Back in June, Rob spotted an ad for an independent wrestling event being held in Ayr. The reason it caught his eye was that TNA Superstar AJ Styles was on the bill. He had been really disappointed that AJ had been injured and unable to attend the TNA tour back in January 2011 so he was really keen to go to this show. It was the first anniversary show for Pro Wrestling Elite which is run by Adrian "Lionheart" McCallum (who we had actually seen fight Jeff Jarrett at the TNA show). I managed to get tickets and we went to our first independent show. It was actually pretty good and during the show they announced they would be doing a double-header show at Ayr Town Hall in September and that TNA knockout Mickie James would be appearing. Of course, Rob wanted to go but I had spent a small fortune on merchandise (including getting a signed photo of AJ Styles) and couldn't buy tickets right away....time to work on the budget!!!
It seemed that things were conspiring to stop us from going. First some little ned on a mini-motorbike slammed into the side of my car and took off without stopping meaning I was going to have to take a hit and pay the excess on my car insurance. Then they announced the release of the TNA Fan Interaction tickets which Rob was desperate for. Luckily my brother got a tax rebate at just the right time... so we managed to get both the fan interaction tickets and tickets for both nights of the Pro Wrestling Elite event.
Saturday 15 September - Night 1 of the event - featured four matches which were part of an 8 man tournament to find the first Pro Wrestling Elite World Heavyweight Championship, a tag-team match and the first ever female main event, Mickie James v Kay Lee Ray. The venue was packed and they even had to put out more seats for people who arrived wanting to pay at the door. We had second row seats and Rob was in his element. During one of the tournament matches, one of the wrestlers wouldn't get back into the ring and I ended up yelling at him to get on with it. He responded by telling me to shut my mouth so I called him chicken and started to cluck at him... and the crowd joined in ....Rob was impressed! During the interval we had the chance to have our photo taken with Magnus, another TNA Superstar (he was also former Gladiator Oblivion) and of course I had to be in on that!!!
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| Me, Magnus and Rob |
I bought some raffle tickets and Rob won the DVD of the event we had attended in July. At the end of the evening we managed to meet Magnus and Rob got a signed photo. We drove back to Edinburgh really excited for the following night.
Sunday 16th September was totally amazing! There weren't as many people attending compared to the Saturday, probably because there were a lot of families there on Saturday and the children would have school on the Monday - Rob was so glad that the Monday was an Edinburgh holiday. Because it was quieter we managed to get front row seats. While we were waiting for the show to start, Adrian McCallum went past and I asked if they would be producing a DVD of the event like they did with the previous one. Rob was totally gobsmacked that I had actually spoken to Lionheart - so I went one better and asked if he would have a pic taken with Rob, which he did. He also personalised a signed photograph for him.
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| Rob & his personalised picture of Lionheart |
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| Rob & Adrian "Lionheart" McCallum |
Two of the biggest "heels" Liam Thomson and Mikey Whiplash, who had been eliminated from the tournament the previous night, were teaming up in a match against Magnus and Wolfgang. As they came out, we were booing and giving the thumbs down and they were yelling at us all to shut up. Of course being at ringside and not being the quietest of people, I managed to get their attention and when they told me to shut up, I told them to come over and make me! It ended up with me threatening to blacken Mikey Whiplash's other eye (he got injured on the Saturday night) and him calling me an "ugly cow" and moo-ing at me.....Rob was once again impressed and told me I was the coolest mum ever!! At interval time, we had the chance to get a photo taken in the ring with Mickie James and Rob informed me that my presence was not required and he could manage this one himself.... and he also got a signed photo to add to his ever growing collection!
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| Rob with the lovely Mickie James |
The evening ended with the final of the tournament, Andy Wild v Noam Dar. I admit that I believed even before the tournament started that Noam Dar was a given for the first ever champion...so I was totally surprised when Andy Wild scored the win. It was a great match. Rob managed to get a photo taken with Andy and the belt at the end of the evening and said that one day he would be holding the belt as the champ and not as a fan!! I just warned Andy to make sure he got the right belt back!
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| Rob and Andy Wild |
The thing that stood out the most to me over the entire weekend was how friendly everyone was. Adrian McCallum was more than happy to chat to people and have pictures taken, his girlfriend Alison was so friendly, even when I said I would rather have her boyfriend than raffle tickets. The photographer, David (davidjwilsonphotography.co.uk) and his wife Elaine were so nice. David said he would send me digital copies of the photos of Magnus and Mickie James and he did, which I have included in this blog and Elaine noticed that I went from blonde to purple overnight!! And of course there was Mikey Whiplash....who was sweet enough to moo at me again after the show just for Rob to get a photo. We are so looking forward to the next show!!
Oh yeah, erm Garry my dear brother, I'll pay you back on Tuesday!!!
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