PART SIX - Being Played For A Fool.
I greeted the news that WAW would be holding a new event, their third October Outrage event, with some trepidation. While I was glad that WAW were holding a show, at the Norwich Sport Village, the same venue where Fightmare was held, it still worried me that there were huge gaps between their shows. The last show of the disastrous Yarmouth run had been at the beginning of August. October Outrage was scheduled to take part on Saturday 13th October.
Having heard from Martin Marshall again, I thought that I would take the opportunity to get Martin's view on the Tiffany's debacle. I gave him all the information I had, and Martin was quite forthcoming in his view.
NRG Films, it turned out, had nothing to do with the promotion of the Yarmouth shows. This led me to believe one thing - that Ricky needed to get NRG Films on board permanently. Let Martin handle the promotion of the shows, and Ricky handle the wrestling side.
But the events of the summer were now history. I had a show in October to think about. I knew that there was no way it would be as good as Fightmare, but I thought what the hell! Norfolk wrestling fans don't get much of a chance to see wrestling up close and personal, live and in living colour. I wasn't going to pass this up.
When I first found out about October Outrage, no actual matches were announced, and as far as I knew, no box office telephone details had been released either. Around this time, I read an interview with Road Warrior Animal, where it said that both he and his long-time partner Hawk now worked for quite reasonable rates.
Upon hearing this, an idea began to form in my mind, and I decided to test the waters a little with Gordon, forwarding the article to him. It was a case of great minds thinking alike. Both Gordon and I had the same idea, the same booking idea, one that would help WAW sell-out the Sport Village for October Outrage.
Through our e-mail conversations, we both agreed that Mike and Dave Waters deserved one last, high-profile match in WAW. They had, after all, been two of WAW's biggest and most popular stars. The fact that the Fightmare main event angle had been written around them spoke volumes for me.
Our combined booking idea was this - Mike and Dave, in character as the Pitbulls, come through the crowd and storm into the ring. They grab the microphone and cut a promo slamming everything in WAW, saying that they made WAW what it was, and Ricky Knight screwed them out of a job. They then demanded one last match.
Ricky would then come out saying that if they wanted one last match in WAW, then he had the perfect opponents for them - and out would come the Road Warriors!
However, Gordon saw a problem to this idea - Ricky Knight. At times, Ricky adopts the somewhat laughable persona of "The Legend of Doom", and probably wouldn't go for this idea. However, Gordon still wanted to help out WAW in some way.
A short time later, I got in touch with Martin again. My thinking was that I had helped out a little with the Internet promotion of Fightmare, so why not try it for October Outrage. Martin was kind enough to send me a press release for the event. What I read was, to put it mildly, laughable!
It seemed that the main event of October Outrage would be a World Title match - a woman's world title match, between Sweet Saraya and the monstrous Klondike Kate, a woman, legend would have it, wrestled for nine months while pregnant, and she didn't even know she was pregnant.
To me, this seemed all wrong. After forwarding the release to Adam Mumford and Carl Smith, I sent a copy to Gordon. Gordon couldn't stop laughing, and asked me if he thought he should offer his booking services to Ricky!
It was around this time that I found out something that could have helped WAW a great deal, and, if promoted right, could guarantee a sell-out of the event.
The British Bulldog himself, Davey Boy Smith, would be touring the UK with the All-Star Wrestling group, and had a spare day on October 13th. I thought that if Ricky could pull this deal off, and get Davey Boy for the main event, the Sport Village would be completely sold out. After all, Davey Boy is probably the most popular British wrestler of the past decade. Okay, I know that his back injury has slowed him down a little, but in this country, he still has the ability to put bums on seats.
With this knowledge, I emailed Martin, because I knew that Ricky didn't have Internet access, offering this idea, as well as giving my view on the Saraya/Klondike Kate main event. My view was that these days, women's wrestling was about T&A, and making the main event a woman's contest was a mistake in my opinion.
The reply I got back was not expected. Martin had taken my views to the man himself, and Ricky Knight had something to say! Finally, the sleeping giant was awake!
Via Martin, Ricky told me that the Saraya/Kate match should be good, because Saraya was recognised as British champion, and Kate as European champion.
He then said that getting Davey Boy for the night was out of the question, because American wrestlers charged too much for too little.
Then came the interesting part. Through Martin, Ricky invited me to be his guest at October Outrage, and he wanted to meet me, so we could "move closer for the benefit of the sport". And at the bottom of the email was Ricky's telephone number.
This last thing really intrigued me. Ricky Knight wanted me to telephone him. He wanted to meet me. He thought that we could benefit the sport of wrestling by coming together.
Why did he say this? Was he going to offer me some sort of job working for WAW?
Unsure as to what I should do, I began to seek advice from my family, and from Gordon. Gordon urged me to proceed with caution. My family agreed with the decision I had made.
I replied to Martin's e-mail, saying that I was grateful that Ricky was taking an interest in me and my work, but I was more than happy to buy my ticket for October Outrage, sit at ringside with my notebook in my hand, and to report on the event for the Internet.
As to Ricky's offer, I said this - if Ricky wanted me to work for WAW in some come together for "the benefit of the sport", then surely he should have been the one getting in touch with me? After my recent let downs as far as WAW work were concerned, I wasn't prepared to telephone Ricky and virtually beg to be given a job.
So, to that end, I gave Martin my home and work telephone numbers, as well as my two email addresses, and my snail mail address. I asked him to pass them onto Ricky, saying that if Ricky wanted to talk to me, could he ask him to get in touch with me.
So, now you're probably asking yourselves, did Ricky Knight get in touch with me? Did he hell! Am I disappointed? A simple answer here - no.
Some people, friends of friends, people who had had dealings with Ricky in the past, began to hear that Ricky wanted to see me. Telling me things that would lead to legal proceedings if I were to publish them here, they told me to proceed with caution as far as doing business with Ricky Knight was concerned.
Because he wanted to be kept appraised of the situation, I forwarded my emails to and from Martin to Gordon. He read them carefully, and offered the opinion that perhaps by openly stating that US stars were far too expensive, it seemed like an attempt to cover up for his apparent lack of contacts in the wrestling business. Apparently, before his return to WCW, Gordon had booked Sid Vicious on one of his shows for $1,000.
Gordon also told me of a little scam that some wrestlers have. If they know a promoter, and the promoter knows what sort of fees they normally charge, then the wrestler charges their normal fee. However, if the wrestler is working for a promoter that is a little wet behind the ears, he ups his price a little. An example of this is Sid, who, while charging Gordon $1,000, charged another indy promoter $2,500 per show.
