This week I am doing something a little different, instead of talking about TNA I thought I would talk about my local promotion. WAW have been around for 20 years and is run by the knight family. Most of us know at least one of them – Paige the WWE diva’s champion is their daughter. Zak knight is currently fronting a campaign to get British wrestling back on TV that seems to be carrying quite well so far.
The promotion currently have a show on a sky channel, 182 for the next few months so catch them if you can . Here is the first part of my day with the knight family at the WAW training academy, hope you enjoy…
This was the second day of their Academy training weekend, to finish off with an academy show on Sunday evening. On Sunday 6th of April I took a trip down to Norwich as I had been invited to spend a day with the promotion WAW. It
Zak Knight was the trainer for the weekend and had everyone’s absolute attention at all times. He has a whole wealth of wrestling knowledge being part of the Knight legacy, and it was something else seeing him pass this knowledge on to everyone else. He worked them all hard but he gave nothing but praise when things were achieved
The first thing I noticed upon walking into the centre was just how close-knit the whole group was. This is the side of wrestling that fans don’t see, just how close everyone is and how they all look like a family. This is a theme that will run throughout this whole piece, the “family” and how they support each other.
Team building exercises are obviously a very important element to make sure everyone is, and feel safe while training and obviously while in a show. Warm ups are hard, I can’t really explain what they had to do without taking up a half of page of writing but intensity is probably the right word to use. The team building was a little frightening to watch. First , one at a time each member got on the outside of a corner turn buckle while all the other guys gathered round on the floor. Basically they had to drop backwards with the faith that the “family” would catch them. As scary as this seems the element of fun was constantly there, some of the guys in this promotion are big guys and not one of them hit the floor, the team were all working as one.
The next exercise they did were suicide dives either over the top rope or through the middle ropes. As a wrestling fan this is something I would love to do but nerves would defiantly get the better of me. Again this exercise all comes down to absolute trust in all your family. Everyone had a go at this, and the fun they were having while doing this was amazing. Once they started it was hard to get them to stop. Some of the flips these guys were attempting were the sort of thing you would normally see on TV but everyone was caught.
Once these exercises were finished the real work started, and in pairs their teams were asked to come up with a short stint in the ring. Each team had to come up with the moves themselves – showing they could think on their feet and work quickly and safely together. They had a time limit to stick to, 4 minutes, and had to keep their time flowing as smoothly as possible. If they went over the time a forfeit/team building was given to all. They were the plank, or sitting against the wall. They may sound easy but after the way these guys had worked already they were punishing to do and to watch.
While the guys were having a 5 minute break I managed to get an audio interview with Scott Fusion , one of the longest running members of WAW. Click on the name to hear the Interview.
The last exercise the group did was in pairs get in the ring but in turn they had to do a series of 5 moves without telling their partner what they were. This was a very interesting exercise to watch and the point was that if at any point in their future career they have to wrestle someone who can’t/doesn’t speak English, body movements alone would be able to show them what moves they were going to do. Some of the guys took a while to get the hang of this exercise, but they all managed to get the hang of it.
Before they broke for lunch the founder of WAW Ricky Knight cane in to the room and took some of the bigger guys for a lesson in being a heavyweight. As a lot of the group are cruiser weights and high flyers it was nice to see that the company were keeping the heavyweight division alive where some company’s just go for an all round show.
It was a pleasure to see Ricky Knight passing on his vast wealth of knowledge to his team. It was easy to see his passion for the business and just how much he wants to put back into the industry he has worked so hard in.
While Ricky had his guys in the ring showing them how a bigger guy takes a bump, Zak Knight was teaching his half of the group how to do chest slaps effectively. Now we have all seen chest slaps on TV, Bully Ray on TNA does the most damage, leaving hand shapes on the chests of his opponents with blood visibly coming to the surface of the skin. Zak has managed to teach his team a technique that looks extremely painful, but leaves no lasting damage.
As they got ready to break for lunch I got my second audio interview of the day. This guy is one of the high flyers in the company and he is the current Cruiserweight Champion Syd Parker If you click in his name you can hear it. The wonder from down under has come a long way in the company and was an interesting guy to chat to.
Next time I will continue with the afternoon session leading into the academy show that was on that night.
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