May 2016 – Juken Pro Wrestler

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It’s been quiet on my part for a while, I’ve had some empty weekends in my diary, which is never ideal, but, never the worst thing sometimes.

Alas, I’m back in the ring this weekend with a steady schedule, and I’m raring to go.

I’ve not been sat idle whilst away from the ring, I’ve again changed up my gym routines, thanks hugely to Rob Sharpe for that, I definitely needed the kick up the butt he’s provided to push on, after feeling as though I’d plateaud somewhat. Hopefully the hard work will show in due course.

Now then, in the time I’ve not updated the blog, I’ve had some fantastic opportunities offered to me. I’ll share them here as one hasn’t been publicly revealed on my part.

First up, in September I’ll be heading back to Bangkok, Thailand to participate in Gatoh Move Thailand’s 4th Anniversary event. Thailand really opened up a lot of doors for me in Asia, as well as completely changing my outlook on pro wrestling, so I’m extremely honoured to be invited to be a part of this huge event. I’ve seen some of the wrestlers to be announced for that show, and I’m excited to see them myself!

And now, the unannounced news, along similar lines, and probably a really poorly kept ‘secret’ – I’ll be heading back to Japan in just under 3 weeks to join the Japanese branch of Gatoh Move for 2 weeks. In that time I’ll be wrestling in Ichigaya, Gunma, Osaka and Korakuen Hall again. Matches haven’t yet been announced, but I’ll share once they’re public. And of course the blog will be updated in a bi-weekly basis whilst I’m there, because I’ll be doing plenty, and there’s a fair bit of travel involved. I’ll need to pass my time somehow haha. Hopefully I can add a couple of extra dates into my schedule whilst there, but we’ll see!

Upcoming Appearances :

27/05 – House of Pain, St Ann’s – Juken vs Paul Malen

28/05 – All-Star, Skegness

29/05 – House of Pain, Calverton -Juken & Lucas Archer vs ‘Textbook’ Dave Breaks & Brett Ryan

Song of The Week

The feature that refuses to go away, but you secretly love it. Anyhow, this week’s is something of a change of pace. It’s by one of my favourite metal bands, with a record that isn’t metal whatsoever! A bonus track from their latest album.

Yeah, I know, I’m super behind on this here blog, but as a bonus, here’s a bumper edition. Again.

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So first, we go back to mid April.22nd to be precise. A weekend at House Of Pain kicked off in Beeston, and a first time meeting here between myself and Robert Sharpe. We opened up the weekend with the opening contest in front of a once again sold out audience.

A Lil bit of back story here, not to the match, but to Rob and myself. Rob and I used to train together an awful lot back when he was starting out, and something I always admired about him was that he’d always work his backside off with whatever I laid out for him. Rob was a chubby shit when he started, I’m sure he’ll agree, and there was a lot that he couldn’t do. To see him progress from that, to the confident…orange…performer that he is today is something that I’m pretty proud of him for. That’s not to say he doesn’t have his faults, but I tell him enough haha.

Onto the match, I knew he’d put a lot of pressure on himself to perform, and I wanted him to be at ease. Additionally, he was looking to start moving away from the flamboyant, camp type wrestle that he is known for, so he didn’t need the pressure of a difficult and taxing match, especially where we were on the match card. So we had a pretty simple match, but filled it with action, and reasons for the audience to get into the points we wanted them to, emotionally. I enjoyed the match for the most part, save for a couple of blips in the match, but I see a decent foundation for myself and rob to build on.

A day off, and then back to HOP action this time in Calverton. Multi man tag, and then a rumble. Now I’ll freely admit that tag wrestling isn’t my forte, and is an area I really want to improve on, but as the most experienced person in the match I had to stick this together.This wasnt my favourite match, but there you go. Onto the rumble, and I almost won until a cream filled stunner led to my demise…

Moving on a week and Derby with HOPE wrestling. Pleased to be back in HOPE on a somewhat more regular basis, and matches like the one I had here was much fun. My opponent for the evening was CJ Banks, in a baby face on baby face match. Now I went out first, and a small mishap with my old music being played meant I got booed here. Great start. Managed to sway them by the end with a good fun wrestling match in a ring that wasn’t pleasant. I really enjoyed this, and I noticed Ligero and Paul Malen watching from the side, so after I’d got back, I made sure to ask them both for advice, critique etc. I always do so if I can. Guys like this are invaluable, and everyone should be picking their brain.

Moving onto the next day, and on to Sutton in Ashfield, a few minutes up the road from HOPE’s regular venue in Mansfield. LJ Heron tonight, someone who I very much enjoy wrestling now, especially with him in the villain role. He looks and moves with much more purpose and enthusiasm than he did when he was only playing baby face a couple of years ago. We were main eventing a mammoth 9 (!!) match card. No pressure lads. I kept a careful eye on what was being done throughout the show, because pretty much everything had been done by the time we got to flick the curtain open. Except a wrestling match. Again. So we went out with that, and a finish. We worked around for a good 10-12minutes and got a decent reaction from a tired audience.

No wrestling this weekend, I’m out of action for a couple of weekends, but back in ring last weekend in may, and then straight through Jun. Buckling up for a fun summer!

Don’t forget, you can grab one of my “Had-Juken” tees from Parts Unknown! I’ll have a new limited edition tee up soon, so keep your eyes peeled for it!

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Song of the Week

I’m allowed repeat artists, right? Suiyoubi No Campanella…