Gordon asked me if I thought he should email Martin offering his services. I said it was up to him.
Around about the same time, I was contacted again, via the Internet, by Mark West. Mark and I had spoken briefly before. Mark used to be the man in charge on the "official" WAW website, and he asked for my opinion on something - should he start the WAW website again?
In quite a frank IM conversation, I advised him not to bother. I said I really couldn't see any point in starting the WAW website again, because there was hardly any news most of the time anyway. I told him of my conversation with Martin, and about Ricky's offer. Like many other disgruntled wrestling fans, he could see my point.
At the end of our chat, Mark suggested that perhaps I should buy WAW from Ricky, because it seemed like I had many good ideas. I admitted that the idea was tempting, but without the proper financial backing, and the proper financial knowledge, I said it wouldn't be a good idea. Still, the idea was there though.
I then received information from the same reliable source who had told me of Sky's unhappiness with the editing of the Fightmare film. Despite getting a sell-out crowd, and being well received by the local media, the fans, and me, Fightmare actually lost money, about £5,000 to be exact. This news really surprised me. But then I began to think back to what Martin had told me about so-called overpriced Americans. Could it be that hiring the likes of Tiger Steele and P.N News was too much of a monetary gamble for WAW?
I continued to keep in touch with the Pitbulls. Even though they were no longer associated with WAW, they still had a keen interest in the group. It seemed that, ever since they left Ricky's employ, they had been busier than ever. The Bulk had recently won the SCW Commonwealth title, and the previous weekend, the team had become the number one contenders to the K-Star tag-team championship.
Dave agreed with me that although October Outrage could be good, it wouldn't be as good as Fightmare. He then made me a very interesting offer, to go on the road with him, to see other British wrestling shows.
Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. More than anything, I was pleased that Dave and Mike, who could be considered some of the most high profile celebrities the North Norfolk area currently has, were taking an interest in me and my work. I had had some contact with US wrestlers before, but nothing like this.
So, I agreed to take Dave up on his offer sometime, work commitments allowing, of course. After all, I still had bills to pay and animals to feed.
A week before the event, some sad news hit the wrestling world. One of the most successful British exports to the US, "Gentleman" Chris Adams, died in a tragic shooting accident. Those of us who had been following the wrestling game for all of these years knew of Adams, of his connection with the Von Erichs, and of his connection with the highest earner in the industry today, Steve Austin.
It probably hit me the most because he was British, and although his name isn't as recognisable as William Regal, Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith, Adams still made a name for himself in the US.
I then came up with an idea. WAW had a chance here. Not wanting to telephone Ricky, because I didn't want to sound like I was begging, I put forward my idea to Martin, that before the matches begin at October Outrage, they could hold a minutes silence for Adams. I couldn't tell if Martin liked the idea or not, but he said he would pass my idea onto Ricky.
It was two days before the event when I got a telephone call from my brother Paul. Getting a feeling of deja-vu, Paul told me that there was an article in the local newspaper hyping the event. Bringing the paper home with him, I quickly found the article.
Before Paul came home though, it became apparent that something interesting could happen to me at the Sport Village. Over the past few weeks, I had received several messages from various wrestling fans saying that they were going to October Outrage, and that, because they had read my weekly Internet column, they wanted to meet me. An image began to form in my mind. At the Sport Village, at a table situated near the merchandise table, a sign - "Come and meet Julian Radbourne, author of The Two Sheds Review". I had a picture of me meeting and greeting fans, signing autographs, and generally having a good time. One can but dream!
Paul came home, and I had a brief look at the article. I didn't pay it much attention because I had things to do. Putting the paper down, I decided to pay it more attention when I returned home later in the evening.
However, disaster! While I had been out, the mad celtic midget, our West Highland White puppy, the six-month old Snowy, had destroyed the paper! Luckily, the local shop stayed open until 10pm, so there was still a chance I could get a copy. Thankfully, they had a few left. Returning home, I sat myself down with a drink and began to read.
The article was about Julia Knight, Sweet Saraya herself. It told of her upcoming match with Klondike Kate, and of her exploits in the wrestling business. Like the previous articles in the local press regarding WAW, this one was very respectful towards the wrestling industry, and was well written. I've read newspaper articles about wrestling before where the journalists have been totally disrespectful. A certain article in a national tabloid regarding Yokozuna's death comes to mind.
The writer in question, Jon Welch, did very well, telling the story of how Julia, sorry, Saraya, first got into the wrestling business, how she almost lost her sight on a match, and a few other things.
But to be honest, even though the article was well written, I had read it all before, and it wasn't really the main article that interested me. At the bottom of the page, the card for October Outrage had been announced.
While I still disagreed that the event seemed to be built up around the Saraya/Kate contest, on paper, there looked to be some good, not outstanding matches, and there was an American, probably not an over-pr iced one, on the bill. A man by the name of Julio Terraso. My first thought was - who?
I was pleased, though, to see that stars such as James Mason and Rob Brookside would be there as well. I was a little disappointed though, that two of the men who had really stood out at Fightmare, Jodie Flash and Jonny Storm, regarded as two of British wrestling's hottest stars, were not there. A shame.
With the knowledge in hand, I decided not to do what I had done before and re-publish the Saraya article in my own newsletter. I did, however, send the card details to Carl Smith and Adam Mumford for their websites.
Content to leave it at that, I looked forward to the next day, a quiet day off from work where I could knuckle down and get some serious writing done.
For some reason, sleep that night seemed hard to come by. I had stayed up late to work on a couple of things, and something in the back of my mind was nagging away at me. Then, about half one in the morning, it hit me. I knew how to get WAW onto television!
It didn't take me long to formulate this plan. In fact, it seemed so simple to me that I was surprised that Ricky Knight hadn't come up with this plan himself.
The newspaper article mentioned that Ricky and Julia had appeared on the Trisha show to promote the event. They did an angle where Ricky pleaded with Julia not to take the match with Klondike Kate. Of course, being a working man, I never saw the show. It's normally broadcast about 9:30am, and it's a known fact that I detest daytime television. To me, it seems to be aimed at the unemployable and housewives. But that's for another story.
My thinking was that as Ricky seemingly had contacts with Anglia Television, the makers of the Trisha show, why didn't they try to get their show on Anglia?
Looking back, it was now obvious to me that WAW had a snowball's in hell chance of getting a show on Sky. The BBC wouldn't touch professional wrestling with a barge pole. The same goes for Channel 4, because if they were ditching the WWF at the end of the year, why would they want WAW?
As for Channel 5 and other satellite channels, again, no chance.
