people who were close to Chris, who had helped him out a great deal, and who considered him a friend. I count myself among those people.
Chris made a great number of mistakes with regards to his career, both in and out of the ring. Things could have been a whole lot different if he had thought things through, and had not been afraid to speak to the people who could have really helped him. Now one of the biggest wrestling fans I have ever met has lost a great deal, all because he was foolish.
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