I just got home late last night after wrestling one of the most satisfying, and arguably greatest, matches of my life in Stockholm, Sweden this past Saturday night.  Man, oh man… what a match it was!

It’s funny to think, that here at age 44, I am still pulling rabbits out of the proverbial hat, proving that age is just a number and wine really does get better with age.  After all, I’ve lived, breathed, bled and sweat this business we call professional wrestling for damn near a quarter-century already.  A tiger cannot change its stripes and experience just makes you wiser and more cunningly dangerous as the years accumulate.

July 8, 2017 will go down in the annals of professional wrestling history as one of the most significant events in Nordic grappling lore.  It was the night that I stepped into the ring as the interim – and first – Valhalla Nordic Wrestling Champion, to face the challenge of a young man nearly half my age, the current STHLM Wrestling Champion, “Kid Fury” Timmy Force.

I remember holding a training camp back in 2014 in Langå, Denmark, attended by over 20 wrestling students from four different countries, and young Timmy Force was one of those students at that time.  He had limited experience, being a raw rookie in our industry, and he wanted to get better and up his personal ante.  I was amazed back then at the natural ability of this kid.  He took to everything like a fish to water, and it would have been easy to believe that he had been wrestling already for at least a year, simply gauging by the skill level that he exhibited even early on then.

At the end of the training camp in Langå that summer, the DPW (Danish Pro Wrestling) office that hosted the camp, decided to hold a student show on the final day, to give the boys a chance to prove their wares in front of a VIP/invitation-only audience.  Timmy faced another fellow Swede, who has since come to be known as J.O. Hansen on the Swedish wrestling circuit.  They had one hell of a capable and credible wrestling match on that student show, proving to me, as their coach, that both guys were on the track to pro wrestling stardom, if only they could keep their heads level and their bodies healthy.

Timmy Force has risen like a phoenix in the Swedish wrestling scene.  He has garnered high-profile victories over the likes of even New Japan Pro Wrestling star Juice Robinson in the past couple of years, and has gone the distance with much more experienced foes like Matt Sydal (Evan Bourne in WWE).  In short, my prediction back in 2014, that Timmy would become a star in this business, became a prophesy come true.

Alas, come July 8, 2017, it is only fitting that Timmy Force would have to face the greatest challenge of his young career.  It was the day that he would have to step into the ring with his former coach, “The Rebel” StarBuck, in front of a red-hot, rabid Stockholm homefront crowd, that wanted so desperately to see Timmy take the ultimate prize, the Valhalla Nordic Wrestling Championship.

And so it was, that for a good half-hour, Timmy Force fought, kicked, scratched and clawed at the elusive golden ring, in his spirited attempt to wrestle it away from it’s momentary proprietor, me.

Timmy did everything he could, fought valiantly, showed fire, hit his moves with crisp precision… everything in his power… to claim the ultimate prize waiting at the end of it all.

But it was not to be.

When all was said and done, Timmy Force was bloody, battered and beaten, in front of a hometown crowd that was on the verge of a frenzy.

StarBuck’s infamous finisher, the jumping spike piledriver, once again took this old boy to the bank.  It was the move that cemented me in wrestling lore for all time as the first UNDISPUTED Valhalla Nordic Wrestling Champion!

Now, let the challengers line up.  Let them come, one by one.  Let them try to wrest this golden grail or Nordic supremacy away from the old lion!  Let them all come, and let them all fall… and bow… to the KING.

(Photos: Fredrik Streiffert)