So what about local television? What about Anglia, the local ITV affiliate?
My quickly formulated plan was this; if WAW could start running monthly shows, and if NRG Films could tape each and every one of these shows, with promos and the like, it would be possible to get four 45 minute programmes from each event. And with four 45 minute programmes from each monthly show, this could give WAW enough material to put out a weekly show.
The next step would be to sell the product to Anglia Television. Granted, there would be no chance of WAW getting a prime-time slot, and they would probably get put into a late-night slot, probably around 11:30 to midnight. But that's not the point. The point would be that they would have a show on local television! After all, if the FWA in Portsmouth could get a contract with their local cable company!
Then, with the show in place, Anglia could perhaps offer the show to the other ITV affiliates. With the right handling, the entire country could see the WAW product.
My plan was complete. All I had to do was put it to WAW. But how? I said earlier that I didn't want to telephone Ricky Knight, not wanting to sound like I was begging for a job.
So I emailed Martin again, even though I knew that he would probably be at the Sport Village preparing things for the event. I told Martin that I had a dynamite idea, one that could help WAW out a great deal.
I knew deep down that Martin probably wouldn't see my message until it was too late. Still, I had to do something.
Now there was only one thing left, to go to the October Outrage event itself!
OCTOBER 13TH
And so, the day of the big event arrived. I had booked the time off work sometime ago. Because I don't drive, I have to rely on public transport. Getting the day off work meant that I could travel to Norwich by train, and not by taxi, as I had done for Fightmare in April. Sadly, this also meant that I wouldn't be able to swap old wrestling stories with Bernard. Still, I was saving about £20 on taxi fares. Also, having booked the following day off as well, it meant I could stay behind a little longer than before.
The past couple of days I had been thinking about WAW's association with the Internet, or rather, their lack of it. Now that the Pitbulls were gone, Dave Waters, the man wholly responsible for the Pitbulls website, would not be responsible for the WAW website.
The young Quintains had each made a website dedicated to WAW and to "Quintains Barmy Army", a site dedicated to the tattooed one himself. However, none of these sites had been updated in quite a while.
And then there was the NRG Films website. Again, another site that suffered from a lack of updates.
The so-called "official" WAW Fan Forum had re-opened this week, and yours truly had taken a couple of pastings on the forum. Someone had compared WAW's success to that of the FWA. There was no comparison in my opinion.
I had posted a message there saying that I thought WAW's no show on the net was doing them more harm than good. The response was that a few people said they would be happy to build an official website for WAW, in exchange for tickets and wrestling training.
This got me thinking. Despite being a self-confessed HTML idiot, I had managed, with the help of the Yahoo people, to construct a Two Sheds Review website. Because of my lack of knowledge of HTML, I had used the Page Builder system to build my site.
And to good effect, it seemed. At the time of writing, nearly three hundred people had visited my site. Most of them were really only interested in my wrestling columns, and a few in my sport and other writings section, and although, overall, this is a really small number of hits, I did consider it a success.
So, having built a personal website, I thought what the hell! No one else is doing it, so why shouldn't I build a WAW website? I had enough material. Martin had said that I could use the photos from the NRG site. Dave said I could use his photos as well. I had the knowledge, and ability.
So I set about laying the foundations. I registered a free domain name with the Yahoo people. I made a quick "coming soon" page, and sent off a few emails to WAW-related people telling them.
I then left it at that. After all, I had a show to attend, a train to catch.
As I boarded the train, I began to wonder what actually awaited me at the Sport Village. Would Ricky want to meet me? Did Gordon manage to get a ticket? Did Gordon make it out of New York, given the current state of affairs over there? Where the Quintain kids going to be there? And would I be mobbed by hordes of fans who had read my Internet column?
As I arrived at the venue via taxi from the station, I was thankful that I joined the que early. As I waited I chatted to a few fellow fans. Some seemed disappointed that hardly any Yanks were going to be present.
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, we were let in. The first thing I thought was should I let someone know I was there? No. If they wanted to see me, they should come to me.
Entering the small arena, I saw Hot Stuff with his kid outside the locker room, and when I got to ringside, the difference between Fightmare and now was obvious. There were no barricades. Everything seemed of a slightly lesser quality, even the seats.
Buying a coke and a program, I got my plum ringside seat, very near to where I sat at Fightmare. Thumbing through the program, I got a surprise. It seemed now that WAW were part of a larger group, and they would be holding another show just one week after this one.
Fuck it, I thought. How dare you hold another show so soon! Damn you Ricky Knight! How dare you ruin my plan!
Taking a look at the merchandise table, I noticed they were selling Pitbull posters. Either Dave and Mike were making a surprise return, or Ricky was just desperate to shift some old stock.
I know knew that I had to entirely rewrite the final part of this diary series. Damn you again, Mr. Knight! A curse on you, your children, and your children's children - for three months!
As I looked around the arena, Dave Water's comments began to come back to me - October Outrage wouldn't be as good as Fightmare. As old WWF entrance music played, I could see the place wasn't a sell out.
I again got the feeling that things were definitely different. Even the sound system seemed crappier.
Then our MC, Michael Mann, although I could barely hear him through the tinny sound system, said that the start time had been put back fifteen minutes. People were still trying to get in.
Ever since I arrived, cameras from Anglia Television, apparently filming a special about women's wrestling, had seemingly been everywhere. I thought that, as an Internet wrestling journalist, perhaps I should offer my help.I decided against it. I was never that good at shameless self promotion.
And so the lights darkened, and the matches began. I sat there, in the front row, notebook and small crappy camera to hand, ready to report on the nights events.
The first thing I knew was that Ricky had not taken up my idea. There was no moments silence for Chris Adams. A definate shame.
The regular WAW MC, Michael Mann, who I had learned a couple of days ago was actually the f*%king boring commentator from the first October Outrage video, had turned over main announcing duties to a gentleman called Scott Conway, promoter of The Wrestling Alliance, the promotion that WAW had apparently struck some sort of deal with. Mann was okay, but Conway was a lot better. The two had a series of spats when Conway tried to announce certain wrestlers as TWA champions.
The first few matches, although nothing special, were quite good. There were some good moves, some good exchanges, and the ladies on my side of the ring got to see Adam Angle's ass!
The downside of WAW came about halfway through. WAW, proud of their ability to train people, presented us, for our viewing pleasure, with a so-called "novices match". This involved a 14 year old with a skateboard called Jason Hawkes, against a 10 year old Heartbreak Kid wannabe called Mini Michaels.
