Wrestling: A Re-Discovery

• March 16, 2012
• 1 Comment
• Blog, Wrestling
• Posted by Ed

I was born in High Wycombe. I grew up in High Wycombe. Between 2005 and 2009 I lived away, then I came back. Not through choice, I should add.

All my life, I’ve known about Wycombe Judo Centre. When I was a tiny child, my mum took me there to learn gymnastics. (For those who are interested, I also did contemporary dance at that age. I went on to play football, then rugby, rowing, athletics and wrestling – both amateur and American style ‘professional wrestling’).

Yet, since the day I was old enough to form the words “No mum, I don’t want to wear a leotard”, I’ve never returned. Until this week. Whereupon, what do I discover?

Not only does it do judo, as the name suggests, it also does urban gymnastics (free running and parkour) which I have loved FOREVER, it is also the training site for an American style professional wrestling federation. Something I was doing over a decade ago in this very town).

Don’t believe me? Here I am in 2004, in the middle of my school hall:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pMuCxphI5s&w=420&h=315]

That was years into my love affair with pro-wrestling – I’d been doing it forever at that point. Granted, there is no wrestling ring in that video, but I learned the techniques ‘properly’ in a ring with British Extreme Champion Wrestling, until a guillotine chokeslam knocked me out and broke a number of my toes. At that point my parents decided they weren’t driving me to London to get beaten up any more.

I mention that because, at that point, I was still too young to drive – that’s how far back this is going! Although I’ve returned to do a Royal Rumble here or a six-man tag match there, I’ve been inactive for years.

Yet, for the last few years at least, these things have been happening under my nose, whilst I hid away in gyms and sweat-boxes, training for no particular goal or reason – other than to clear my mind and keep myself fit. And all at the Wycombe Judo Centre – that innocently named dojo in Cressex.

Perhaps it’s time I dusted off the old kit. Perhaps it’s time I remembered why I even started playing live music in the first place – because, at the heart of it all, I love to perform.

• Tags: pro wrestling, wrestling, Wycombe Judo Centre