We miss Isak Rain.
The whole European Wrestling miss him!

It’s strange, we’ve never met him, we only knew him as we know other hundreds of European wrestlers, but we really miss him. We perfectly remember that sad Oct. 10, we remember that strange and unpleasant feelings of emptiness.
Norvegian, British, Finnish and Italian Fans have had the chance to feel his enthusiasm, his dedication, his talent. We personally haven’t and now we regret to not having been there for his Italian shows.


So.. We feel bound to dedicate this page to Isak ‘Rain’ Bjerknes, a young star from Norway, an heritage for all the European Wrestling, but more than this, a really young guy with a lot of dreams to realize and friends to love. We are very pleased to present this tribute from his friends, the guys that really had the opportunity to know him and the only ones that could explain who really Isak was.

Someone said “Only the good die young”.. That someone was terribly right!

With love,
Matteo and Stefano, WrestlEurope Staff

-Erik Isaksen:"Remembering Isak"-

As I write this, it is almost a year since Isak «Rain» Bjerknes died. I can not believe a year has already gone since I received the phonecall and was told «Isak is dead». The phonecall was so strong, sudden, striking and sad. Isak had died in a car crash. I could not believe it. My eyes bursted out in tears and my voice got weaker in the short phonecall that brought the devastating news about Isak, still not wanting to believe the news was true. This was not a nightmare that I could wake up from. This was real. This was one of the sudden turns from life to death. This time it was someone I knew, my friend Isak, who had died in car crash. The date was 10th October 2007, a date that I will remember for the rest of my life.
A year has gone, but Isak is for sure not forgotten. Isak made such an impact on a lot of people. The more I heard from others, the more I knew about how he was, not just to me, but to everyone who was fortunate to have him as a friend. Isak was the kind of person who would go out of his way to be there for all of his friends. He was well liked by everyone who got to know him. 400 people came to his funeral. Speaking about it in wrestling terms, he «sold out» the church, he broke the «attendance record» of the church. That was how well liked he was. So many people wanted to give their farewells to Isak, and a lot of his friends and fans abroad did not even get a chance to travel to his funeral as they were too far away.
A week and a half after his death, the NWF had a show in Oslo. Isak was supposed to wrestle on the show. Instead, we put on a tribute show where everyone in the NWF and also his fans could come together and give a worthy tribute to the new «champion of heaven». As all the wrestlers and crew stood around the ring, a tribute video was shown on the big screen. Isak's wrestling boots were in the middle of the ring. That was one of my life's most emotional moments. No one could hold back their tears. The tribute video ended. Now it was time to give Isak a tribute show that would have made him proud with everyone giving 110%. Not only in Norway but also abroad, wrestling promotions gave tribute to the young wrestler who had achieved so much in his short career, a guy who had so much more to achieve until his life on earth was suddenly taken away from him.
I remember the last time I saw Isak, at a wrestling event just 10 days before he died. His tag team partner in «Fremtiden», Victor, was ill and not able to take part of the show. As a replacement, Isak's protegé Aron would take Victor's place in the match. I saw in Isak's eyes that he was happy that this was the way we altered the card. He really wanted to team up with his protegé. Little did I know that this was going to be Isak's last ever wrestling match. Backstage, we were having a laugh at some jokes and silly stories. After my match, Isak was the first to come up to me. When the show was over, we were saying «good bye» as usual. Everything was so normal, saying «hello», saying «good bye», taking for granted that it would happen again soon. Something that was taken for granted was taken away. It was never, ever going to happen again.
I often think about Isak. We shared moments in the ring and outside of it. Those moments have turned into memories; Valuable memories that I want to keep forever.

Your life was taken away, Isak, but you still live with us in our memories. You always will, «kompis»...

