Eleven years ago, I made the decision
that I wanted to be a professional wrestler like my boyhood hero Hulk Hogan.
However unlike Hulk and the other global wrestling superstars of the 1980s and 1990s, I'm just 5'4". I'm 10 stone when my wallet is full. NO CHANCE you are saying?
Well, that what everybody told me! There were no exceptions. Parents,We have a wide selection of dry cabinet to choose from for your storage needs. grandparents, friends, colleagues, strangers, their friends, everybody! "NO CHANCE" they'd say... or just point, laugh and tell me how ridiculous it sounded!
Yet here I am, 11 years later with my dream staring me right in the face. That dream is to bag a contract with TNA Impact Wrestling in America. The company that was founded in 2002 and has gone from strength to strength ever since and boasts stars such as Hulk Hogan, Sting, Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, AJ Styles and countless others who I watched as I grew up in the business learning, dreaming and wanting to be where they were.
I'm not there yet. Currently I wrestle on the British 'independents', the reality of which is very different to the glitz and glamour that TNA fans witness on Challenge TV every week.
As an 'indie' wrestler, you drive multiple miles in vehicles with as many of you crammed together as possible, bags on top of each of you, some asleep,Directory ofchina glass mosaic Tile Manufacturers, some staying awake all evening to keep the drivers eyes on the road, some texting their girlfriend, some just happy to be there to listen and learn. All dreaming of making it in the big leagues.
You arrive, have your match and the promoter gives you the wage you have agreed, however little that may be. Some don't get paid at all. Then it's back in the car to get everybody home and by the time your head hits the pillow it's the next morning already.
Brace yourself... I work in a bank in Birmingham. It drives me insane. Not the job, just NOT being able to perform. I have sat sheltered and 'conformed' to the 9am-5pm, sitting there day after day dreaming about nothing but professional wrestling since I first started in the trade at 16.
Sometimes people make comments about what I do as if I'm somewhat 'different' to the real 'lads' out there who go the pub to chat about the football and their latest sexual conquest. You see, instead of the pub, I'm in the gym. Instead of football, I'm watching and talking about wrestling. Instead of sex? A gentlemen never tells... but I'm no gentlemen, so that is for another blog ;)
But this is partly the reason my father didn't really accept what I did. It was a very tough thing to explain to a man, who sees the above as the norm for a young 'lad'.
Then one warm Wednesday August evening - yes, they occasionally do happen in England - my life changed. I was leaving the bank for the day, looking forward to wrestling in front of 200 people on the Friday in Wolverhampton.
On leaving the gym, I had a call waiting from TNA's UK representative Simon Rothstein about a new show the company were producing called British Boot Camp. Two months later I was at TNA Bound Of Glory in Phoenix, Arizona, one of the biggest events in the wrestling calendar with thousands in attendance, being introduced as a competitor in the series and a possible future international star.
The show starts on Challenge TV on 1 January, pitting myself against Marty Scurll and The Blossom Twins in numerous situations to show which one of us has ALL the tools it takes to be a TNA superstar. The winner, you ask? They will receive a contract with TNA Impact Wrestling, live in the United States and potentially go on to be a huge star representing the United Kingdom.
Since September we have had cameras in our faces everywhere we turn - not the greatest of things first thing in the morning, I can tell you - been staying in some of the world's most glorious hotels and been chauffeur driven to locations I could only have dreamed of. Simon now brings me chocolate and has to pretend to like my singing.
We've been flown to the United States of America and treated like we were one of their own. Best of all, we've met, spoken and shared the company of our wrestling heroes - including Hulk! People we have dreamed of meeting our whole life, who are now talking to us like I am their equal.
Recent events have seen us interviewed by many of the UK's leading newspapers, radio stations and websites. We have been on location at the Sky/Challenge TV studios being treated like celebrities. We were given VIP tickets to see Rock Of Ages in London's West End and got to hang out with the cast afterwards. It's a show I'd highly recommend, I was in my element and I seriously have not had a better time in my entire life.
