Ain’t wrestling ace!

A double edition of the blog this week, as has seemingly become ‘the norm’.  I’m considering making the blog bi-weekly in the new year, as i sometimes feel as though I’m only really updating through obligation to myself. We’ll see.

Anyhow, something of a busyish weekend just gone, but before i get to that, there’s a couple of weeks ago to cover.

Real Deal Wrestling in Sutton in Ashfield, and a third defence of the RDW championship against’Textbook’ Dave Breaks. The match was supposed to be a rounds match, but it kind of didn’t really pan out that way. Plenty of shenanigans, Danny Thomas run ins and the almost appearance of a Breaks testicle. The match was ok, but i do feel like there’s plenty more Dave and i could do should the circumstance arise. We’ll see i guess.

Fast forward 5 days to this past Thursday and a last minute trip to Skegness for All-Star wrestling. I love working on AllStar shows. Things have changed a bit since my last visit. Gone are the flags, nationalism and super OTT panto style wrestling. Now, still a bit of the panto style, but less German accent. Which was nice.Teaming with Kyle Kingsley to take on Stixx & Malen, this was  a good fun match, even if the top rope pinged off on the finish stretch.

Next it was off to Cotgrave for House of Pain, a second visit to this venue, a bigger audience, and a tag team match. Once again i partnered up with Garrett Bond, against RJ Singh and Visage. Now, as i mentioned the last time i worked a Cotgrave show, im really interested in helping to build this venue for HOP, its a venue with a lot of scope to do some good stuff  if we continue to build the area well.

Onto the match, i really enjoy wrestling RJ Singh. And now I really enjoy wrestling Visage. I felt RJ and myself gelled more-so this time, having worked previously, there was definitely a better understanding this time, not that there was anything bad about our first encounter.

As for Visage, man, its sickening how good he is considering how short a time he’s been actively wrestling on shows. Wonderful character work, a confident promo, and already dialling in the little details, that for most, doesn’t come until later into a career. Keep your eye on him.

Similar could be said for Bond, a much more confident outing for him this time, and its great to see his progression. Another one id mark to do good things in wrestling, as i think i mentioned last time we teamed up.

Popped into House of Pains event in St Ann’s the following day thanks to (another) cancellation. Enjoyed the show for the most part. Was nice to sit and watch a whole show.

Aaaaaand the final show of the weekend was the last Pro Wrestling 4U show of the year sadly, and an 18th defence of the PW4U G6 Championship, and a quick outing for both of my tag belts too. Since claiming the tag belts, my partner has gone AWOL, leaving me with them. The situation hasn’t been ideal, and in all honesty, whilst its nice to have a bit of fun with it, its not how i want any title reign to go.  See why i prefer singles stuff..?

Anyway, the match itself, a debut for ‘Gentleman’ John McGregor, after accepting an open challenge. He gave a good account of himself in this match, which we kept fairly simple, as we were on early. Not really too much to add here, but im still looking for that match to solidify this reign. I feel as though i really need that before the championship is stolen from me haha.

Now, oddly, i have a couple of weeks with nothing in the diary. Gonna have to get training in the down time, because im all  raring to go. Wrestling is good.

 

Song of the week:

No explanation, just this…

https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=cqywHbXniA8

 

Pic: Andy Johnson

Back into it

I’m pretty brilliant at forgetting to push the publish button, so a couple of days late…

Injury recovery had been top of my agenda yet again, this last couple of weeks, but after a bit of ibuprofen, strapped up with kinesio tape, i finally got my backside back into the ring!

3 weeks of rehab and steady knee exercises, determination/stubbornness and not wanting to miss out on work, because we in wrestling tend to be stupid when it comes to rushing back from injury.

Alas, a trip to Forest Town near Mansfield for a HOPE show, having been offered the booking just after injury. Targets haha. So yeah, a big load of ‘knee-hab’, few ibuprofen and a bit of kinesio tape helped me get to a point where i felt confident enough to be able to get through a match.

Match itself was a 6 way elimination match for the ‘Kings of Flight’ championship. It was originally supposed to be a one fall match, but between us, we felt an elimination would work better. Also worked out OK for myself to be safe and not bite off more than i could chew, by participating in a high intensity 15-20 match whilst still not 100% fully fit.

