Monday, March 20, 2006

"10 year anniversary" match vs. Bernard Vandamme

On Friday 17th March, I wrestled Belgium's Bernard Vandamme for the EUROSTARS European Championship in my hometown, Lillestrøm. A lot of publicity leading up to the match didn't result in any record breaking crowds, but still 300+ in Lillestrøm is a decent figure. The setup of the hall made for good atmosphere and the tribunes looked reasonably full. I was clearly the home favourite and it made for a good setting for my "10 year anniversary" match although I lost the match. I won the first fall but Vandamme won the last two falls of the match and retained the championship. I have wrestled Vandamme several times in the last couple of years, and he is definately a good wrestler and very agile for his size. A photo from the match, taken by Knockout Magazine, is posted here. It shows my toprope dropkick and is a really good photo.

The monster from the depth of hell, Cybernic Machine, who had a guest role in the Jet Li movie "Danny the Dog", wrestled for NWF for the first time. He did a tremendous double bodyslam on Fremtiden.

I don't have time to write a big post today, but if you have good internet access you can download clips from the show at this link (50 mb). Those clips say a lot more than I can describe:-)

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

10 year anniversary!!!

Today on the 15th March, I celebrate that 10 years has gone since a nervous Norwegian guy travelled to York to participate in his first ever wrestling match, a royal rumble.

Wow, 10 years! At that time, I couldn't even dream about what I have experienced in the last 10 years. Although I live in Norway, which isn't the best place to live when thinking about getting bookings around Europe, I feel proud about my achievents both in and out of Norway. I hope it doesn't sound like I have a "big head" as that is not my intention of writing that....

Before I made my debut, my goal was to wrestle a few matches when I lived in England 1995 and 1996 but things didn't stop there. I am still wrestling 10 years after, and I have continuously set new goals that I want to achieve.

As I write this, I am not really sure what to write about in this post, except for the fact that I know this post could put me through some great memories and some not-so-great memories of what I have experienced.

Ok, let's start with my debut. I wasn't the best wrestler ever when I made my debut. That's for sure. What I should say here is thank you to the guys who let me into the wrestling business and the people who made life a lot easier when I got a foot inside. Brian Dixon was the promoter who gave me the chance to enter the ring. Thank you. I have probably mentioned them before, but guys like Robbie Brookside, Doc Dean and James Mason were willing to share their knowledge and help me. So was the Mark Atkin, a.k.a. the Viking Warrior, who is not as well known but who was a good friend outside the ring when we were travelling together. Julie Starr who usually sold merchandise on tours, and wrestled, was also friendly towards me. I spent a good amount of time travelling with Doc Dean, Mark Atkin, Julie Starr and Brian Dixon in 1996. Looking back, I miss travelling with them. But time goes on.

I actually planned to retire when I moved back to Norway at the end of 1996, but at the time I didn't know I would get a training partner. Rainer, a.k.a. "Sporty" Rainer Hansen in NWF, moved to Oslo from the north of Norway in 1997 and we started training wrestling together and then his brother, Tommy, a.k.a. Tommy Gun, joined in. It was actually a coincidence that I got in touch with Rainer. What if I hadn't got in touch with him? I don't think NWF would even have existed if I didn't get in touch with him by coincidence.... So for the people coming to our shows, show your respect to this guy. He is more important to Norwegian wrestling history than you know.... Also there is another guy, Jan Vidar, who is just a fan but he is the little bugger who "forced me" to come and watch wrestling together with him at a time when I was really starting to lose interest in wrestling in the early 1990s. Rainer and Jan Vidar do both have a part of wrestling history in Norway.

I could write a book about my 10 years in wrestling but I will keep it short. Here are just some random memories; travelling to York to make my debut, travelling on camp shows throughout England, meeting and wrestling against wrestlers from around the globe, meeting some of the biggest superstars in wrestling, wrestling around Europe, wrestling on a New-Japan show, being in pain, training, winning championships, disappointments, good crowds, bad crowds, hard work, frustration, happines, and so on. The sum of all this is positive although there have been moments I wanted to quit..... but it is hard to quit when you love something so much deep inside.

I will not speculate if I am still wrestling in another 10 years but I guarantee you this; I set new goals all the time. There is more I want to achieve before I say enough is enough and it is time to "retire".....

This coming Friday, 17th March, I have my "10 year anniversary" show in my hometown Lillestrøm, wrestling for the European championship against Bernard Vandamme. Hopefully that will be a great day/night that I can look back on in 2016!

Here are some random photos I have collected for this post:
October 2001 (Norway): First ever NWF show in Trondheim 18th October 2001. I hold Bjørn Sem in an armbar.











April 2002 (England): Together with wrestling legend Jake "the Snake" Roberts in Walthamstow.











April 2002 (England): A dive to the outside on Joe Legend, ex-TNA and ex-WWE wrestler.












April 2003 (Spain): An international crew backstage in Barcelona.












November 2004 (Norway): T-bone suplexing Bernard Vandamme on my way to win the Eurostars European Champonship.










September 2005 (Finland): Screaming in pain as the Finnish cult hero, Suomi-Poijka, twists my arm.