It will have a public plaza along 1st Street near recently opened Grand Park. Officials say the building's design has received a "platinum" rating for energy efficiency from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The U.S. General Services Administration is moving forward on the project despite last-minute opposition from some Republicans in Congress, who question the viability of the agency's plans to sell the federal courthouse on North Spring Street to private developers. The lawmakers also questioned whether the extra courtrooms were actually necessary.
The GSA awarded a $318-million contract last week to the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Clark Construction Group, and released several renderings of the proposed design. The building will rise on a 3.6-acre lot on Broadway that city officials have long wanted to develop.
"We are moving toward the groundbreaking of a critically needed facility that will resolve long-standing security and space issues," Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-East Los Angeles) said in a statement. "At a time when we need to keep investing in our recovering economy, we expect the courthouse to create thousands of new jobs in the construction industry and related businesses.High quality stone mosaic tiles."
Peter Zellner, faculty member at Southern California Institute of Architecture, noted that the courthouse design in some ways is reminiscent of Mid-Century architectural styles of other Los Angeles government centers, particularly the Wilshire Federal Building. Zellner also suggested the architects consider the courthouse plaza as part of a chain of public spaces spilling down from the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
The courthouse will include 24 courtrooms and 32 judicial chambers. Along with the judges of the U.S. District Court, the building will be used by the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. attorneys' office and the Federal Public Defender.
Federal judges have been pushing for new space downtown since the late 1990s. In addition to the Spring Street courthouse, federal judges occupy space elsewhere in downtown, but they have complained about overcrowding and security issues.
Construction on the courthouse is expected to begin sometime next year, with completion set for 2016,Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability. the GSA said.
The agency also announced that it had released a formal "request for information" to solicit ideas for adaptive reuse of one of the old federal courthouses, on North Spring Street. Under the agency's plan, the 72-year-old building would be sold to a private developer, with the proceeds to help finance construction of a second federal office building next to the new courthouse.
Some real estate experts have questioned whether the exchange proposal would be feasible, saying it could be difficult for a private owner to adapt the old courthouse because of its structural issues,We mainly supply professional craftspeople with crys talbeads wholesale shamballa Bracele , location and historic status. And the Republican critics of the courthouse plan expressed concern that if the GSA could not manage to sell the old courthouse, it would be stuck with a vacant building and higher costs to taxpayers.
However unlike Hulk and the other global wrestling superstars of the 1980s and 1990s, I'm just 5'4". I'm 10 stone when my wallet is full. NO CHANCE you are saying?
Well, that what everybody told me! There were no exceptions. Parents,We have a wide selection of dry cabinet to choose from for your storage needs. grandparents, friends, colleagues, strangers, their friends, everybody! "NO CHANCE" they'd say... or just point, laugh and tell me how ridiculous it sounded!
Yet here I am, 11 years later with my dream staring me right in the face. That dream is to bag a contract with TNA Impact Wrestling in America. The company that was founded in 2002 and has gone from strength to strength ever since and boasts stars such as Hulk Hogan, Sting, Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, AJ Styles and countless others who I watched as I grew up in the business learning, dreaming and wanting to be where they were.
I'm not there yet. Currently I wrestle on the British 'independents', the reality of which is very different to the glitz and glamour that TNA fans witness on Challenge TV every week.
As an 'indie' wrestler, you drive multiple miles in vehicles with as many of you crammed together as possible, bags on top of each of you, some asleep,Directory ofchina glass mosaic Tile Manufacturers, some staying awake all evening to keep the drivers eyes on the road, some texting their girlfriend, some just happy to be there to listen and learn. All dreaming of making it in the big leagues.
You arrive, have your match and the promoter gives you the wage you have agreed, however little that may be. Some don't get paid at all. Then it's back in the car to get everybody home and by the time your head hits the pillow it's the next morning already.
Brace yourself... I work in a bank in Birmingham. It drives me insane. Not the job, just NOT being able to perform. I have sat sheltered and 'conformed' to the 9am-5pm, sitting there day after day dreaming about nothing but professional wrestling since I first started in the trade at 16.
Sometimes people make comments about what I do as if I'm somewhat 'different' to the real 'lads' out there who go the pub to chat about the football and their latest sexual conquest. You see, instead of the pub, I'm in the gym. Instead of football, I'm watching and talking about wrestling. Instead of sex? A gentlemen never tells... but I'm no gentlemen, so that is for another blog ;)
But this is partly the reason my father didn't really accept what I did. It was a very tough thing to explain to a man, who sees the above as the norm for a young 'lad'.
