Crazee Column

Paper Tiger?
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EPW made the press today (Friday 7th May, 2004). At a circulation of around 7,855 (far more if it gets reprinted in the Bath Chronicle), the article in the Keynsham & Saltford Observer sold for 20 pence where sold, and was delivered free to most houses in the local area where EPW is practised.

Getting straight to business, which is something we in EPW are all about; we'd like to firstly thank Hugo Berger and his Editor & team for the work and time they took to feature a bunch of backyarders in their press - thanks!

I won't mince my words, though; there were a few errors in the details, including the web address which was given as www.epw.co.uk instead of the right one; www.epwuk.com. Obviously we were rather disappointed with this, and Corporate Ken got straight on the phone to Hugo, who promised to right the errors in the next issue with a correction [Ed - Cheers, we appreciate it!]. In the meantime we shall have to hope that any browsing members of the local public have the good sense to use a search engine (like www.google.co.uk) and find us that way.

In other errors; CrazeeKim's wrestling name was given as 'Kim Kaze', which is her 'pen name', and she has never wrestled under it.

Also, George Morgan (Wife to Ken Flatt), was cited as being called George Flatt. A simple mistake to make ...

We have 16 active wrestlers on the EPW roster, and 7 inactive/ex wrestlers. Not 15 in total, as cited.

Rather than 'try' to make our shows suitable for a PG-13/PG rating, I would argue that they /are/ suitably rated thus; and in fact are considerably below the content of what you would see in a lot of PG rated material. Despite our hard hitting action, there is no sex or references to it, no guns or knives, and no cursing included. Many PGs feature the above.

Finally in the form of a comment /on/ a comment, I would say that yes we do sometimes use wrestling video games to watch the moves being done over and over in the 'set up your character' section (where you can watch ONE MOVE done technically over and over again, clearly). But we don't just play video games and learn from that; in the main game you can't really tell what's going on and it's only a kid's game, really. Video games are not real and some do promote violence of a kind that would be clearly irresponsible and stupidly dangerous to repeat in person. We only do proper wrestling moves, and our own grappling techniques, etc. There is no stupidity in EPW ... and if you doubt us, watch a show for yourself. Judge only once you have seen, and let he who is without knee-jerking amongst you, cast the very first stone.

However, since we got the press for free, and it hasn't made us look bad as some feared, I still think it was a good idea. What's more, it was our first pop at making mainstream work for us. It's high time that Keynsham was on the map again, and for something that is colourful and provokes discussion and thinking. Keynsham's not dead and 80 plus ... it's alive and kicking!

The only thing I was unhappy with in terms of the actual, written content was that the article cited the fed as all 'devout Christians'. I spent about two minutes saying the exact opposite, and explaining that whilst about 70 per cent of us are Christian, we are all from different walks of life and are totally varied in belief and devoutness of that belief. I definitely made it CLEAR to him that there are non-Christian and non-religious members of the roster.

So I apologise to anyone who does fall into this category - I did my best to show us as we really are, and nothing but. At least it wasn't the sort of error that would be seriously against what we are about, like saying 'we DO use glass and barbed wire', when we never do and are against the use of such things for entertainment purposes.

However, back to the good news! The article was basically an all round good work, giving light to what we do in the EPW, and explaining why and how we differ from some other feds, some of whom were seen on Channel 4 not too long ago. I would add at this point though, that a few of those presented on the documentary 'Lock up your sons' we do not consider dangerous people, and have no issues with them personally. It always has been a small minority in backyard wrestling - as with all things in life - who give the rest of us a bad name.

The names mentioned in the piece were only those who gave their verbal consent on the day, which was encouraging. Not everyone wants their name splashed all over the local town, and the respected privacy is appreciated.

So, all in all - a great effort and a good article, but with room for improvement, I think.

-=CrazeeKim=-