Oddly enough not too many guys volunteered to go out early, except for Jack Cave, who by the way, in 2 minutes work, gave a good account of himself without hitting a single move. So, i went out fas the first mid match elimination, after tapping out to a fluffed move.

A word of advice to aspiring wrestlers – if you cant do your own stuff perfectly every time, or you have to over explain a move – don’t do it. Because you make your opponent look a bit rubbish.

So yeah, i wasn’t too happy about the way i left the match, not because i was out. Sometimes i get annoyed with myself that i let people do stuff that I don’t agree with, but all in all, no one probably noticed/cared anyway, and i got through the match uninjured, so I’m splitting hairs really.

Couple of days later i was at the House of Pain training school for a morning seminar with Mad Man Manson. There was actually a whole weekend of seminars, but i didn’t have full confidence in my knee getting through a full weekend of physical training, which was a real shame, i really felt in could have learned a lot. Alas, i learned a bunch from Manson, aside from his barrage of Ligero insults.

Manson’s mind is interesting, and i felt like we only really scratched the sutface. Id like to attend other seminars of his, and id hugely recommend them to anyone, regardless of their experience. You will take at least a handful of things away from it.

Additionally, for a lesson that was almost all talking, i was surprised to see that i was the only person making notes. I have, and still do, always take a notepad along to training, and training seminars, because there’s no way anyone can rememeber a 3 hour lesson, especially when that lesson is 90% talking… A fantastic seminar nonetheless, and plenty of food for thought.

Fast forward a few days and Im readying for a third defence of the RDW Heavyweight Championship, in a match against Bubblegum. Bubblegum is someone who has been near the top of my ‘want to wrestle’ wishlist for a good while so i was really looking forward to this.

Of course, big ol’ spanner in the works, and the show was cancelled due to the ring van breaking down on the way to the venue. Beautiful. So instead, my Friday was spent at the House of Pain school refreshing on a few Japanese ring drills and continuing to work on my in ring cardio, especially after having had a few weeks off with the knee.  So my Friday wasn’t completely wasted.

2016 has been a bit of a pain in the backside for cancellations, and i certainly hope there arent any more for a while. Not earning money is no fun.

 

Juken on the web:

Facebook add – search ‘Ju ken’

Facebook fan page. Www.Facebook.com/jukenprowrestler

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jukenuk

Www.twitter.com/jukengm (Japanese)

Instagram: Juken_gtmv

Song of the week:

Big ol’ blog this week, but lets finish off with the weekly feature haha. Anyway, this week, definitely one of my favourite tracks of all time. Ever.

https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=E8IXFLrEi3o

 

 

 

Reset, move on.

Last week was pretty dark wasn’t it? Man, i was in a real bad, bur motivated state of mind last week. Onto this week then!

Not really much in the way of wrestling action to speak of, as its been a week of recuperation again.

Back in the gym, working real hard to make sure that im as strong as i possibly can be, not just aesthetically. One thing I’ve noticed during recovery is that those hours spent doing squats and lunges etc, have given my legs a good strength, so this has definitely played a good role in my recovery. I even manage a light leg workout early in the week, albiet without the aforementioned squats and lunges. I didn’t really want to push it too early.

With that being said, im pretty confident that my knee will hold up, so i wont be having to miss any wrestling dates. I do have a match tomorrow, luckily its a multi man match so i can ensure im not pushing too much on it. I’ve never been so grateful for a multi man match haha.

Needing to get back into the swing of wrestling again, as October is looking to be a busy month, which makes a nice change compared to recently. Im determined to see out the year on as big a high as I can, looking to springboard into next year.

Speaking of next year, I’ve been fortunate enough to have an opportunity to return to Thailand early in the new year, to make up for missing out last week.

Having a few days of not being able to do much gives you a lot of time to reflect and reassess where you are. I’ve been living with the ‘Juken’ gimmick fully for almost a year now and now I’ve had time to look back retrospectively, there’ll be a few tweaks here and there, and im excited about what possibilities lie ahead. Maybe this injury was needed haha. I don’t know, but the road ahead looks like fun!

 

Song of The Week:

I make no bones about enjoying the music of Limp Bizkit. So yeah. Here’s one.

https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=GNPowWedC0o