Michaels was in fact Zack Knight, the oldest offspring of Ricky and Saraya. The one good thing I can say here is that thankfully we were spared Zack dressing up as that bloody clown. Clowns no longer have any business in wrestling. Mind you, clowns never had any business in wrestling.
This match was, to be blunt, truly awful. At times, there was poor selling of moves. Other times, there was overselling of moves. Sadly, there was no happy medium. And the sight of young Zack swivelling his hips in the middle of the ring was not a pleasant one. It left a rather bitter taste in the mouth.
Don't get me wrong, in some moves, these kids were very well trained, and I suppose we could at least be grateful that these two kids were not hitting each other over the head with cheese graters in their backyard. But my point here is that this match should never have been booked. Throughout the match I kept thinking to myself, what the fuck were WAW thinking about?
The next down point came with the Women's title match between Klondike Kate and Sweet Saraya. I had had my doubts about this match from the beginning.
There were some good exchanges in this bout, but it was your typical David v Goliath battle, and about halfway through, something happened that, in my male chauvinist opinion, should not be seen in women's wrestling - Saraya did the blade job.
As soon as the juice began to run down her face, the atmosphere at ringside changed. As the crimson mask began to form, those around me were shocked by what they were seeing, and I swear, some of the children who were near me screamed.
The site of one woman pawing and biting at another woman's wound should not have been seen here. WAW had been selling family tickets for this event, but this was no family spectacle. As Tazz would say, the mood was about to change.
The contest was ended when Saraya's second, Nikki Best, threw in the towel as Kate smothered Saraya in the corner.
As Saraya was carried to the back, blood covering her face and having splattered all over her front, I actually considered leaving. I had not liked what I saw. WAW wanted to provide family entertainment. Looking around me, the faces of the children reminded of a certain scene from Beyond The Mat, seeing the faces of Mick Foley's children as The Rock hammered and hammered him with a steel chair.
I decided to stay. After all, there were only two more matches left.
The next match was the tag-team championship match, between the UK Patriots and The Superflys. After the shock of what they had just seen, the announcement that the contest would be a TLC match seemed to lift everyone. This match was probably the best of the night, although I must admit seeing Ricky and his son Roy, known to us all as the Zebra Kid, beating the crap out of each other did seem strange. I remarked to the people next to me that my old Dad and me never treated each other like this.
The final match of the evening, a tag-team turmoil match, provided the big surprise of the night. The Pitbulls were there. As soon as they strode down to ringside, I began to wonder if old Ricky had been listening to what I said.
The Pitbulls walked through three teams of jobbers, one of which included the kid who sold me my program. Their names were truly unforgettable. They were defiantly in need of a gimmick or two.
The only real competition they got was from Steve Quintain and The Terminator. The frustration earned them a DQ. Then things really began to heat up. The TWA wrestlers came down. All hell broke loose, and it became a faction war - WAW v TWA. The scenario was set up for their next event at the Sport Village in January.
It must be said that, although the show was good, I did leave the Sport Village in a downtrodden mood. Earlier in the evening, Michael Mann announced that for the show in January, WAW were trying to sign John Tenta, Brian Lawler, Dustin Rhodes and Horace Hogan.
I began to wonder what the hell Ricky Knight was playing at. When I put forward the idea that they should try and get Davey Boy Smith for the show, Ricky blew me off, saying that US based stars were too expensive, and they wanted too much money for too little work. I began to wonder why Ricky had told me this, when it was apparent that so-called overpriced Yanks would be coming over to WAW next year.
I felt let down. I felt like Ricky Knight had played me for a fool. All I had done was offer an opinion on things, and Ricky had repaid me with scorn.
As the show ended, I considered hanging around for a while, to try and talk to a few of the wrestlers. Saraya was walking around, no longer with her crimson mask. The Pitbulls were also meeting and greeting some of the fans, as was Ricky himself.
But to be honest, I wasn't in the mood. I got the taxi to come out early. I just wanted to get home.
I got home around midnight, and after firing up my computer, I sent a quick email to Martin, asking him to pass the message onto Ricky. I got to bed around one. I was shattered. Sleep was quick to come to me that night. The next day, I wrote up my report, sent it off, and left it at that.
THE CONCLUSION....
Thus concludes my WAW Diary series. A few days before October Outrage, I had written the final part, writing several things about what WAW were doing wrong. Some of these do not apply now.
So will I continue to build the WAW website. The answer to this is yes, even if it is just to prove a point. WAW needs a powerful presence on the net, and I have received offers of help from a number of people.
So will I go to the January show, or any of the other shows? The answer to this is yes. After all, I may not exactly be a big fan of Dustin Rhodes or Grand Master Sexay, but it's not everyday you get to see US stars close up. I just hope that GMS remembers to check his suitcase before he flies into the UK.
So what of WAW now? Well, they have some sort of arrangement with Scott Conway's TWA promotion. It is this that is allowing them to bring over some US talent. Good luck to them I say.
And what of the UK Pitbulls, Dave and Mike, two massive men from five miles down the road? Some good news on this front. Not only will they be at the WAW show in January, but they are also touring the US in November and December. Good luck to them I say. They may be bastards inside the ring, but outside, you couldn't meet a couple of nicer blokes.
And Ricky Knight, the WAW owner who said he wanted to meet me, but didn't get in touch with me, or ask to see me at October Outrage? He knows how to get in touch with me. Martin Marshall probably has my telephone number and snail mail address.
And Gordon Scozzari, the native New Yorker who's just moved to Yarmouth, and who hopes to promote shows in this area sometime. Well, I haven't heard from him yet. He's another who has got my phone number. Maybe a call will come my way sometime soon.
And so I end this series with some rather interesting news. Some people who have read my WAW columns, including the early parts of this series, and also my report on October Outrage have told me that Ricky Knight and WAW needs one thing to make them really good - Julian Radbourne. People tell me that I have the ideas and the talent to make WAW a lot better than they are now.
While I admit that I would be willing to entertain any offer that Ricky would make, should he make any, I'm not going to go to him and ask him for a job. If Ricky wants me to join the WAW crew, then it is my opinion that he should be the one to contact me, and not vice versa.
If people want to get in touch with the WAW people and tell them that they should give me a job, then I'm not going to stop them. I have always believed that everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter what it is. If people want to tell Ricky Knight that he should give me a job, then by all means do. Knock yourselves out. But I won't hold my breath waiting for Ricky to give me a call. I'll just sit here, in front of my trusty computer, writing my weekly Internet column, offering my views on the wrestling world, and collecting material for the WAW website.
People have said that patience is not one of my virtues. Guess I'm going to have to learn some now.
