(P, PD, BRS) W3L Queens Hall, Hexham - afternoon show Saturday may 20th

0925 and I'm awoken by last night's beer can falling off the shelf. My train leaves in an hour so a quick shower and a dash to the bus stand insues. The sandwich kit and beer are in my bag ready - as is a spare shirt. I'm not taking any chances this time. Quick pause to refill my trusty hip flask, and off we go.

I've said this before, and I'm sure I'll say it again. Stagecoach route planners suck. Badly.

5 min to go and it's all aboard the graps train. My first time in Hexham since the last cannonball run (Tyne valley ale trail). Train beer is a Guinness original - the optical nerves started tingling last night in Asda, and after a little bit of searching I found out why, they had it on 4 tins for £2.50.

The card for the W3L show either hasn't been announced or is buried somewhere, but I've got an idea that one of the Owens sisters is likely to be there. I've not kept up with the product apart from that, but I know it can be viewed on their YouTube channel W3LNetwork.

It's funny, but as picturesque as the landscapes are here I don't get the same urge to listen to the green and the grey by new model army as I get when going between Leeds and Hebden Bridge. So the soundtrack to today's journey is a heavy mix of PJ Harvey, Birmingham 6, bad religion and Desperate Journalist (who's recent album release is awesome by the way Check out their site ) with a little bit of red paintings peppered throughout.

At Hexham station, an uphill walk leads to the venue, I'm an hour early and there's a cafe inside, so a hot chocolate is on the menu - a salted caramel one - luxury and all that...

A quick peek round the corner and there's the wetherspoons I used to work the door of back in the day. I know some of the breweries that have a good relationship with this place, so I'm straight in for a pint of Big Lamp keelman brown - perfect breakfast beer.

Doors are in half an hour

World of sport (the original one) star "Blondie Barratt" is apparently in attendance for this event. It looks like he was a regular tag partner of Kendo Nagasaki back in the day.

Keelman brown sunk, conversation with an older rocker in the spoons ended and its off to the queens hall.

Now, this is a theatre in a library/art gallery/community hub complex. There's a sports centre down the road. With a sports hall. Just saying.

We're in a set place theatre with the ring on the stage at the front and one bank of seating.

This has good and bad points - it's a bit detaching, but the lighting and sound should be good. It would be better if they weren't playing a service station "generic rock" compilation before the start. I've heard Bon Jovi's always twice this last week and frankly that's more than enough
A little concerned by the audience size to be honest. Probably going to end up being moved forward.

Hard cam is set up right in the middle of the seating bank. So we're all viewing from the same angle. As far as the adjustments the wrestlers, I can see this being a bit strange, but working to only one side can put the matches in good stead for a single camera video shoot since to play to the audience they're also playing to the camera so to speak.

The ring announcer comes out - he looks a bit like one of the tech guys I sometimes have a bit of a natter with at Whitby Goth Weekend. Sounds a bit like him too. If that is you Savage, good on you mate. Next time you're up in the Tyne/wear area, give me a shout and I'll gladly give a hand setting up etc.

Lo and behold we're moved forward

There's around 60/70 here initially, mainly kids, and here I am the mid 30s bloke blogging about it. Guess who feels a little out of place.

No open bar at the event, but the cafe I went to before is open. And they do sell beer, though it's not on display - good to know for the Interval.

I'm sitting in line with the camera - mainly because I'm two beers and a hot chocolate deep, and fat man going for a pee is not a regular segment on the W3L network.

The merch table gets moved to the side, the house lights go down.

No videoing or photos for distributors. No lazer pointers  no bad language etc public service announcement played from what sounds like a 1940s era 78rpm bakolite cylinder. I think it was the B-side to "dig for victory

And we're off. Ragnar Vs Mike Musso

Heel Ragnar promo pre-match is awesome. Musso is dressed  as a Beverly Brother, but kind of resembles a younger and shorter Kevin Nash.

The in ring work is pretty good here, I've not overly detailed the matches here for the most part because the gramophone message at the start would suggest that they might see this as some sort of copyright infringement.

both guys put on a great opener and engaged the crowd well. Musso, for someone that neither myself or seemingly the rest of the punters were familiar with got over nicely as a fan favourite.

Musso wins with a fireman's carry into a DDT. As far as finishers go, it came a bit out of the blue, and looked pretty good.

Blondie Barratt is out next. He's wearing an "old school" T-shirt. A smile comes over my face as it dawns on me that I've seen this particular shirt somewhere before. The WAW has a heel faction called "old school" headed up by Ricky Knight and Jimmy Ocean. I kind of get the feeling I'm the only one here in on this.

His opposition is a firm fan favourite here. Big Dave Jeremi.

Barratt is a fantastic heel. He's someone I genuinely wasn't​ majorly familiar with before the show, save a YouTube video or two, but was well hooked into watching shortly after he emerged. Oldschool by shirt, old school by nature.

The crowd are properly going for him here by the way, I can't tell is the kids at the front hate him more or of he's loving the reaction more.

Barratt lines Jeremi up for a chop against the ringpost and misses. Jeremi works the hand for a while, leading Barratt around the crowd, until the kids start attacking Blondie. The Ring announcer comes out and ushers the wrestlers back onto the stage​.

Barratt won with a feet on the ropes roll up.

The ring announcer comes back to remind us there's a raffle and that we can get merch at half time​ etc. He then tells us that  a member of the W3L roster would like some time to address us.

Euan G Mackie is out to address us all. And lay down an open challenge

There's a back story to this one - Euan took W3L on to judge rinder (cheesy people's court style ITV daytime show) to challenge the suspension they gave him. W3L was represented by Mike Musso.

Musso accepts the open challenge and pulls double duty.

Green mist to the eyes of musso. Mackie is in charge until getting caught mid dive.
He sneaks an advantage again and a bell rings eventually.

Mackie removes a turnbuckle pad. While the ref is repairing it, he went and removed the opposite one - nice touch.

Very entertaining match. Euan G Mackie is one vicious little sod!  Gave a nice back story. He eventually walked away and got counted out.

Intermission beer is wylam rocket. The raffle is drawn and a kid wins a W3L DVD, a backstage pass and an inflatable hammer.

Line of the night from the ring announcer: "maybe we could have had more prizes if more tickets were sold". I couldn't tell if he was bollocking the audience or the merch guy.

Woman's match kicks off the second half.  Debbie Sharp Vs Ruby Summers.

Debbie's​ interaction with the audience is awesome. The kids' words here are vicious to say the least.

Ruby wins with a codebreaker. The chemistry was definitely there between these two, and this was

Rumble match to finish.

Participants
Euan G Mackie, Blondie Barratt, Ragnar, Mike Musso, Big Dave Jeremi, and "The Red Tormentor"

Mackie puts out Musso

Red Tormentor  thrown out by the Barratt and Ragnar.

Big Dave Jeremi puts out Euan G Mackie

Jeremi puts out Ragnar and Barratt to win.

All in all this was a decent little kid friendly show, I think this is their debut in this place, so more power to them. It's nice to see Wrestling coming to smaller towns, and with the wealth of shows that happen in Newcastle finishing after the last train or bus back to Hexham, it gives folks out here the chance to get into the live experience.