Tuesday, April 15, 2014
More Paul Ryker
Before anything else, I'd like to welcome the newest followers of this blog (now at 390!). I hope you like what you see here. Now here are more images of UK-based Canadian-born wrestler Paul Ryker aka Commando. Ryker is a relatively new addition to the other beefcakes on this blog, but he's already one of the most viewed ones; a Ryker post -- and there have only been two so far -- draws double the number of views vis-a-vis other posts. So it's safe to assume that Ryker has a lot of fans. Are you one of them? Thanks to a good friend of this blog who shared these pics with me via email.
With the bottom two pictures, it's easy to see why he has so many fans!
ReplyDeleteI would say the last three pictures! Have you any idea where he was photographed? t looks like a rather impressive old building, with a small pipe organ: maybe a college?
Delete5 21.02.2014 Paul Ryker [ENG] defeats Joe Hendry [SCO]
ReplyDeleteSWA The War Of Independence @ The Pearce Institute in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Event
You were right about the organ!
ReplyDeleteThe MacLeod Hall provided a grand venue for dances and social gatherings, with its organ, stage and gallery.
There's a nice photo of the Hall and its organ here:
http://www.hiddenglasgow.com/forums/viewtopic.php?
f=15&t=5347
You have to scroll down a bit, there's a lot about the rest of the Institute mostly showing how badly repairs were needed. Supposedly renovations were completed in 2012. But the Hall looks splendid!
I wonder if any of the wrestlers or the fans got the willies. This 2013 report gives cause for concern :) :
ReplyDeleteThe focus of a lot of activity appears to be the MacLeod Hall, named for Rev. John MacLeod, minister of Govan Parish from 1875 to 1898. Michael, one of the caretakers of the P.I., told me that MacLeod Hall “always get folk”. Psychics have detected the ghost of an old man in the Hall complaining about a sore leg. It’s not clear why, although Govan’s industrial past has probably left a legacy of elderly gents with painful limbs. Perhaps the most unnerving tale of the Hall is another one that floats around the Govan collective conscience. One evening, after the P.I had closed, an ex-caretaker was checking over the building and was in MacLeod Hall. There was no one else in the building. In the front of the Hall, on the stage, is a gorgeous old pipe organ, long disconnected. All of a sudden, the organ began to play. Kind of an impossibility given it was decommissioned. Needless to say, the caretaker beat a hasty retreat.
The local Zumba class is held in the hall. Participants often say they feel they are being watched from the balcony, which runs along the back of the hall, opposite the stage. One night, someone looked up and noticed the shadowy outline of a woman on the balcony, wearing something like the headscarf Muslim women often wear. Later on, caretaker Michael saw a photo of Lady Mary Pearce in later years, wearing a mourning veil presumably for her husband. Michael found the similarity in appearance between this and the shadowy figure seen on the balcony rather startling.
In fact, Michael and other staff of the Pearce Institute believe that most of the activity stems from the ghost of Lady Pearce keeping an eye on the place and making sure it’s being properly cared for. Michael says that she’s quite a friendly entity and he’s quite happy to walk around the P.I late at night checking things using only a flashlight, because switching on the main lights would set off the security alarms. He’s not experienced any other haunting with which he can compare the P.I. one. Sometimes he feels he’s been watched, but thinks it’s just Lady Pearce keeping her vigil. Michael’s late night jaunts sometimes take him down a short corridor connecting the side entrance of the MacLeod Hall with the main corridor. Sometimes he sees the doors to the Hall open by themselves.
A poster for the event with both Ryker and Hendry in very plain sight:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ringsideworld.co.uk/Images/posters/16-01-14_14-17SWA---Scotland-vs-England-event-poster.jpg
I know I'm becoming obnoxious with this, you guys didn't come here to get lecture on the site of a wrestling venue. But I promise this is the last. Before I closed my link I scrolled down further than the first images of the Hall and found more good ones. I also found unexpected goodies, so if you follow the above link, please don't stop as I did. Finish it out. I hoping that Max, at least, finds it interesting.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteOh, you're welcome.
ReplyDelete