Remembering "Extreme World Warfare" Part III

Stu and I stood in the middle of Madison Square Gardens, our sense of wonderment restrained only by the shared knowledge that we'd earned this moment. All the lonely cold nights in the morning loading up equipment with the remnants of grease paint on my face had been worth it. All the days walking through the miserable November showers from premises to premises only to be refused at every stop by people who wouldn't display our advertising posters had been worth it. All the let downs and false promises we had absorbed had been worth it. All the ridicule and insults we had taken from both the wrestling world and the wrestling sceptics alike had been justly endured. All the money my grandfather had left me in his will had been invested well because of this moment. This moment of glory… that never happened.

I didn't actually dream of our show performing at any famous venue. I don't think Stu did either. We had nightmares about arriving late for the show, forgetting essential equipment and wrestlers not turning up. Stu had one reoccurring dream about the whole show not getting caught on film. These were warranted concerns because on different occasions such things nearly and actually did happen. With the exception of our final show together our debut, "The Declaration", was perhaps the most nerve-wrecking experience in the history of our business partnership.

Remembering EWW Parts I-IV

I guess the past is as good a place to start as anywhere for my first post on this new blog. Controversy was certainly the name of the game during my time co-promoting and performing in Britain's first extreme professional wrestling promotion from 1998 to 2001 called Extreme World Warfare. It all started when I was approached to put on a martial arts demonstration. I was then talked into putting on a five minute version of a Gothic martial arts/dance act - the first and only I know of - that I had created originally for the Edinburgh Festival and shelved a year previously. We ended up creating a professional wrestling promotion and becoming part of a new movement going under the moniker "New British Wrestling". It would get us attention from the police and the Jerry Spring Show!

So far I have written four parts, which cover most of our first year and up to our first show "Extreme World Warfare: The Declaration". These articles, no doubt, need some serious editing, but for the time being I am very grateful to the official EWW website who agreed to publish them online in their current form: http://www.eww-wrestling.co.uk/index2.html

Don't forget to check out Jamie Clubb's main blog www.jamieclubb.blogspot.com