Then one warm Wednesday August evening - yes, they occasionally do happen in England - my life changed. I was leaving the bank for the day, looking forward to wrestling in front of 200 people on the Friday in Wolverhampton.
On leaving the gym, I had a call waiting from TNA's UK representative Simon Rothstein about a new show the company were producing called British Boot Camp. Two months later I was at TNA Bound Of Glory in Phoenix, Arizona, one of the biggest events in the wrestling calendar with thousands in attendance, being introduced as a competitor in the series and a possible future international star.
The show starts on Challenge TV on 1 January, pitting myself against Marty Scurll and The Blossom Twins in numerous situations to show which one of us has ALL the tools it takes to be a TNA superstar. The winner, you ask? They will receive a contract with TNA Impact Wrestling, live in the United States and potentially go on to be a huge star representing the United Kingdom.
Since September we have had cameras in our faces everywhere we turn - not the greatest of things first thing in the morning, I can tell you - been staying in some of the world's most glorious hotels and been chauffeur driven to locations I could only have dreamed of. Simon now brings me chocolate and has to pretend to like my singing.
We've been flown to the United States of America and treated like we were one of their own. Best of all, we've met, spoken and shared the company of our wrestling heroes - including Hulk! People we have dreamed of meeting our whole life, who are now talking to us like I am their equal.
Recent events have seen us interviewed by many of the UK's leading newspapers, radio stations and websites. We have been on location at the Sky/Challenge TV studios being treated like celebrities. We were given VIP tickets to see Rock Of Ages in London's West End and got to hang out with the cast afterwards. It's a show I'd highly recommend, I was in my element and I seriously have not had a better time in my entire life.
It will have a public plaza along 1st Street near recently opened Grand Park. Officials say the building's design has received a "platinum" rating for energy efficiency from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The U.S. General Services Administration is moving forward on the project despite last-minute opposition from some Republicans in Congress, who question the viability of the agency's plans to sell the federal courthouse on North Spring Street to private developers. The lawmakers also questioned whether the extra courtrooms were actually necessary.
The GSA awarded a $318-million contract last week to the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Clark Construction Group, and released several renderings of the proposed design. The building will rise on a 3.6-acre lot on Broadway that city officials have long wanted to develop.
"We are moving toward the groundbreaking of a critically needed facility that will resolve long-standing security and space issues," Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-East Los Angeles) said in a statement. "At a time when we need to keep investing in our recovering economy, we expect the courthouse to create thousands of new jobs in the construction industry and related businesses.High quality stone mosaic tiles."
Peter Zellner, faculty member at Southern California Institute of Architecture, noted that the courthouse design in some ways is reminiscent of Mid-Century architectural styles of other Los Angeles government centers, particularly the Wilshire Federal Building. Zellner also suggested the architects consider the courthouse plaza as part of a chain of public spaces spilling down from the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
The courthouse will include 24 courtrooms and 32 judicial chambers. Along with the judges of the U.S. District Court, the building will be used by the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. attorneys' office and the Federal Public Defender.
Federal judges have been pushing for new space downtown since the late 1990s. In addition to the Spring Street courthouse, federal judges occupy space elsewhere in downtown, but they have complained about overcrowding and security issues.
Construction on the courthouse is expected to begin sometime next year, with completion set for 2016,Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability. the GSA said.
The agency also announced that it had released a formal "request for information" to solicit ideas for adaptive reuse of one of the old federal courthouses, on North Spring Street. Under the agency's plan, the 72-year-old building would be sold to a private developer, with the proceeds to help finance construction of a second federal office building next to the new courthouse.
Some real estate experts have questioned whether the exchange proposal would be feasible, saying it could be difficult for a private owner to adapt the old courthouse because of its structural issues,We mainly supply professional craftspeople with crys talbeads wholesale shamballa Bracele , location and historic status. And the Republican critics of the courthouse plan expressed concern that if the GSA could not manage to sell the old courthouse, it would be stuck with a vacant building and higher costs to taxpayers.
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