Always look on the bright side…

 

So, that’s it, is it?

December, and 2016 in wrestling finished. I always try to keep this blog posts upbeat, regardless of how challenging the week has been, but this past week has been one of deep reflection. I guess it’s pretty normal as you reach the end of a year, or to a pivotal moment in your career.

It’s probably been aided by the fact I’ve been typing out the ‘Year in Review’ blog as well, where I’ve been able to map out this year. It’s been an interesting year, and I’m sure you’ll understand all that by the time you’ve read that particular blog. In the meantime, let’s talk about this month so far…

Well, I say month so far, its my only booking of the month, after another group I was booked for seem to have disappeared… Alas, this months one booking was for House of Pain wrestling, and a return to Cotgrave.

I don’t mind retrospectively admitting that there had been times through the year where I wasn’t sure where I fit in the HOP scene, but for the most part, I’m booked higher up the card these days, which I’m happy about. Its kind of coincided with when I feel like I was making decent strides of improvement in wrestling, so at least someone is seeing my creativity. I think the frustration has kind of been the tale of 2016 in all honesty, but I’ll cover that in the year blog.

Back on track, and Friday in cotgrave. This has very quickly become.my favorite HOP venues. Many reasons for this; the venue is fantastic and a lot of doors can be opens for hop if this venue is built well. Its a new one for us, and I’m really interested in building new areas, like this and Hucknall, for example.

Booked in a 6 man tag match,  with a rumble later in the evening, it was set to be a steady evening. First up the 6 man, myself, Joseph Conners and someone who is becoming somewhat a regular partner Garrett Bond, were set to take on LJ Heron, Danny Thomas and ‘Mean’ Marcus Hood. This ended up being all shenanigans, until Thomas rolled me up for the win.

Later on in the evening was the rumble, which eventually came down to myself and Garrett Bond. Such irony. Eventually, we did battle on the ring apron, and I managed to stick a leg up as he ran at me, and won the rumble. Now the number one contender to the HOP championship. Now, considering that I am the only remaining active class of 2011 HOP roster member to never have won a championship, it’s kind of going to have to be one of those now or never situations.

I guess we shall see next year eh? On that note, that’s it for 2016. It’s been an odd year. Come back next week to relive it all. I promise that there will be upbeat bits haha

Song of the week:

This past couple of weeks have been a bit of a downer in general, but this song has always been one of those I listen to in such times. Love a bit of Ayumi Hamasaki

 

Novembleugh…

So, November… That happened. It was quiet. Horribly quiet.

Unfortunately for me, it seems as though 2016 is going to be ending rather quietly.

So, obviously the only 2 dates of November came on consecutive days haha.

House of Pain, and  2 singles matches, LJ Heron on the Friday, followed by a match against ‘Nathan Nyx’ on the Saturday. 

The Friday event was HOP’s second visit to Hucknall, and the site of my knee injury a couple of months back. Ha! Definitely a few ‘ghosts’ to shoo off here. The match went ok, and I feel as though it was our strongest bout to date – LJ is coming up as one of my more frequent opponents, and as I’ve mentioned before, he as a heel and myself as a ‘babyface’ feels like a much better fit for us.

The next day was my first appearance at HOP’s home venue in St Ann’s for a good 6+ months. I really enjoyed feeding off of the audiences energy during the match. Facing off against Nathan Nyx for the first time, this was a simple but fun match. Nyx is still pretty new, but exceeded my expectations in this match, as I was unsure what to expect, having not seen him perform in a while. The match can be found on the Facebook page should you be inclined to watch it.
So yeah,that was November. Exciting. 

The blog gets difficult to sit and write when there’s not much to talk about, so apologies for the irregularity over the last couple of months. I’ve published a schedule of release for the remainder of the year, again, up on the fb page, so you can keep up to date. Work has already started on my year in review blog, however, I may break that down into two parts as it’s already rather lengthy… Until then… 
Song of the week:

Week, month, however long it’s been. Alas, this has been on constant rotation over the last few weeks at Juggan HQ. Regular followers of the blog will recall my enthusiasm for Japanese group ‘Wagakki Band’ – well, the vocalist, Yuko Suzuhanah has released a solo mini album, and it’s brilliant.  So here’s a track from it: