RE-POST: WAW Diary Part 2 (Originally Written in 2001)

A video, a newspaper article, and a lack of interest Stateside.

MARCH 2001

As winter began to turn into Spring, I greeted the news that Mark had found two more WAW videos with a great amount of indifference. After seeing their last video effort, and not being particularly impressed, I was in no rush to see these latest offerings.

But after Mark brought them from the same shop in Sheringham that had previously sold October Outrage, and having a couple of hours to kill, I thought what the hell, and decided to give them a look.

Just looking at the packaging I could see that things had made some improvement, and a photo on the back cover showed me something else - Saraya would finally be allowed on screen. Once again she was assigned announcing duties, this time with someone called Georgous George. Sadly, this wasn't Randy Savage's ex-girlfriend. If it had been then this video would probably have been one of the best selling wrestling videos of all time.

This offering, "WAW Hardcore Wrestling", was in two parts, and was once again filmed at the falling-down Corn Exchange. This time, instead of what appeared to be a dank and dark arena, we actually saw some lighting in the arena. It actually looked like there was someone in attendance, and while the production values were a great deal better, this video was still somewhat lacking in several departments.

One was the gimmicks, and in particular, the clown gimmick. Yes, you read correctly. A clown was wrestling. A clown named Dunk. And with him, a ten year old kid (whom I later found out was actually Ricky & Saraya's son) called Dink.

The clown gimmick, namely Doink, died a death a good few years ago in the WWF, and while this sort of thing appealled to the very, very young wrestling fan, it doesn't really fit in with the wrestling world of today. And neither does the sort of comedy match Dunk and Dink appeared in. To be honest, I can't actually remember any wrestling moves in their match.

The second gimmick concerned a wrestler dressed up as my all-time favourite Marvel Comics wall-crawler. Yes, you read correctly. There was a wrestler called Spider-Man. Two words here - copyright infringment.

The third gimmick concerned a wrestler dressed up as my all-time favourite Lord of Darkness. Yes, you read correctly. There was a wrestler called The Undertaker. The UK Undertaker. A cheap British-rip off.

If it hadn't been for these three things, this video wouldn't have been half bad. The matches (apart from the clown's outing) were a great deal better, even though they were still somewhat over-long. The interviews and promos were also a great deal better. The wrestlers actually seemed to put some energy into these. They showed passion and pride in what they were doing.

And in particular, the hardcore tag-team match, pitting Big Dave and The Bulk against Ricky Knight and Jimmy Ocean was better than the hardcore match from October Outrage. No rounds system, no resting after getting hit by a chair. Just lots of hardcore stuff. And blood.

There was also a drastic improvement in the announcing. My only criticism here was that both Saraya and George were acting like colour announcers. There was no play-by-play man. No one trying to be a British version of Jim Ross.

In all, it seemed like WAW were learning from their mistakes. But still, it didn't really wet my appetite for more WAW action. I was still happy on my diet of sports-entertainment world now dominated by the WWF, with WCW and ECW both having bitten the dust.

It would be just a couple of weeks later, though, that everything changed. I would soon be drinking the kool-aid that Ricky Knight was offering me. And so would about 2000 other local wrestling fans as well.

MARCH/APRIL 2001

It was during one of my days off that my brother Paul telephoned me from work.

"Have you seen the EDP (Eastern Daily Press) yet?"

"No.", I replied. "I haven't been out yet today."

"There's a big two page centre spread about wrestling. You might be able to use it for your newsletter."

Thanking Paul for his call, I went down to the newsagents and grabbed a copy of the EDP. Quickly walking home, I turned to the centre spread, and low and behold, there it was. Probably one of the most respectful newspaper articles I had ever seen onn wrestling, written by EDP columnist Mark Nicholls.

The main crux of the story was this - WAW owner Ricky Knight, with the help of local film and PR company NRG Films, were putting together a show - Fightmare - at the Norwich Sport Village. Their were also making a film of the show, with the hope that they could sell the film as a pilot for a possible television series.

In this article, Ricky spoke of the decline of British wrestling in the late Eighties, and of his hope to make British wrestling great once again, so it could compete on television with the likes of the WWF.

The words of Ricky Knight and NRG Films' Martin Marshall sort of inspired me. Ricky promised there would be "razzmatazz" and "sexy women", ironic, considering what he said during his appearance on The Jerry Springer Show the previous year.

