Makoto Morimitsu / Italy

I went to Italy on Saturday to wrestle for the IWS on Sunday 12th June. My opponent for the show was Makoto Morimitsu. I have wrestled against Makoto a couple of times before, and I have great respect for him as a wrestler. He is Japanese but travelled to Mexico in the early 1990s to learn wrestling. Since then he has wrestled mostly in South-America before relocating to Barcelona in Spain a couple of years ago.

Our match on Sunday was relatively long, ending at around the 20-minute mark. It was technically based but was sadly ended by a run-in from Alofa and Bjørn Sem. Move of the match was Makoto's suicidal somersault plancha to the outside of the ring. I am not sure if even Daniel Sebastian dares to do that move.... Hopefully, I wrestle against Makoto again in not so distant future.

Anyway, the trip went well. Before the show, the wrestlers were picked up at the hotel and driven the arena and back to the hotel in a limousine. That was cool.

I am going back to Italy on the 25th June to wrestle for the IWS again, this time in Treviglio outside Milano.

What's going to happen?

I remember when I went to England five years ago. I was going to wrestle at Colston Hall in Bristol, one of England's most famous wrestling venues. Time was getting close to 8 PM and show start. I didn't know who I was going to wrestle against on the show yet. Five minutes before the show was supposed to start, I was told that my opponent was none other than Doug Williams who has become one of England's top wrestlers since then, working on a regular basis for NOAH in Japan. Remember this was five minutes before the start of the show, and not only that, my match was the opening match of the show! We wrestled a match that lasted close to 15 minutes, and I would say it went pretty well.

Sometimes lack of information can be frustrating but even so it is also a challenge: A good wrestler is supposed to be able to wrestle against anyone, anywhere and anytime.

Reason for writing this is related to my trip to Italy this weekend. I go to Italy again to wrestle for IWS. I don't know anything about the show or who I am going to wrestle against this time. I will wait and see until I am there. Cool?

New-Japan Pro-Wrestling debut

On Saturday, I wrestled for New-Japan Pro-Wrestling in Milan, Italy. That was the third show on NJPW's "Spirito Guerriero" Italy tour 2005. I was the only European wrestler on these shows.

This is how the story began. On Wednesday, I received an SMS from the promoter of Italian Wrestling Superstar. He asked me if I wanted to come to Milan on Saturday to wrestle a "dark match" for New-Japan Pro-Wrestling. He would bring me over to raise the profile of IWS by having IWS wrestlers on the NJPW show. So quick can things happen in the wrestling business: an SMS received on Wednesday leading to the debut for NJPW three days later!

On Saturday, I got up at 5 o'clock in the morning to get to the airport and on my flight to Milan for the NJPW show. Later in the day, I was tested in front of the NJPW crew. After the test I was chosen to wrestle in the opening match of the show, tagging with NJPW veteran Koji Kanemoto against Gedo and Jado. 16 hours after getting up in the morning, I was walking to the ring for my NJPW debut! The match went pretty well, and I got positive feedback both from NJPW people and others after the show.

For me it was a great experience to wrestle for NJPW which is one of the world's five biggest wrestling promotions. I appreciate that NJPW gave me the opportunity to wrestle on their show and also that IWS brought me over to Italy to represent IWS.

Text message

I got a text message from Italy yesterday. So what, you say? Well, I am excited and nervous at the same time. Why? Is it big news? For me it is. That's all for now. Check my blog next week for more:-)

My first match

On Friday the 15th March 1996, I was walking around in York, a small town in Yorkshire with its own viking museum. Just a couple of days before, I received a phone-call that indirectly has influenced the following nine years and will continue to do so in the future.

The phone-call was from none other than Brian Dixon, Europe's most successful wrestling promoter, who promotes shows almost every day of the week for periods of the year as the All-Star Promotions. He told me has was doing a show in York, just a 30 minute train ride from Leeds where I lived. I would get an opportunity to wrestle in the main event of the show, which honestly was an "appearance" in the royal rumble of the show.

I was going to an All-Star show somewhere else just a month before and was able to hand over my information to an All-Star employee there. So thankfully, Brian Dixon kept my information and called me. You can guess I was pretty nervous in the couple of days leading up to the show, almost unable to sleep at night.

I went to York early in the day to do some sightseeing with a few friends, and we also had a look at the poster that featured a large picture of UK wrestling legend Giant Haystacks who was also known as Lochness Monster in WCW. There were a number of top UK wrestlers listed on the poster. It didn't make me any less nervous in the hours leading up to the show.

I went backstage at the venue and also got to meet Brian Dixon at the sales desk. He is actually well-known for selling lots of merchandise, so looking back it is not so strange that it was at the sales desk I met him for the first time. I said hello to a number of wrestlers such as Danny 'Boy' Collins, Skull Murphy, Marty Jones, and others I had seen on TV when Super Channel broadcasted British wrestling several years earlier.

It was time for the royal rumble, I went in and started punching people here and there before being eliminated by Skull Murphy and Barry Douglas. That was the first time I ever stepped into a ring and I had never practiced being thrown out of a ring and crashed straight on my knee that was swollen for days or weeks.

Did I enjoy it? No, I was far too nervous and I was far too green. Was Brian Dixon happy? He must have been as I was paid even though he previously had told me that I would get no pay for this as it was a tryout. And best of all, I was asked to do another show the day after. After the next show, I was given four more dates.

I had got a foot inside the wrestling business, at a time when it was more difficult to get a foot inside the wrestling business than now. In retrospect, I must have had some luck and made a good impression, not just as a wrestler but also as a person.

Brian Dixon was the one who could make or break my chances. I will forever remember that he was the one giving me a chance and letting me work 40 matches in 1996. Since then, I have also wrestled for him in 1997, 2000 and 2002, so he is still the promoter I have wrestled the most for.

Link: All-Star Promotions

Achieving my dream and more....

When I first became a wrestling fan in the mid-1980s, I started dreaming of becoming a wrestler myself. Living in Norway, a country where wrestling was only seen on TV, my dream was not easy to reach, especially in a time when the internet was non-existent and information about wrestling schools hard to find.

I sent letters to schools and promotions both in the USA and Europe in the early 1990s, but replies were far between. Being a teenager living in Norway, I guess I wasn't taken too seriously by the wrestling schools.

So what could I do? Not much. In 1995, I moved to England for my studies, I had already planned to get in touch with a wrestling school over there but it was on the other side of the country. I lived in Leeds and didn't know about any wrestling schools there or elsewhere in the north of England. Luck is still a good thing. "The Little Prince" Alam was the owner of a gym I checked out. He was a former professional wrestler and agreed to give me some training.

In early 1996, I got in touch with All-Star Promotions, Europe's biggest (whatever other people say) promotion, and I was lucky enough to be given a chance in a royal rumble.

Since then I have wrestled against many of Europe's top wrestlers, worked for promotions in nearly a dozen different countries, performed in front of thousands of people, trained some good talents, started a wrestling promotion, promoted shows, won championships, and more.

Sweat, tears and blood, hard work, sacrifices, little reward, pain and injuries, criticicm, verbal attacks..... Is it worth it? It must be. Otherwise, why am I still wrestling?

My blog will deal with the past, present and future, and I am sure there will be some interesting stuff to read here as time goes on.