I greeted the news that WAW would be holding a new event, their third October Outrage event, with some trepidation. While I was glad that WAW were holding a show, at the Norwich Sport Village, the same venue where Fightmare was held, it still worried me that there were huge gaps between their shows. The last show of the disastrous Yarmouth run had been at the beginning of August. October Outrage was scheduled to take part on Saturday 13th October.
Having heard from Martin Marshall again, I thought that I would take the opportunity to get Martin's view on the Tiffany's debacle. I gave him all the information I had, and Martin was quite forthcoming in his view.
NRG Films, it turned out, had nothing to do with the promotion of the Yarmouth shows. This led me to believe one thing - that Ricky needed to get NRG Films on board permanently. Let Martin handle the promotion of the shows, and Ricky handle the wrestling side.
But the events of the summer were now history. I had a show in October to think about. I knew that there was no way it would be as good as Fightmare, but I thought what the hell! Norfolk wrestling fans don't get much of a chance to see wrestling up close and personal, live and in living colour. I wasn't going to pass this up.
When I first found out about October Outrage, no actual matches were announced, and as far as I knew, no box office telephone details had been released either. Around this time, I read an interview with Road Warrior Animal, where it said that both he and his long-time partner Hawk now worked for quite reasonable rates.
Upon hearing this, an idea began to form in my mind, and I decided to test the waters a little with Gordon, forwarding the article to him. It was a case of great minds thinking alike. Both Gordon and I had the same idea, the same booking idea, one that would help WAW sell-out the Sport Village for October Outrage.
Through our e-mail conversations, we both agreed that Mike and Dave Waters deserved one last, high-profile match in WAW. They had, after all, been two of WAW's biggest and most popular stars. The fact that the Fightmare main event angle had been written around them spoke volumes for me.
Our combined booking idea was this - Mike and Dave, in character as the Pitbulls, come through the crowd and storm into the ring. They grab the microphone and cut a promo slamming everything in WAW, saying that they made WAW what it was, and Ricky Knight screwed them out of a job. They then demanded one last match.
Ricky would then come out saying that if they wanted one last match in WAW, then he had the perfect opponents for them - and out would come the Road Warriors!
However, Gordon saw a problem to this idea - Ricky Knight. At times, Ricky adopts the somewhat laughable persona of "The Legend of Doom", and probably wouldn't go for this idea. However, Gordon still wanted to help out WAW in some way.
A short time later, I got in touch with Martin again. My thinking was that I had helped out a little with the Internet promotion of Fightmare, so why not try it for October Outrage. Martin was kind enough to send me a press release for the event. What I read was, to put it mildly, laughable!
It seemed that the main event of October Outrage would be a World Title match - a woman's world title match, between Sweet Saraya and the monstrous Klondike Kate, a woman, legend would have it, wrestled for nine months while pregnant, and she didn't even know she was pregnant.
To me, this seemed all wrong. After forwarding the release to Adam Mumford and Carl Smith, I sent a copy to Gordon. Gordon couldn't stop laughing, and asked me if he thought he should offer his booking services to Ricky!
It was around this time that I found out something that could have helped WAW a great deal, and, if promoted right, could guarantee a sell-out of the event.
The British Bulldog himself, Davey Boy Smith, would be touring the UK with the All-Star Wrestling group, and had a spare day on October 13th. I thought that if Ricky could pull this deal off, and get Davey Boy for the main event, the Sport Village would be completely sold out. After all, Davey Boy is probably the most popular British wrestler of the past decade. Okay, I know that his back injury has slowed him down a little, but in this country, he still has the ability to put bums on seats.
With this knowledge, I emailed Martin, because I knew that Ricky didn't have Internet access, offering this idea, as well as giving my view on the Saraya/Klondike Kate main event. My view was that these days, women's wrestling was about T&A, and making the main event a woman's contest was a mistake in my opinion.
The reply I got back was not expected. Martin had taken my views to the man himself, and Ricky Knight had something to say! Finally, the sleeping giant was awake!
Via Martin, Ricky told me that the Saraya/Kate match should be good, because Saraya was recognised as British champion, and Kate as European champion.
He then said that getting Davey Boy for the night was out of the question, because American wrestlers charged too much for too little.
Then came the interesting part. Through Martin, Ricky invited me to be his guest at October Outrage, and he wanted to meet me, so we could "move closer for the benefit of the sport". And at the bottom of the email was Ricky's telephone number.
This last thing really intrigued me. Ricky Knight wanted me to telephone him. He wanted to meet me. He thought that we could benefit the sport of wrestling by coming together.
Why did he say this? Was he going to offer me some sort of job working for WAW?
Unsure as to what I should do, I began to seek advice from my family, and from Gordon. Gordon urged me to proceed with caution. My family agreed with the decision I had made.
I replied to Martin's e-mail, saying that I was grateful that Ricky was taking an interest in me and my work, but I was more than happy to buy my ticket for October Outrage, sit at ringside with my notebook in my hand, and to report on the event for the Internet.
As to Ricky's offer, I said this - if Ricky wanted me to work for WAW in some come together for "the benefit of the sport", then surely he should have been the one getting in touch with me? After my recent let downs as far as WAW work were concerned, I wasn't prepared to telephone Ricky and virtually beg to be given a job.
So, to that end, I gave Martin my home and work telephone numbers, as well as my two email addresses, and my snail mail address. I asked him to pass them onto Ricky, saying that if Ricky wanted to talk to me, could he ask him to get in touch with me.
So, now you're probably asking yourselves, did Ricky Knight get in touch with me? Did he hell! Am I disappointed? A simple answer here - no.
Some people, friends of friends, people who had had dealings with Ricky in the past, began to hear that Ricky wanted to see me. Telling me things that would lead to legal proceedings if I were to publish them here, they told me to proceed with caution as far as doing business with Ricky Knight was concerned.
Because he wanted to be kept appraised of the situation, I forwarded my emails to and from Martin to Gordon. He read them carefully, and offered the opinion that perhaps by openly stating that US stars were far too expensive, it seemed like an attempt to cover up for his apparent lack of contacts in the wrestling business. Apparently, before his return to WCW, Gordon had booked Sid Vicious on one of his shows for $1,000.
Gordon also told me of a little scam that some wrestlers have. If they know a promoter, and the promoter knows what sort of fees they normally charge, then the wrestler charges their normal fee. However, if the wrestler is working for a promoter that is a little wet behind the ears, he ups his price a little. An example of this is Sid, who, while charging Gordon $1,000, charged another indy promoter $2,500 per show.