Erik

-Victor Dale:"Isak Rain"-

Isak Rain. A fantastic wrestler, a fantastic person. He was the guy people always wanted to hang around in the locker room, cause they knew he always where up to something. You felt a genuine warm feeling when talking to him. And he cared about everyone.
It’s still hard to write about Isak. It hurts so much. When he died, a part of me died. Cause he was, and still is, my best friend. But the emptiness inside me is a constant reminder of you. A reminder of the friendship we had. The pain we whent through. The happy moments we shared. People often ask me, what my best memory is. And it’s not all the tremendous matches we had, not when we won the Norwegian Championship two times. I don’t have a spesific memory, but when we stood together, waiting for the ring anouncer to introduce us, looking each other in the eyes we didn’t need to speek. It was a bond between us, and we knew each others feelings. Just Isak and I. We felt like we where kings. Kings of the ring. Kings of the world.
Isak was a very funny person. He was dedicated to his wrestling, to his religion and to his friends and family. I bet you can ask most wrestlers, who have been in the locker room with him, to tell something funny about Isak, and they will tell you a story. But Isak was much more than that. He was a reflected person, and in bad times he could cheer you up. Not by telling jokes, or by ribbing others, but just by beeing there, giving all of his time to that person. He always kept his back straight and his head held high. And just by looking at him, you could tell that he was somebody. He was proud of himself, what he had acomplished in life, and who he was.
I can tell you so many funny things of what he did, what we did. And I’m smiling when I’m thinking of him. I’m proud of knowing him, proud of calling him my best friend. Proud of beeing his brother. The good memories live on. Not just in my heart, but in every heart of every person that knew him. And I hope we will make you proud Isak.
We will meet again my friend. But not yet, not yet.

Love you buddy.

Victor

-Daniel Sebastian:"My best friend Isak"-

One year ago I lost my best friend, everybody has that one friend that you REALLY relate to, and that you keep for the rest of your life. Just like Chip had Dale, and Joey had Chandler, I had Isak. I may not have been the one having his back in the tag team matches, but Iwas actually the one convincing him to come tryout for our wrestling academy. You see, Isak had been a wrestling fanatic since he was a kid. He took alot of heat for it at home since his father never liked his obsession with wrestling.
In 2000 I started training with Erik Isaksen, and a year later I made my debut in the first-ever Norwegian wrestling event at the age of 15 againsy Erik. It all escalated from there and NWF grew and I was part of it.
When I started high school I met up with an old friend of mine from my childhood, he asked me if I'd ever heard of a guy named Isak Bjerknes. I told him I'd seen his name on the Norwegian wrestling forum, but that I didn't KNOW him. He told me he played basketball with him (or wrestleball more like it...) and that he was talking about wrestling all the ttime, and that when he'd told Isak he knew me, Isak really wanted to meet me. We met for the first time that summer at some public party where they had "fun boxing", a big inflatable ring where you box with huge boxing gloves. I easily convinced Isak to go up against me, and I said I had a surprise for him at the end. He actually beat me, whereupon I threw of my glow landed a stiff potatoe and followed up by a Rock Bottom which he later on told me was the coolest thing he'd ever done...
We really hit it of and started hanging out together mostly after school. I tried to get him to join me at wrestling practice, but he weren't allowed by his father, but a year later I finally convinced him to come. He was so nervous telling me he'd never make it, but never have we had a better tryout-participant. He became part of the NWF and after about a years of practice he joined forces with his fellow tryouter Victor to form the tagteam "Fremtiden", wich means "The Future" in Norwegian. And was exactly the word, because the future really smiled at Isak. He really got his stuff together, and when he made connections with the British promotion WAW his career really started to grow. We ALWAYS travelled to evvents and practices together, both by train and by car after he got his license. He would always pick me up after I'd have to call him an hour earlier to check if he'd woken up. Whithout him I'd never gotten around to all those events we were starting to have.
Everybody that knew Isak know that even though he made alot of joking around, he'd ALWAYS be there for you if you needed it. To name one example; Me and Erik had teamed up against Vic and Isak in Telemark in Norway, the match ended with Isak superkicking me straight it the face, causing me to flip backwards and literarely land ON my head. I suffered from a cracked vertabrae and had to lay dow paralyzed and addicted to painkillers for 3 months, wich upon Isak visited me EVERY single day, just sitting there with me. He was the only one there when I turned 20 and had arranged it so alot of people sent me text messages congratulating me. We also went to church together, and Isak always said that his only passion besides Jesus was wrestling.
Ever since that morning his dad called me with the dreadful news my life has changed, I isolated myself from the wrestling, and didn't talk to anyone there for months, I just COULDN'T relate to it, I still can't... When you died Isak, my passion for wrestling died with you. Maybe my passion for wrestling went to be a passion for spending time with my best friend. There is SO endlessly much more I wanted to share with you, I'm getting married in December to the most beautiful girl in the world, but the BEST man is missing... You never even got to meet her.
A lot has changed the last year, I've moved to the other side of the country, I got engaged, but one thing will never change; you're still my best friend, my Chip and my Joey, my Isak

Daniel