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Saracen's Tenet

ST: Ready to Rumble?

I’d like to think that I am speaking for all wrestlers when I say that there is nothing like a Royal Rumble. Obviously I am wrong, there are wrestlers out there who probably think they are a waste of time and will want to concentrate on their singles matches, but I love them…

I’d like to think that I am speaking for all wrestlers when I say that there is nothing like a Royal Rumble. Obviously I am wrong, there are wrestlers out there who probably think they are a waste of time and will want to concentrate on their singles matches, but I love them.


A Royal Rumble was my first experience of meeting the audience, it was in an environment where the crowd was cheering and booing and the people I had trained and worked with for so long had the chance to show what they could do.


Yes, I am very nostalgic about things, but a Royal Rumble has so much going for it, it is a storybook with multiple characters, each one telling their own tale, it is your choice, as a viewer, who’s story you follow. However, it serves as a very good training tool for green wrestlers such as myself.


In my first rumble I learnt a lot about what wrestling really is, I also got to learn it from the people most important to me, the crowd. Everyone knows the stigmatism that surrounds trainee shows, the audience is usually family and friends, perhaps a few people interested in that particular company, but generally, your cheers or boos come from people you know. At a full show, those people are in the minority, there can be hundreds of people who don’t know you from Adam and you have to entertain them. I came into wrestling as a bit of a cynic; I came out of that rumble with a love for the game.


The other great thing is the people you get to wrestle, people who you would normally never get the chance to. As it is usually billed, I am the heaviest (and arguably, the strongest) wrestler in KSW, therefore my opponents have to be big or I would just squash match my way through the roster. However, to wrestle the likes of Corey Americana and Marcus Kool is an enjoyable moment, as it is a challenge to get used to their style and most of all do something that you never would normally get to do with them. It is also nice to see small guys team up on the big guys and actually knock them down, as was done to me in a rumble, though I was none too happy at the time!


I know that a Royal Rumble is not everyone’s cup of tea though, with a 2 minute break between wrestlers entering the ring a 30 man Royal Rumble comes in with all wrestlers entered just shy of an hour.


This can be a problem for wrestlers as well, which is why sometimes you see them milling about looking a touch lost, they are in fact taking that break, getting oxygen back into the system and trying to refocus on how to eliminate opponents, whilst not getting eliminated themselves. Of course, some would say that a wrestler should be able to go an hour without tiring, stamina is their speciality, but even professional runners have the facility to get a drink along the way, you see professional footballers drink Lucozade every time the match stops. In a rumble, you stop for a drink when you are eliminated.


I think that a Royal Rumble is very entertaining for the fans, it is almost a calamity of action, if there is a better word to describe it please let me know, and it is mostly used as a good tool to sell wrestlers to people, each rumble is unique and tells a different story every time, in fact I could say that it is impossible to recreate the same rumble each time.


You see the main focus of the rumble is a simple one, get the wrestler over the top rope and make their feet touch the floor. This leaves things open to interpretation and also as this tends to be the only rule, every man is out for himself and nothing is barred. This leads to good guy hitting good guy, the sort of match that you would not get to see normally, bad guy saving good guy from a fall, many connotations that perhaps as a fan you have wondered about.


The problem, I have learned, in the UK is getting 30 wrestlers to do one, I know if I was asked to drive up to be part of the show, just to be in a rumble, I would do it in a shot, but others wouldn’t. It is unfortunate that some wrestlers see a singles match as the only thing that they should be doing and wouldn’t lower themselves to sharing a spot with 30 other wrestlers.


That isn’t a criticism, that is a fact as told by several promoters to me when I have asked them why they don’t get 30 wrestlers. I just think it is a shame that some people don’t have such a love for a giant slobberknocker like I do, but fair play, it’s their choice. The only thing I would say is that usually you get longer exposure to the fans than you would in a singles match, last rumble that I fought in, I was in there for 20 minutes, longer than some main events, now that’s exposure!


I long for the day when I can be involved in a true 30 man rumble, there are 29 other wrestlers I can learn from, a crowd that I love to entertain, more time and less pressure to do it in as opposed to a singles match and a hard floor to land on when I finally go over.


What can be better than that?


Keep emailing and keep safe.


Saracen