Paying Dues: The First Defence.

May 26th 2017.
Parklands Sports & Social Club, Doncaster,

Phoenix Events Yorkshire – “I Will Be Heard” – Phoenix Rising Championship –

Alan Kay (C) vs Kyle Bradders vs Sam Kenny vs Tommy Nova.

We got to the venue at around 4pm but the ring was not there yet. So we start setting up the chairs and getting our stuff together in the locker room. Because the ring was arriving later than usual it meant we had less time to talk about the match. After watching the last multi-man I was involved in and being less than happy with it, I had put more pressure on myself for this one to be a success. Multi-Person matches are a ball-ache. Ask anyone in the business and I’m sure they’ll agree. The reason for this is that you usually have to remember so much more than you usually would and timing is much more important.

I go back stage, change in to my gear and go upstairs where Brett Hadley Photography is taking new promo shots for the up coming Phoenix shows. I am terrible at posing, like really, bloody terrible. I can’t pose for love nor money! I have the same stance for most shots and the same miserable face! I suppose that means there’s no risk of missing the gimmick right? I’m sticking to that at least. Anyway, after the shots have been done I go in to the changing room and we start talking about the match. What we want out of the match, the kind of reaction we want and things like that.

I wasn’t nervous until I was stood behind the curtain waiting to go out. I was stood there with Ivy, just staring in to space. It was weird. I hadn’t really had a feeling like this. I was so desperate for this to go well. I walked out, and just stared in to the crowd of 100+ and looked around. Looking for someone to shout at to make sure they wanted me to lose! As I stood there and looked dead ahead I saw a woman giving me the old thumbs down gesture and booing. I stare at her and point right at her. She now knows she’s in trouble. I stomp right past everyone else to get right in her face. She looks like she’s about to cry. “What was that you were saying?” “Were you just booing me?” She did not know what to do. I won that round.

I started the match taking a huge running knee from Nova which knocked me for six, I roll out and recover. As I make my way around the ring I was supposed to be met with a suicide dive over the top from both competitors, it honestly felt like we were waiting out there for ages and it all came down to a miscommunication which is a shame because it would have been brilliant. The thing with multi-man matches is that a lot of them is about recovery on the outside waiting for a chance to get in and make the most of what you’ve got. While that sounds like a great thing it really isn’t! You have to constantly be alert while at the same time nursing whatever thing you’ve just been hit by. It’s exhausting you never stop. As I’m selling on the outside I hear one side of fans starting singing. At first I couldn’t quite hear what they were signing, so I crawled round the corner to hear they were singing Happy Birthday to Sam!! His head was slammed to the floor he was not looking up! This was either because he was laughing or ready for killing them!

I eventually got back in the ring and started beating down Tommy Nova. Taking my time. Slowing things down as it had been pretty fast paced leading up to this point. As I picked Nova up for a huge scoop slam I turn and look at the top rope. I walk to the apron and start shouting across to the crowd. “It’s all about dives these days isn’t it?! That’s what you like? That’s what you’ve come for?!” As I start climbing to the top rope, ready to attack. Sadly, I took too much time and Kyle came up to the apron from the outside and grabbed on to my leg. As I managed to kick him off, Nova came flying at me with an Enziguri kick. This wasn’t going to end well for me. Kyle stumbles in to the ring and climbs the ropes, Nova climbs the ropes on the other side. Bloody hell, here we go, double superplex. As I am trying to fight back up comes Sam and turns it in to a tower of doom! Sam Double powerbombs Nova and Bradders which, in turn, sends me flying from the top rope. I couldn’t quite get my footing on this one so as I am coming down I came so close to landing on the top of my head! (this is why we learn to tuck our heads when we fall!)

Now, on to the bit that got one of the biggest reactions for doing next to nothing. We were all down, climbed to our feet and started striking off at one another. Eventually it breaks down. I end up hitting Kyle with a lariat, I then turn in to another Enziguri, Sam then hits Nova with a sick kick and Kyle rounds it off with a front facebuster on Sam. We are all down, we all flail an arm over an opponent (or a leg in my case as I couldn’t reach Tommy with my arm) and the ref starts a count of us all being pinned. 1! 2! EVERYBODY KICKS OUT! Now, for some reason and I’m not sure why but the crowd loved this!

We get to the end, Myself and Nova having a bit of a scrap at the end and Birthday Boy Sam Kenny is scrapping with Kyle in the ring. Sam hits Kyle with the end of days and goes for the pin. Nah, not today. I roll in and break the pin. JUST IN TIME. I launch Sam over the top turn back round to Kyle and hit him with my signature “AKDRIVER”

1!2!3! Game over. Ivy runs off with our title shouting at everyone. As I’m walking out of the ring, I take a minute and look at my fallen opponents, Sam looks up at me, I stare back. “Happy Birthday Mate!” I shout across at him. I walk up to the stage and I just take a moment. A moment I didn’t get the first time round. I take a second to stand at the top of the stage on pose with my title. I got lost in a shuffle last time round and got myself down about it. This time I made sure I got a moment to enjoy!

So there we go. Another one under the belt and after the week we had all had with the horrible Manchester attacks, I think everyone needed a bit of a distraction from the real world. That’s all wrestling is really. A distraction from the real world. Whether you’re a fan coming to a show, one of the merch team, a wrestler at the bottom of the card or a champion at the top. We all come here for the same reason. For the love of this ridiculous sport. It brings people of all creeds and backgrounds in to one room to enjoy hours of entertainment.

So there we go.

Next Up.

Elite British Wrestling – “Apocalypse Now?”

Catch Championship match – Champion – Paul Malen vs Alan Kay