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Dubai Through My Eyes... |
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Wednesday, 25 February 2004 |
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With the prospects of a cold winter looming here in the UK I have to admit that I jumped at the chance to head to sunny Dubai for a 5 week wrestling tournament, give me sunshine any day over the snow and sleet thats on offer here. I was on the build up to Christmas and up to my ears in wrapping paper, when out of the blue I received a phone call from Christian Eckstein in Germany offering me a chance to join the team he was putting together for the tournament, the rest in history, it was a great tour and it was a pleasure to be treated with respect while we wrestled for Total Concepts and WWC, I hate to say this but some promotions treat wrestlers like lowlifes or something they may have stepped in, not the Dubai organization, they treated us all like we were superstars, they put us in a great hotel with a swimming pool and three meals a day with as much as we could eat, the hotel staff were falling over themselves to help us, it wasnt like guests and staff it was more like one big family, I was given an ensuit bedroom with a king-size bed to myself, it even had a balcony that overlooked the main street below, could be a bit noisy at night because the whole city seems to come to life between the hours of 5pm and 6am, all the drivers in Dubai seem to be very happy to keep their hands on their car horns for no apparent reason, luckily it didnt keep me awake, late nights and cans of lager was the order of the day. We did 24 wrestling shows over the thirty days we were there, on our days off they had us go to one of the cities many shopping malls to do some publicity to help promote the shows, it was no big deal we just had to wander round the mall with the Russian dancers who were also on the show with us, the dancers would hand out flyers for the show and we would pose for photographs with the many people who approached us, we also had a professional clown who would come with us, his job at the shows was to keep the children entertained between matches, the dancers also performed between the matches, it made the show longer because there were only 6 wrestlers on the card, thats not a lot to run a 5 week tournament, we started about 9.30 pm every night and we were usually finished for 11pm. The walk back to the hotel was like trying to get through any major city on a Saturday afternoon, the streets were packed with people shopping, the shops stay open until around 3am, you can buy almost anything cheaper than you can here, electrical goods were half the price you would find them on the high street, they dont pay tax on anything, gold is dirt cheap. As there were only 6 wrestlers on the card we had to wrestle each other maybe twice a week, normally a thirty day tournament would carry 15 guys at least, that allows for injuries, we didnt have that luxury this time, if and when we got injured we had to carry on as normal, Thunder injured his knee badly on the second week but just strapped it up and got on with it, Robbie Brookside was covered in bumps and bruises and probably would have benefited from a night off but we didnt have the men to let that happen so like Thunder he just got on with it, my back started to ache but I put that down to not wrestling for a while, my mate Heineken eased the pain when I got back to the hotel bar after the show. Total Concepts had built an arena for us to wrestle in, it looked fantastic, it had a great sound and lighting system and a large TV screen outside showing highlights from previous matches, it held 1200 people, I would go as far as to say it was better than most of the halls we work in back here in the UK, the management of Total Concepts were great to work with too, it was their first ever attempt at running pro wrestling, sure they made mistakes, but they knew that, and assured everyone that next years tournament would be better, I think that Total Concepts and Dubai will be major tournament in the wrestling world and will go on to grow in time, I for one hope I get invited back to take part in next years tournament. The city of Dubai is great, and the people are amongst the friendliest I have ever met anywhere on my travels, what else can I say, I think the whole team loved the place and the tour, Im sure Im not alone in hoping that we all get the calling next year, its hot, the sea is blue and you get a great tan as well as paid, what more could a wrestler ask for?
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