I have probably said this a couple of times before and just can’t remember, but I used to hate writing in school. I always thought it was a chore, but I love writing these diaries. I just hope people enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them!

I want to write about my travels in Japan, but to be honest there’s not too much to write about at the moment. Due to COVID 19 we are being told to be very careful when travelling, so I’m either at a show, in the gym or on the bus. So I thought I’d write about one story from a few years ago to follow on from my last diary.

I can look back on this story and laugh now, but dear goodness, at the time I was certainly not laughing. Here we go.

Back in 2018, my friend, mentor and coach Joseph Conners got me a job working for a wrestling company called EPW.

EPW are a travelling company and would do shows most weeks all over the UK. North, south, midlands, you name it.

This particular show was at the Doncaster Dome, a venue with a lot of British wrestling history. I had never worked there before so was very excited to be able to tick it off the checklist.

I can’t remember what happened at the show, but I know I fought in a steel cage match. The show finishes. I’m tired, beat up and quite honestly looking forward to getting home.

For reference, Doncaster is about an hours drive from Nottingham, so I was looking forward to a nice cuppa and being in bed by midnight.

Me and Joe leave Doncaster at around 10pm and get on the M1 motorway (highway) back to Nottingham. We are talking and all of a sudden the car starts vibrating like we are driving over speed bumps. Sometimes there are little ridges on English highways, but the vibrating was going on for about 20 seconds at this point so we pull over to check if there is a problem.

Punctured tyre. Brilliant.

We were in Joe’s car so he calls his breakdown cover provider. They put him on hold. 30 minutes go by… 45 minutes go by… 1 hour goes by… still on hold. This is in February too so it was freezing.

1 HOUR 30 MINUTES ON HOLD AND THE CALL ENDS OUT OF NOWHERE SO HE HAS TO RING BACK AND START ALL OVER AGAIN.

As you can imagine we are extremely frustrated at this point. Then, the highway police turn up.

They tell us we can’t stay in that lay-by as its too dangerous, so they escort us down the motorway about a mile which takes about 10-15 minutes because we have to drive so slow due to the punctured tyre.

They escort us into another, bigger lay-by and then proceed to tell us we can stay here for an hour before they tow the car away.

I was tired, beat up and very angry at this point so I had some words for them, but I think it’s best not to repeat those words. 😊

We get out the car and have a look at the damage of the puncture.

We need to change the tyre and Joe said he had a spare tyre in his trunk and that he needs my help to change it. No problem.

We get the spare tyre out and read up on how to change this old tyre for the new one. It mentions a certain screwdriver you need to get the nuts and screws off the old tyre so you can remove it from the car and put the new one on. Sounds simple right?

Joe checks for the screwdriver and doesn’t have it with him.

We ask the highway police who are helping us at this point. They say they have one, but legally can’t let us use theirs. Absolute nightmare.

It’s 2am, freezing cold on the side of the M1 and the screwdriver we need to change this tyre is 10 feet from where I’m standing but we are not allowed to use it.

I don’t think I’m even half way through this story, so I’ll have to finish it on the next diary. I’m having nightmare flashbacks just writing this. 😂😱

(Legend has it, we are still on hold with the break down cover company to this very day…)