RE-POST: 1 Stop Wrestling 5th March 2003

December 15th, 2001 was a momentous point in my writing career, as my official connection with British wrestling started on that day, in the Suffolk town of Lowestoft.

It's no secret that I had been very critical of the World Association of Wrestling in the months after their Fightmare show in Norwich the previous April. I had been approached about doing some work for them, but the deal fell flat when the proposed television deal fell through.

The problem was that I was comparing WAW's product and output with that of the mighty World Wrestling Federation. This was a huge mistake. No one, with the exception of the world's biggest computer geek, and perhaps Billionaire Ted, could match the financial clout of the mighty Vince McMahon.

In November 2001, WAW announced that former WWF legend Jake "The Snake" Roberts would be attending the upcoming Lowestoft show, teaming with local hero Steve Quintain against the mighty U.K. Pitbulls, who had just returned from a successful tour of America. Never having gotten the chance to see a bona fide American wrestling legend before, especially in my neck of the woods, I decided to make a weekend of it, booked my ticket, a room at a B&B, then awaited the experience.

But this isn't the full story. A couple of months before I began to set up a WAW fan site. It was my wish to give WAW a home on the Internet, something they were lacking. The main part of the site had been set up shortly before their October Outrage III show. A few days after the show I received a visit at work from none other than the U.K. Pitbulls, Big Dave and The Bulk. The boys told me that Ricky Knight had asked after me at October Outrage, wanting to meet me. My natural shyness stopped me from seeking Ricky out myself. However, when Ricky found out that I was attending the
Lowestoft show, Ricky invited me to be his guest, asking me to go to leisure centre earlier so we could have a chat.

So it was with some trepidation that I arrived at the leisure centre in Lowestoft around 4.30, looking forward to meeting Ricky, but at the same time a little afraid at what he might do or say to me.

I quickly introduced myself to Ricky and Julia. They couldn't talk to me at first because they were busy setting up the show, so my first real conversation at the leisure centre was with Roy Bevis, better known as the Zebra Kid. We had a good little chat before Ricky called me into the dressing room for a private audience.

I felt like a frightened little schoolboy as I sat before Ricky in that cold dressing room. The man spoke passionately, sometimes with a raised voice, about his love of the wrestling industry. At times it felt like Ricky's anger at my previous written words would boil over. But then again, perhaps this is just my interpretation of events.

Julia joined us a few moments into the conversation, and while Ricky seemed like the voice of passion, Julia was the quieter voice of reason. She then paid me a compliment that I will always remember; "As a writer, you are one hell of a talent. You could easily walk into any newspaper in this country."

The conversation ended. Ricky and I shook hands, and with that one handshake, I joined the WAW team, or as many in the company call it, the WAW family.

The show was a tremendous success, and I even got to play a small part in it. During their bruising TLC encounter, Steve Quintain interfered in the match, allowing the Zebra Kid to get the pin over Ricky. The Rowdy Man grabbed the microphone and asked me, or rather told me, to tell the 800 strong crowd who won. Of course, there was only one winner - the Zebra Kid.

The show ended after a Jake The Snake victory. I sat out in the reception area as the ring was taken down. With everything packed out of the way, I made my farewells to my new wrestling bosses. Ricky shook me warmly by the hand, while Julia gave me one of her trademark bear hugs.

The significance of this day would not become truly apparent to me until some five months later. But that's another story for another time.