Something clicked as I read this article. What I had read seemed to inspire me. I began to think that perhaps, as a wrestling fan, with WCW and ECW going down the drain, and with the WWF seemingly controlling everything in the American wrestling world, perhaps I could do my little bit to help promote the show on the Internet, to get Ricky Knight's words to a much wider audience.

But, like any other good writer, I needed more information, something more to work with. It was then that I got in touch with Mark Nicholls, in the hope that he could provide me with some more background info on WAW and NRG Films. I also asked if it would be okay to send his article out to my newsletter editors.

Mark was very helpfull. He said he had enjoyed talking to Ricky and Martin, and could see that they were very passionate about what they were doing. He not only gave me his permission to use his article, he also provided me with an e-mail address for Martin Marshall at NRG Films.

I then got down to business. With my scanner broken (something I still haven't sorted out), I set about re-typing the article into my computer. My intention was to not only send it to my various newsletter editors, but to also publish it in my own e-zine, The Two Sheds Chronicles.

Having sent the column out, I got in touch with Martin Marshall. I told him of my wish to help promote the Fightmare event on the Internet, in the hope that I could, perhaps, get world-wide interest in WAW. I asked if he could perhaps provide me with some more background info on WAW and their stars. After all, apart from their videos, I knew next to nothing about them.

While he did not provide any information straight away, Martin was very helpful. He seemed a very nice fellow, and said he would try to do something to help me out.

Then, I got my first set back, from my newsletter editors based in the US.

To be honest, I wasn't really that surprised that they didn't want to help me out by publishing the EDP article. I suppose I was expecting a little too much to expect Jack Hensley to publish the article in his WWF dedicated newsletter, but the response I got from the other newsletter editors was disappointing.

Michael Van Der Harst, then editor of The Chokeslam Newsletter, the third largest newsletter on the net, said it in a plain and simple way. "We only report WWF news. We don't report on the Indys."

"Ah.", I replied. "But wasn't there a small indy fed called ECW that put the shits up Vince McMahon for six years?"

I got in touch with Martin again, saying that it looked unlikely that Mark Nicholls' article would probably only see the light of day on the Internet in my own newsletter. Martin wasn't surprised. "You don't expect the Americans to help us out, do you?"

I could see his point. Why would some American high school and college students, who probably weren't even born when I began to watch wrestling, want to help a British wrestling promotion get a television contract?

As it seemed that I wouldn't be getting any help from my American collegues, I made a decision. My own newsletter would do a British wrestling special, a few days before Fightmare.

And so the hype continued. Ricky Knight and his band of merry men (and women) continued to promote the event. More newspaper and television articles continued. Martin Marshall was obviously earning his wages well.

He only contact with WAW I had at the time was with Martin Marshall. I had written a couple of articles about Fightmare, which I had sent to Martin. I continued to keep in touch with him, but sadly, probably because he was so busy promoting the show, he couldn't provide me with the information I wanted.

But it was during that time that something happened that I wasn't expecting. One of the subscribers to my newsletter, Tom Madden, the Tennessee Outlaw, sent me an instant message. He had read the columns I had written, as well as the newspaper columns, and wanted to know if something he had heard was true - was Saraya the babe he had heard she was. Replying in the positive, I gave him the Fightmare website address. Tom agreed with me about Saraya, but said that he found the lovely Sheena Summers far more attractive.

Tom also expressed an interest in seeing the Fightmare event. I really couldn't believe this. An American was interested in seeing a British wrestling event. I told him that I didn't think there was any way he could see the event. However, I gave him Martin Marshall's e-mail address, and Tom said he'd e-mail Martin to find out.

As the big day got closer and closer, I got my ringside ticket, and, with the help of the Internet, put together my TSC British Wrestling Special. Not only did I re-publish the local newspaper articles about WAW, I also published some previous ones I had found while searching through the EDP's website, including the story of Big Dave's court battle some time ago, when he accidentally dropped someone on his head in a Sheringham pub.

I also re-published all of my previous WAW columns, including the reviews of October Outrage and Hardcore Wrestling.

The response I got was tremendous, and it was gratifying that a fellow writer in America e-mailed me, telling me I had done well. The omni-present one, SamJerry, one of the most respected writers on the Internet, told me how it was nice to get a view on British wrestling for a change.

I considered my work here a success, even before Fightmare had taken place. I had done something I thought I would never have been able to do - I got not one, but two Yanks interested in British wrestling. A job well done in my opinion. Now the only thing left to do was to actually go to the Fightmare event itself.

TO BE CONTINUED.....