Wrestlers - Before they were famous

2007 was an eventful year with WWE naming me as the possible head of the 'to be formed' WWE Europe. They decided not to make the extension in the end but a LOT of stuff happened that I've covered in my biography "Do or do not". Here's a segment featuring some names that are now household, and the video shows two of the best in action at a 1PW afternoon show at The King of Europe Cup.

The February and March shows at York Hall produced the same results with regards to numbers and it seemed that no matter what I did I couldn’t get the crowd to turn up so it seemed that the writing was on the wall. On march 3rd Ring of Honor appeared at the Liverpool Olympia and Alex invited me along to meet them and I got on with them very well. A short while later I was invited to San Francisco to meet with Jason Deadrich and attended an APW ‘Gym Wars’ show in which we announced the ‘Transatlantic Women’s challenge’ which sadly never came about, but it would have promoted the women’s scene really well. After the March 17th show I went reluctantly with Ilona and Elina on holiday to Los Angeles, but that also turned into a nightmare experience for me even though I tried my very best to turn my mind away from what was going on. One of the first things I walked into was a rambling message from Sam that required me to place several calls to Dagenham to try and sort them out, but throughout the whole journey I was having nightmares about going back to Dagenham and finding everything I possessed gone and suddenly being relocated to Surrey, so this was in no way a holiday although I will admit to enjoying the feeling of California and Nevada. In Los Angeles we went Whale watching, visited Universal Studios Hollywood, Warner Brothers Studio tour where I saw the ‘ER’ ambulance bay, then drove to San Francisco where we saw Alcatraz and swam with Dolphins, then Via Fresno on to Las Vegas for a couple of days where we saw The Beatles ‘Love’ amongst other things and headed back to LA to fly out. As I suspected when I returned Sam and Linda had gone along with the remaining Discovery work and to add insult to injury the nameless employee that I had paid in advance to complete RQW episodes in my absence had not only not done the work but was demanding I pay her more before she came to do the work I’d already paid her for. I fired her ass on the spot and called Kieron who came on board and for the rest of the life of RQW edited the shows as well as helping me produce them.

I had the task now of recovering from the damage inflicted by Sam and Linda, and I had it confirmed by Tony that Linda was the instigator of moving the work to the other facility. Not meaning to sound like an angel here as I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years, but the amount of life changing help I had given Linda was substantial so I still do not understand to this day why she could knife me in the back so quickly and severely. I’m sure that Karma paid her back but not too severely I hope as she will learn nothing if she can’t pick herself up and dust herself off again. I don’t hold grudges although this one did hurt bigtime, so no doubt if she’s ever in trouble again and has the nerve to call me I’ll still help her. The April show was to be the last at York Hall as I couldn’t keep running at a loss and it was to be a momentous event for Sweet Saraya and Cheerleader Melissa as, at the completion of a match with MsChif, “The Jezebel” Eden Black and Jetta, Saraya ran in through the crowd in street clothes and just went for Melissa big time and it took 10 people to rip them apart again, but they wanted to kill each other there and then. I went out to the ring to get a level of control and booked them both in a grudge match to settle this issue once and for all. I wanted it to be in May but we didn’t run a show that month so June it was. Also on the card was Sheamus vs Drew Galloway, both soon to be signed to WWE along with Stu Sanders (now “Bad News Barrett”) and Hade Vansen who was released quite soon into his WWE contract. At the end of April Alex had arranged a weekend called “The King of Europe Cup” that featured wrestlers from all over the world competing for what was to become a prestigious trophy. My crew were there to record it along with Dean Ayass and Dann Read on commentary, and what a magnificent show it was as some of the biggest names in the business put their bodies on the line. The most memorable match had to be The Zebra Kid vs Davey Richards as the match spilled out into the theatre and Zebra ended up elbowing a prone Davey Richards from the balcony, producing amazing footage that sends shivers down my spine even now. Shortly after the event Alex called me and let me know that Mark Sloan was selling up and would I be interested in his equipment, so I had a look and it was an impressive list. A four sided ring, A six sided ring, a complete light rig that stood on four legs around the ring and an entranceway with two video screens as well as a sprinter van. We agreed the price and did the deal and moved on. Richard, who had been providing my ring for York Hall, went down to Portsmouth to collect it all and place it in his lockup and we started experimenting with the light rig which we stored in Dagenham and soon became quite expert at it using it at several shows for WAW as well as one or two in the midlands.