On May 31st, Dumfries born and bred, Liam Watson who currently resides in the Barnhill area of the town has been training for the biggest challenge of his young career. The up and coming American style wrestler has been making waves in the sport since debuting several years ago for Showcase Wrestling (then known as Scottish Pro Wrestling), even reaching the number one contender spot for the British Heavyweight Championship. Sadly before he got the chance to compete for the title last August Liam was seriously injured in a training accident and broke his right cheekbone and badly damaged several muscles in his leg.
The Heavyweight Champion that he was scheduled to face was saddened that he did not get to wrestle the Dumfries lad for the national title.
“Liam is an incredible man and wrestler, he has been a long term friend since we met while working events in Dumfries back at the start of his career. If my British Heavyweight Championship is being lost to anyone I’d like it to be him, he could rise to the challenge and one day very soon i think he will. On May 31st he faces such a difficult task against a opponent who is far heavier and stronger than he is, but, he has what it takes to get through this match as a winner!”
Liam Watson is set to take on a star of hit BBC TV documentary “Insane Fight Club” Nathan Black, a 6 foot 5 inch behemoth of a man who as a reputation for trying to gain victory whatever it takes. This would be a challenge for any man but Liam has decided to make this harder for himself by requesting his match be no disqualification rules, meaning that the only rule that will be in effect is that a 3 count must be made for the win, but, everything else including steel chairs and tables may be legal in the match! Should he win the match the wrestling commission has decided that he will once again be number one contender for the championship
“I have been wrestling for years and, yes, while wrestling is ‘staged’, the dangers are very real. Either me or my opponent will likely be going through a table or hit with an object at ringside during the contest and there is no way for you to make that safer, these ‘weapons’ are real and they do hurt, especially when the man doing the hitting is built like Nathan Black. I have no idea what is going to happen but if I win I get the chance to bring the British Heavyweight Championship to DUMFRIES!”.
Liam Watson’s match is a major focus of the Saturday May 31st event at Lochside Club, which kicks off at 7pm, but, there are several stars of TV on the event having appeared on BBC, ITV/STV/Border, My Channel and Challenge TV. One of these stars is the man who will hopefully be Liam Watson’s next opponent, British Heavyweight Champion, James Scott. The champion will take on Mike Musso, another Scot in the main event of the show for his championship in what many see as his biggest challenge yet.
Dumfries promoter Paul Geddes has been working on bringing the family friendly wrestling action to the town for several years now and he feels that the recent “boom” of wrestling stars from the UK hitting the TV after many years away from it is huge for Showcase Wrestling of Dumfries.
“British and Scottish Wrestling hasn’t been featured on television since the 80’s and there is still such a fondness for the product back then, everyone remembers Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, things may have changed since then, more in line with the American companies like WWE, but, the excitement that many felt watching these monsters tear each other apart is still there, infact we even have Giant Haystacks nephew wrestling at our event on May 31st! The talent from the UK and particularly Scotland is fantastic just now, with a few of our stars such as Grado making the leap into TV drama and comedy working with BBC TV show Burnistoun’s Robert Florence and Greg Hemphill of Still Game fame. It’s time for a new age of wrestling, it’s evolved into something special over here and we will be showing Dumfries the real meaning of a good value exciting family night out. I am delighted that I can finally bring something so compelling and entertaining to my hometown Dumfries”.
It is an action packed night at Lochside Club this coming Saturday and it is set to be the biggest night of wrestling in the regions history, never before have so many stars of TV been packed into one room for a locally run event. Also on the show Dumfries will bear witness to the first ever British National Women’s Champion as Sara and Viper grapple for the newly created title, which is filling the void of championships that women have to compete for.
There will be at least 6 matches on Saturday night and we invite you to come along, meet the TV and wrestling stars and let us at Showcase Wrestling show you what the “sport” has evolved into, with local competitors and promoters, it is a positive turn for the Dumfries based company who have been striving since 2008 to create a special buzz around wrestling. It may finally be happening.
Main image Shared with Full permission from Kevin Sloan of KSSIMAGES
The “Showcase Wrestling: In Your Club” event comes to you from Lochside Club on May 31st at 7pm with tickets available from Lochside Club and Mississippi Bar and Grill, Bank Street Dumfries