Gordon asked me if I thought he should email Martin offering his services. I said it was up to him.
Around about the same time, I was contacted again, via the Internet, by Mark West. Mark and I had spoken briefly before. Mark used to be the man in charge on the "official" WAW website, and he asked for my opinion on something - should he start the WAW website again?
In quite a frank IM conversation, I advised him not to bother. I said I really couldn't see any point in starting the WAW website again, because there was hardly any news most of the time anyway. I told him of my conversation with Martin, and about Ricky's offer. Like many other disgruntled wrestling fans, he could see my point.
At the end of our chat, Mark suggested that perhaps I should buy WAW from Ricky, because it seemed like I had many good ideas. I admitted that the idea was tempting, but without the proper financial backing, and the proper financial knowledge, I said it wouldn't be a good idea. Still, the idea was there though.
I then received information from the same reliable source who had told me of Sky's unhappiness with the editing of the Fightmare film. Despite getting a sell-out crowd, and being well received by the local media, the fans, and me, Fightmare actually lost money, about £5,000 to be exact. This news really surprised me. But then I began to think back to what Martin had told me about so-called overpriced Americans. Could it be that hiring the likes of Tiger Steele and P.N News was too much of a monetary gamble for WAW?
I continued to keep in touch with the Pitbulls. Even though they were no longer associated with WAW, they still had a keen interest in the group. It seemed that, ever since they left Ricky's employ, they had been busier than ever. The Bulk had recently won the SCW Commonwealth title, and the previous weekend, the team had become the number one contenders to the K-Star tag-team championship.
Dave agreed with me that although October Outrage could be good, it wouldn't be as good as Fightmare. He then made me a very interesting offer, to go on the road with him, to see other British wrestling shows.
Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. More than anything, I was pleased that Dave and Mike, who could be considered some of the most high profile celebrities the North Norfolk area currently has, were taking an interest in me and my work. I had had some contact with US wrestlers before, but nothing like this.
So, I agreed to take Dave up on his offer sometime, work commitments allowing, of course. After all, I still had bills to pay and animals to feed.
A week before the event, some sad news hit the wrestling world. One of the most successful British exports to the US, "Gentleman" Chris Adams, died in a tragic shooting accident. Those of us who had been following the wrestling game for all of these years knew of Adams, of his connection with the Von Erichs, and of his connection with the highest earner in the industry today, Steve Austin.
It probably hit me the most because he was British, and although his name isn't as recognisable as William Regal, Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith, Adams still made a name for himself in the US.
I then came up with an idea. WAW had a chance here. Not wanting to telephone Ricky, because I didn't want to sound like I was begging, I put forward my idea to Martin, that before the matches begin at October Outrage, they could hold a minutes silence for Adams. I couldn't tell if Martin liked the idea or not, but he said he would pass my idea onto Ricky.
It was two days before the event when I got a telephone call from my brother Paul. Getting a feeling of deja-vu, Paul told me that there was an article in the local newspaper hyping the event. Bringing the paper home with him, I quickly found the article.
Before Paul came home though, it became apparent that something interesting could happen to me at the Sport Village. Over the past few weeks, I had received several messages from various wrestling fans saying that they were going to October Outrage, and that, because they had read my weekly Internet column, they wanted to meet me. An image began to form in my mind. At the Sport Village, at a table situated near the merchandise table, a sign - "Come and meet Julian Radbourne, author of The Two Sheds Review". I had a picture of me meeting and greeting fans, signing autographs, and generally having a good time. One can but dream!
Paul came home, and I had a brief look at the article. I didn't pay it much attention because I had things to do. Putting the paper down, I decided to pay it more attention when I returned home later in the evening.
However, disaster! While I had been out, the mad celtic midget, our West Highland White puppy, the six-month old Snowy, had destroyed the paper! Luckily, the local shop stayed open until 10pm, so there was still a chance I could get a copy. Thankfully, they had a few left. Returning home, I sat myself down with a drink and began to read.
The article was about Julia Knight, Sweet Saraya herself. It told of her upcoming match with Klondike Kate, and of her exploits in the wrestling business. Like the previous articles in the local press regarding WAW, this one was very respectful towards the wrestling industry, and was well written. I've read newspaper articles about wrestling before where the journalists have been totally disrespectful. A certain article in a national tabloid regarding Yokozuna's death comes to mind.
The writer in question, Jon Welch, did very well, telling the story of how Julia, sorry, Saraya, first got into the wrestling business, how she almost lost her sight on a match, and a few other things.
But to be honest, even though the article was well written, I had read it all before, and it wasn't really the main article that interested me. At the bottom of the page, the card for October Outrage had been announced.
While I still disagreed that the event seemed to be built up around the Saraya/Kate contest, on paper, there looked to be some good, not outstanding matches, and there was an American, probably not an over-pr iced one, on the bill. A man by the name of Julio Terraso. My first thought was - who?
I was pleased, though, to see that stars such as James Mason and Rob Brookside would be there as well. I was a little disappointed though, that two of the men who had really stood out at Fightmare, Jodie Flash and Jonny Storm, regarded as two of British wrestling's hottest stars, were not there. A shame.
With the knowledge in hand, I decided not to do what I had done before and re-publish the Saraya article in my own newsletter. I did, however, send the card details to Carl Smith and Adam Mumford for their websites.
Content to leave it at that, I looked forward to the next day, a quiet day off from work where I could knuckle down and get some serious writing done.
For some reason, sleep that night seemed hard to come by. I had stayed up late to work on a couple of things, and something in the back of my mind was nagging away at me. Then, about half one in the morning, it hit me. I knew how to get WAW onto television!
It didn't take me long to formulate this plan. In fact, it seemed so simple to me that I was surprised that Ricky Knight hadn't come up with this plan himself.
The newspaper article mentioned that Ricky and Julia had appeared on the Trisha show to promote the event. They did an angle where Ricky pleaded with Julia not to take the match with Klondike Kate. Of course, being a working man, I never saw the show. It's normally broadcast about 9:30am, and it's a known fact that I detest daytime television. To me, it seems to be aimed at the unemployable and housewives. But that's for another story.
My thinking was that as Ricky seemingly had contacts with Anglia Television, the makers of the Trisha show, why didn't they try to get their show on Anglia?
Looking back, it was now obvious to me that WAW had a snowball's in hell chance of getting a show on Sky. The BBC wouldn't touch professional wrestling with a barge pole. The same goes for Channel 4, because if they were ditching the WWF at the end of the year, why would they want WAW?
As for Channel 5 and other satellite channels, again, no chance.
