Erik Isaksen's blog for WE: Wrestling trips abroad

-ERIK ISAKSEN'S BLOG FOR WE.Com: Wrestling trips abroad-

We are already in May, and I have not written any blogs since "2007: My year in review", so I think it is about time to write another blog.

At the start of the year, I wrestled in the new "hotbed" in European wrestling: Spain. Actually, I have wrestled in Spain several times before for three different promotions, but wrestling is more popular than ever in Spain at the moment. This time I was booked for the first time by Eventos de Wrestling Europeo (EWE). I have been in contact with the promoter, José Serrano, since I met him on my first wrestling trip to Spain five years ago. As 2007 was getting towards an end, he contacted me about taking part in a tournament to crown the first EWE Champion. In front of 2.000 people in Bilbao, I won my semi-final match against Italian wrestler Kaio on the 4th January.

EWE: Erik Isaksen vs. Kaio (Bilbao, Spain)


The final will take place in Sevilla on the 28th June. My opponent will be none other than Bernard Vandamme who I have previously wrestled a number of times in Norway, Finland and France. I am looking forward to another match against him.

Just under a week ago, I had my "1 year anniversary" as the WAW World Champion after winning the title at Fightmare 2 in Lowestoft on the 12th May last year. This year, I have been to England twice to defend the title, both times against the great UK star Zebra Kid. On the 26th January, I wrestled him at the Silverjubilee Hall in Takeley, a small venue with great atmosphere, and then on the 27th April in a re-match at the Marina Centre in Gt. Yarmouth. Although both matches could have gone either way, I have held on to the title....



In another England match this year, I faced talented youngster Zak Zodiac for the HEW title (26th April), and for the first time in my career I lost a match.....by.....being locked out of the building. After close to 30 minutes of wrestling in the ring without being able to pin or submit him, I challenged Zak to continue the match as a streetfight in the streets of Takeley:-) As I walked out of the doors, he shut the doors behind me and the referee counted me out..... Earlier on the same day, I wrestled a couple of TV matches for Real Quality Wrestling (RQW) at the Seni Exhibition, the world's biggest martial arts exhibition. Those matches are going to be available for download on the RQW website in the future.



I enjoy travelling to England to meet up with old friends there. In January, I also travelled with Victor, a fellow Norwegian wrestler and good friend. Hopefully, I will travel on more trips with him later in the year.

So far this year, I have also had two great trips to Germany. The first time, I was booked by the German Wrestling Federation (GWF) for a match in Berlin. There I faced upcoming GWF wrestler Rambo on the 15th March. That date did also mark my 12 year anniversary since my first ever wrestling match:-)



The second time, I was booked by Nordic Championship Wrestling (NCW). I faced Karsten Kretschmer for his European Championship on the 3rd May. He retained the title by pinning me in the 10th round in a hard-fought back and forth match. I had never wrestled against Karsten Kretschmer or even met him before, but I am happy that I got a chance to wrestle against him. He is one of the veterans on the German circuit and a great technical wrestler.



I enjoy travelling to different places abroad to wrestle. In addition to wrestling, there are fun moments that will continue to live on in my memories. There are many friendly people who are always nice to meet, but some of them I do not get to meet very often. Hopefully, there will be a number of exciting trips coming up in the rest of the year, so I finish off this blog with this:

ARE YOU A PROMOTER? Please feel free to contact me about possible bookings either on e-mail (erikwrestling@hotmail.com) or via the myspace message system. I am also available for training seminars.

Thanks for reading. Take care.

Erik(www.myspace.com/erikisaksen)