I have been an avid wrestling fan since I watch The Undertaker take on Mr Kennedy in a first blood match when I was about 10. It was new, cool and whats more, I had no idea how big of an underground following it had/I would become apart of in future years. It just so happened that my best friend had been made to watch wrestling by his two older brothers since he was at nursery. Their aim being that he would start dropping Stone Cold Stunners left right and centre on all the other kids. I can not confirm or deny if this happened... But I really hope it did.
Anyway (slight tangent there), so me and my best friend grew into watching wrestling, almost religiously. This culminated in the both of us going to Manchester and watching a double TV taping of WWE Smackdown in 2008. I would say this night solidified my "wrestling phase" into a love and a passion. It was around this time that we started up our own back yard wrestling company, along side a number of our other friends. This started off as "CWA - Childrens Wrestling Alliance", which was then changed to "TWE - The Wrestling Effect" but then was finally settled upon "CTW - Corporation of Trampoline/Teenage Wrestling".
This story goes two ways. While the CTW ran for 5 years, we never filmed a complete show. We had gimmicks, we had entrance music, we had finishers, we had ring gear (kind of), we had storylines, we had rivalries, we had stables, we had championships. Yet we have had a show. Unreal. We filmed matches here and there, but, yeah, we never got a full show filmed. However, these times where still the best of my teenage years, and would prove, vital, I guess, when I turned 16.
As we where all getting older and bigger, we found that wrestling on a trampoline was getting a bit tedious and we longed to get between the ropes of a real wrestling ring. Two of my friends joined a wrestling academy in Liverpool called "RWA - Runcorn Wrestling Academy". I, being one year older, was told I had to get a job if I wanted to go to wrestling school. So I got a job... On a Saturday... The same day that RWA trained. So I was earning money, but couldn't wrestle yet. Two of my friends kept going, and became much more knowledgeable about how to execute moves and holds better than I could at the time. And then along came my saving grace.
In May of 2014, I walked through the doors of Infinite Promotions training gym. 3 weeks before I turned 18, I stepped into a ring for the first time. The weird part was I just got in, no big moment, no training or warming up before I got in (although I did wipe my feet, I'm not a monster). I got in the ring and didn't look back... for all of 3 months. I had learned so much about the industry and met some amazing people and then suddenly it was time to move to Leeds to start university. Now don't get me wrong. I love Leeds, and the independent wrestling scene around West Yorkshire is very strong. But there's no where I could get a bus too, to continue training. So my ring craft and in-ring confidence suffered a big dent (one it has not yet recovered from). And while I was settling into my new home nicely, I was missing my wrestling friends. I had no other choice but to message them and see if they could offer me a life line. And by god they did. "Disco" Bert Fabulous, dropped me a message, and asked me if I wanted to ring announce a wrestling show down in Coventry. I said yes in a heart beat.
That's pretty much what lead me to here, right now. The last two years of ring announcing shows around the country have been incredible, with many more stories to tell... and we're just getting started (stay tuned)
Kieran (James) Moran
0 comments:
Post a Comment