So what about local television? What about Anglia, the local ITV affiliate?
My quickly formulated plan was this; if WAW could start running monthly shows, and if NRG Films could tape each and every one of these shows, with promos and the like, it would be possible to get four 45 minute programmes from each event. And with four 45 minute programmes from each monthly show, this could give WAW enough material to put out a weekly show.
The next step would be to sell the product to Anglia Television. Granted, there would be no chance of WAW getting a prime-time slot, and they would probably get put into a late-night slot, probably around 11:30 to midnight. But that's not the point. The point would be that they would have a show on local television! After all, if the FWA in Portsmouth could get a contract with their local cable company!
Then, with the show in place, Anglia could perhaps offer the show to the other ITV affiliates. With the right handling, the entire country could see the WAW product.
My plan was complete. All I had to do was put it to WAW. But how? I said earlier that I didn't want to telephone Ricky Knight, not wanting to sound like I was begging for a job.
So I emailed Martin again, even though I knew that he would probably be at the Sport Village preparing things for the event. I told Martin that I had a dynamite idea, one that could help WAW out a great deal.
I knew deep down that Martin probably wouldn't see my message until it was too late. Still, I had to do something.
Now there was only one thing left, to go to the October Outrage event itself!
OCTOBER 13TH
And so, the day of the big event arrived. I had booked the time off work sometime ago. Because I don't drive, I have to rely on public transport. Getting the day off work meant that I could travel to Norwich by train, and not by taxi, as I had done for Fightmare in April. Sadly, this also meant that I wouldn't be able to swap old wrestling stories with Bernard. Still, I was saving about £20 on taxi fares. Also, having booked the following day off as well, it meant I could stay behind a little longer than before.
The past couple of days I had been thinking about WAW's association with the Internet, or rather, their lack of it. Now that the Pitbulls were gone, Dave Waters, the man wholly responsible for the Pitbulls website, would not be responsible for the WAW website.
The young Quintains had each made a website dedicated to WAW and to "Quintains Barmy Army", a site dedicated to the tattooed one himself. However, none of these sites had been updated in quite a while.
And then there was the NRG Films website. Again, another site that suffered from a lack of updates.
The so-called "official" WAW Fan Forum had re-opened this week, and yours truly had taken a couple of pastings on the forum. Someone had compared WAW's success to that of the FWA. There was no comparison in my opinion.
I had posted a message there saying that I thought WAW's no show on the net was doing them more harm than good. The response was that a few people said they would be happy to build an official website for WAW, in exchange for tickets and wrestling training.
This got me thinking. Despite being a self-confessed HTML idiot, I had managed, with the help of the Yahoo people, to construct a Two Sheds Review website. Because of my lack of knowledge of HTML, I had used the Page Builder system to build my site.
And to good effect, it seemed. At the time of writing, nearly three hundred people had visited my site. Most of them were really only interested in my wrestling columns, and a few in my sport and other writings section, and although, overall, this is a really small number of hits, I did consider it a success.
So, having built a personal website, I thought what the hell! No one else is doing it, so why shouldn't I build a WAW website? I had enough material. Martin had said that I could use the photos from the NRG site. Dave said I could use his photos as well. I had the knowledge, and ability.
So I set about laying the foundations. I registered a free domain name with the Yahoo people. I made a quick "coming soon" page, and sent off a few emails to WAW-related people telling them.
I then left it at that. After all, I had a show to attend, a train to catch.
As I boarded the train, I began to wonder what actually awaited me at the Sport Village. Would Ricky want to meet me? Did Gordon manage to get a ticket? Did Gordon make it out of New York, given the current state of affairs over there? Where the Quintain kids going to be there? And would I be mobbed by hordes of fans who had read my Internet column?
As I arrived at the venue via taxi from the station, I was thankful that I joined the que early. As I waited I chatted to a few fellow fans. Some seemed disappointed that hardly any Yanks were going to be present.
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, we were let in. The first thing I thought was should I let someone know I was there? No. If they wanted to see me, they should come to me.
Entering the small arena, I saw Hot Stuff with his kid outside the locker room, and when I got to ringside, the difference between Fightmare and now was obvious. There were no barricades. Everything seemed of a slightly lesser quality, even the seats.
Buying a coke and a program, I got my plum ringside seat, very near to where I sat at Fightmare. Thumbing through the program, I got a surprise. It seemed now that WAW were part of a larger group, and they would be holding another show just one week after this one.
Fuck it, I thought. How dare you hold another show so soon! Damn you Ricky Knight! How dare you ruin my plan!
Taking a look at the merchandise table, I noticed they were selling Pitbull posters. Either Dave and Mike were making a surprise return, or Ricky was just desperate to shift some old stock.
I know knew that I had to entirely rewrite the final part of this diary series. Damn you again, Mr. Knight! A curse on you, your children, and your children's children - for three months!
As I looked around the arena, Dave Water's comments began to come back to me - October Outrage wouldn't be as good as Fightmare. As old WWF entrance music played, I could see the place wasn't a sell out.
I again got the feeling that things were definitely different. Even the sound system seemed crappier.
Then our MC, Michael Mann, although I could barely hear him through the tinny sound system, said that the start time had been put back fifteen minutes. People were still trying to get in.
Ever since I arrived, cameras from Anglia Television, apparently filming a special about women's wrestling, had seemingly been everywhere. I thought that, as an Internet wrestling journalist, perhaps I should offer my help.I decided against it. I was never that good at shameless self promotion.
And so the lights darkened, and the matches began. I sat there, in the front row, notebook and small crappy camera to hand, ready to report on the nights events.
The first thing I knew was that Ricky had not taken up my idea. There was no moments silence for Chris Adams. A definate shame.
The regular WAW MC, Michael Mann, who I had learned a couple of days ago was actually the f*%king boring commentator from the first October Outrage video, had turned over main announcing duties to a gentleman called Scott Conway, promoter of The Wrestling Alliance, the promotion that WAW had apparently struck some sort of deal with. Mann was okay, but Conway was a lot better. The two had a series of spats when Conway tried to announce certain wrestlers as TWA champions.
The first few matches, although nothing special, were quite good. There were some good moves, some good exchanges, and the ladies on my side of the ring got to see Adam Angle's ass!
The downside of WAW came about halfway through. WAW, proud of their ability to train people, presented us, for our viewing pleasure, with a so-called "novices match". This involved a 14 year old with a skateboard called Jason Hawkes, against a 10 year old Heartbreak Kid wannabe called Mini Michaels.
