My 5 Crazy Experiences That No Other Wrestling Fan Has Had
3. The Time When The Americans Came To Town!
By now, we've established I'm from England. Live wrestling outside of North America and Japan is pretty tough to come across on a regular basis. The WWE and TNA tours always sell out really quickly, and are too expensive to tempt any of my casual wrestling fan friends to come along, and because I refuse to go alone, I always miss out on the big shows. But back in 2000, a promotion that claimed to bring *BIG TIME* American Wrestling to English towns in fact, I believe the group's name was BIG TIME American Wrestling started advertising for a show at The Hexagon venue in Reading town centre. They did their best to promote the show, saying that guys like the British Bulldog, Fit Finlay, Tatanka and Yokozyna would be on the tour. Instead, we got treated to American wrestlers like the Barbarian, the Bushwhackers, Marty Jannetty, Jake Roberts and American Avalanche who competed in WCW under the guise of PN News in the early 90s (yo baby, yo baby, yo). From the newer age of wrestling, we had guys like Johnny Storm, Chad Collyer, Doug Williams, Joe E Legend, Robbie Brookside and Sweet Saraya (mother of current NXT star Paige). We also had knock-offs, such as The Legend of Doom (one guy, kitted up like Hawk), a rip-off Doink and Sergeant Slaughter, who was just a guy with some army fatigues, a bit of face paint and a full head of hair (where's the commitment??). Whilst these aren't the guys from the shows I used to attend, they give you somewhat of an idea of who/what you might get to see.. As with all local shows, they're always an experience, to say the least. WWE has sign guy. ECW had hat guy. CZW has the guy with the air horn. This BIG TIME American Wrestling group had a guy that dressed as Triple H, circa 2000 black leather jacket with a denim vest over the top with a 2014 twist (as in, he had short hair). Specifically, the shows had intermissions, during which you could get in the ring with whoever was the biggest name they had on the card and get a photo for £10. Instant Polaroid job. The first show, me and my friend had our photos taken with The Bushwhackers. Being 14 years old at the time, and having only been a fan of wrestling for about 6 months, I had no idea who these two guys were, or why they were marching around and making ridiculous faces, but their interaction with the crowd was incredible and I had to get a photo with them. Like with Mick in point #4, it was an awful photo as you'll see below. That's me in the DX jersey which, scarily, still fits.. Later that year, I turned down the opportunity to get a photo with Marty Jannetty because I had absolutely no idea who he was. However, after seeing Jannetty's brief WWE comeback against Kurt Angle in 2005, I instantly regretted not getting my picture with him as I believe he is one of wrestling's truly under-rated stars - though, for all of his personal problems, its easy to understand why the company never truly got behind him. On yet another show, Jake 'The Snake' Roberts made an appearance. By this stage, I'd seen Beyond The Mat and was fully aware of Jake's struggles in life. But I was still a fan and respected what he had given to the business, I insisted on getting an autograph. I joined the line after the show, presented my piece of paper and, in return, Jake drew a straight line for me. I compared it with my friend's copy, and he had swirls. Definitely an experience..
By now, we've established I'm from England. Live wrestling outside of North America and Japan is pretty tough to come across on a regular basis. The WWE and TNA tours always sell out really quickly, and are too expensive to tempt any of my casual wrestling fan friends to come along, and because I refuse to go alone, I always miss out on the big shows. But back in 2000, a promotion that claimed to bring *BIG TIME* American Wrestling to English towns in fact, I believe the group's name was BIG TIME American Wrestling started advertising for a show at The Hexagon venue in Reading town centre. They did their best to promote the show, saying that guys like the British Bulldog, Fit Finlay, Tatanka and Yokozyna would be on the tour. Instead, we got treated to American wrestlers like the Barbarian, the Bushwhackers, Marty Jannetty, Jake Roberts and American Avalanche who competed in WCW under the guise of PN News in the early 90s (yo baby, yo baby, yo). From the newer age of wrestling, we had guys like Johnny Storm, Chad Collyer, Doug Williams, Joe E Legend, Robbie Brookside and Sweet Saraya (mother of current NXT star Paige). We also had knock-offs, such as The Legend of Doom (one guy, kitted up like Hawk), a rip-off Doink and Sergeant Slaughter, who was just a guy with some army fatigues, a bit of face paint and a full head of hair (where's the commitment??). Whilst these aren't the guys from the shows I used to attend, they give you somewhat of an idea of who/what you might get to see.. 