Michaels was in fact Zack Knight, the oldest offspring of Ricky and Saraya. The one good thing I can say here is that thankfully we were spared Zack dressing up as that bloody clown. Clowns no longer have any business in wrestling. Mind you, clowns never had any business in wrestling.
This match was, to be blunt, truly awful. At times, there was poor selling of moves. Other times, there was overselling of moves. Sadly, there was no happy medium. And the sight of young Zack swivelling his hips in the middle of the ring was not a pleasant one. It left a rather bitter taste in the mouth.
Don't get me wrong, in some moves, these kids were very well trained, and I suppose we could at least be grateful that these two kids were not hitting each other over the head with cheese graters in their backyard. But my point here is that this match should never have been booked. Throughout the match I kept thinking to myself, what the fuck were WAW thinking about?
The next down point came with the Women's title match between Klondike Kate and Sweet Saraya. I had had my doubts about this match from the beginning.
There were some good exchanges in this bout, but it was your typical David v Goliath battle, and about halfway through, something happened that, in my male chauvinist opinion, should not be seen in women's wrestling - Saraya did the blade job.
As soon as the juice began to run down her face, the atmosphere at ringside changed. As the crimson mask began to form, those around me were shocked by what they were seeing, and I swear, some of the children who were near me screamed.
The site of one woman pawing and biting at another woman's wound should not have been seen here. WAW had been selling family tickets for this event, but this was no family spectacle. As Tazz would say, the mood was about to change.
The contest was ended when Saraya's second, Nikki Best, threw in the towel as Kate smothered Saraya in the corner.
As Saraya was carried to the back, blood covering her face and having splattered all over her front, I actually considered leaving. I had not liked what I saw. WAW wanted to provide family entertainment. Looking around me, the faces of the children reminded of a certain scene from Beyond The Mat, seeing the faces of Mick Foley's children as The Rock hammered and hammered him with a steel chair.
I decided to stay. After all, there were only two more matches left.
The next match was the tag-team championship match, between the UK Patriots and The Superflys. After the shock of what they had just seen, the announcement that the contest would be a TLC match seemed to lift everyone. This match was probably the best of the night, although I must admit seeing Ricky and his son Roy, known to us all as the Zebra Kid, beating the crap out of each other did seem strange. I remarked to the people next to me that my old Dad and me never treated each other like this.
The final match of the evening, a tag-team turmoil match, provided the big surprise of the night. The Pitbulls were there. As soon as they strode down to ringside, I began to wonder if old Ricky had been listening to what I said.
The Pitbulls walked through three teams of jobbers, one of which included the kid who sold me my program. Their names were truly unforgettable. They were defiantly in need of a gimmick or two.
The only real competition they got was from Steve Quintain and The Terminator. The frustration earned them a DQ. Then things really began to heat up. The TWA wrestlers came down. All hell broke loose, and it became a faction war - WAW v TWA. The scenario was set up for their next event at the Sport Village in January.
It must be said that, although the show was good, I did leave the Sport Village in a downtrodden mood. Earlier in the evening, Michael Mann announced that for the show in January, WAW were trying to sign John Tenta, Brian Lawler, Dustin Rhodes and Horace Hogan.
I began to wonder what the hell Ricky Knight was playing at. When I put forward the idea that they should try and get Davey Boy Smith for the show, Ricky blew me off, saying that US based stars were too expensive, and they wanted too much money for too little work. I began to wonder why Ricky had told me this, when it was apparent that so-called overpriced Yanks would be coming over to WAW next year.
I felt let down. I felt like Ricky Knight had played me for a fool. All I had done was offer an opinion on things, and Ricky had repaid me with scorn.
As the show ended, I considered hanging around for a while, to try and talk to a few of the wrestlers. Saraya was walking around, no longer with her crimson mask. The Pitbulls were also meeting and greeting some of the fans, as was Ricky himself.
But to be honest, I wasn't in the mood. I got the taxi to come out early. I just wanted to get home.
I got home around midnight, and after firing up my computer, I sent a quick email to Martin, asking him to pass the message onto Ricky. I got to bed around one. I was shattered. Sleep was quick to come to me that night. The next day, I wrote up my report, sent it off, and left it at that.
THE CONCLUSION....
Thus concludes my WAW Diary series. A few days before October Outrage, I had written the final part, writing several things about what WAW were doing wrong. Some of these do not apply now.
So will I continue to build the WAW website. The answer to this is yes, even if it is just to prove a point. WAW needs a powerful presence on the net, and I have received offers of help from a number of people.
So will I go to the January show, or any of the other shows? The answer to this is yes. After all, I may not exactly be a big fan of Dustin Rhodes or Grand Master Sexay, but it's not everyday you get to see US stars close up. I just hope that GMS remembers to check his suitcase before he flies into the UK.
So what of WAW now? Well, they have some sort of arrangement with Scott Conway's TWA promotion. It is this that is allowing them to bring over some US talent. Good luck to them I say.
And what of the UK Pitbulls, Dave and Mike, two massive men from five miles down the road? Some good news on this front. Not only will they be at the WAW show in January, but they are also touring the US in November and December. Good luck to them I say. They may be bastards inside the ring, but outside, you couldn't meet a couple of nicer blokes.
And Ricky Knight, the WAW owner who said he wanted to meet me, but didn't get in touch with me, or ask to see me at October Outrage? He knows how to get in touch with me. Martin Marshall probably has my telephone number and snail mail address.
And Gordon Scozzari, the native New Yorker who's just moved to Yarmouth, and who hopes to promote shows in this area sometime. Well, I haven't heard from him yet. He's another who has got my phone number. Maybe a call will come my way sometime soon.
And so I end this series with some rather interesting news. Some people who have read my WAW columns, including the early parts of this series, and also my report on October Outrage have told me that Ricky Knight and WAW needs one thing to make them really good - Julian Radbourne. People tell me that I have the ideas and the talent to make WAW a lot better than they are now.
While I admit that I would be willing to entertain any offer that Ricky would make, should he make any, I'm not going to go to him and ask him for a job. If Ricky wants me to join the WAW crew, then it is my opinion that he should be the one to contact me, and not vice versa.
If people want to get in touch with the WAW people and tell them that they should give me a job, then I'm not going to stop them. I have always believed that everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter what it is. If people want to tell Ricky Knight that he should give me a job, then by all means do. Knock yourselves out. But I won't hold my breath waiting for Ricky to give me a call. I'll just sit here, in front of my trusty computer, writing my weekly Internet column, offering my views on the wrestling world, and collecting material for the WAW website.
People have said that patience is not one of my virtues. Guess I'm going to have to learn some now.
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