Just Another Day in Paradise

Originally when I wrote the rough draft of this post it was called "More Injuries, Summer Scenery & NWA Wrestling." I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed and negative lately and I wanted to wipe that off me. I'm a very luck lad and I have a lot to be thankful and grateful for. So, I'm going to edit the original post a tad, but I'd like to keep it as close to the original as possible.  I've been in Maine since mid-May and have seen a lot of family - my gram has been at my house almost every day, so even though she can be a pain in the ass sometimes, I'm thankful for that.

She had a round of cancer treatment in June, so I spent 3 of the 4 Tuesdays with her there. It's amazing that Price Is Right is still on the air. I guess they were re-runs as my gram said she saw those episodes already...but still watched. We've gone fishing together once or twice...even caught a few. She's slowing down a lot in these last few years, so we'll see if she's going to be moving in soon. 

I've had my older cousins and younger cousins, aunts and uncles around, too. It's nice to see everybody, even if it's a bit exhausting mentally to socialize that much for me. It seems just about every weekend there's a birthday party for somebody. I always keep a pack of birthday cards in my car, just in case I forget a birthday.

Hey! When did I get old? I used to be the one to wear out kids. Now, I'm begging them for some reprieve. I'm no longer the spring chicken I once was and my body is letting me know.

Time has gotten away from me in the last 3 months. I finally sold my house in Florida - my neighborhood wasn't right for me. One set of neighbors were selling drugs and firing off guns in the middle of the night. 2 others would play obnoxiously loud music frequently, so often that I could tell when the one group of neighbors got home from work as the neighborhood would go from peaceful to bass filled. I had enough of the annoyance, so I left a place I would've liked to stay.

Right now, I'm not sure if I'll return to Florida. I gotta find the right place...and I'd like to avoid unpacking and packing for the foreseeable future. I'm ready to relax. Maybe make some time to wander in nature. I'm open to suggestions.

Here's a little of what I've been up to lately....

NWA Wrestling

During the time that I was closing up my house and packing my stuff into storage, I was doing some wrestling for the illustrious National Wrestling Alliance. They had a set of TV Tapings in Tampa. I'm not the social butterfly that I used to be, so these BIG TAPINGS with 50+ wrestlers plus production members is a lot to take in. Of course, I knew some folks already. Most people are running around doing big important things at these film days, so it's a lot of meandering around having random interactions with people. 

I was in a random tag team with another local guy against 2 former WWE Superstars. They were bigger than us and badder than us....at least on camera. Behind the scenes they were nothing but kind and polite. One of the easiest wrestling matches I'd had in my life. Sure I got my ass kicked - that's what I do.

When I returned to the locker room, a few of the important production people were "impressed" for lack of a better term with my skills as a jobber. Apparently they didn't get the memo 😉

Like I said, our opponents that night were more than nice to us and kept wanting to give us more offense than I thought the situation deserved. They're the big stars of the tag team division. It's okay to get squashed and often times it's a joy.

I don't know if I injured myself before the match or during the match, but for 2 weeks after I was in rough shape. Usually the day(s) after a wrestling match you'll have the aches, pains and bruises, however, this has been continuous. 

Initially, the injury hurt and limited me from doing certain things, but it was feeling better as I approached my next match with the NWA in Chicago. 

I met up at the airport with my long-time tag team partner and a friend for a late dinner before heading to bed at a local hotel. The next morning we had about 5 hours to burn and my body was feeling pretty good, so we went to the gym before seeing some local sights. We stopped at Michael Jordan's front gate to film some wrestling vignettes then went over to the house from Home Alone. 

The event was cool as they had a similar level of production and cameras that their big TV taping had. It's amazing how cooler you feel wrestling under the big lights with some fog in the arena. The match was solid - I took an ass kicking and my buddy ran his mouth while whooping ass. We lost, but the crowd had fun and we had a great time, too.

After the matches, we heard good reviews from the people in management saying the promoter liked our schtick. After the event, Billy Corgan gave me a passing nod of approval and said he liked what we did as a tag team. 

INJURIES

I've been dealing with this lower back issue for 3 months now. It could be sciatica or my hips are out-of-wack. I went to a chiropractor finally last week and have another appointment next week. After the session I was able to touch my toes without discomfort, but now 5 days later I'm feeling very similar to how I was before I went.

Hoping next week's visit will alleviate the limited mobility and lack of gym time. I've legitimately worked out 3 times since May 10th. 

I wrestled 2 pro matches in one day recently - at a local Whoopie Pie Festival and later that night at a DoubleTree banquet room. I have a hard time taking it easy or "mailing in" a performance, so I definitely took more beating on my body than I was prepared for. That was about 3 weeks ago.

I have a couple local fair wrestling matches coming up. Those should be tag matches where I can rely on my tag team partner to help out. I've been attempting to wind-down on the live events that I do, but I just can't seem to say no to wrestling. I think I gotta learn to just stick to behind-the-scenes roles.

With that being said/written/typed, my aunt just called to ask if I could get a little wrestling event together for her craft market in my old hometown. Looks like we're loading up the ring and getting a couple of my buddies together for some pro wrestling. I'm sure it'll be fun, so if you find yourself in Maine around August 2nd, swing on by.

FANDANGO

I just remembered that I was on an event with Fandango (Johnny Curtis) last month. We used to be in the same wrestling scene around 2002 to 2005, but he's been in WWE for the last 15+ years. It's odd to see him back in town. I actually ran into him a year or 2 ago at an indy show I was doing and at TNA Wrestling when I was hanging out doing some extra work. 

Anyway, I was at this event and Fandango was telling me a story about the digital picture frame has at his house. He and another local former WWE Superstar were at the house when a picture of the 3 of us (supposedly) popped up on the digital frame. He was telling me I looked to be about 15 in the picture. I thought this was interesting, as I feel like I used to look 12 when I was 15 and when I looked 15 I was likely closer to 18. With that thought, I continued...I must've been wrestling on pro shows during that time, so I don't know why I would be getting in the ring for a fan photo. 

It's not even close to unlikely though, as I still attended wrestling events in the area especially this promotion as it was (and still remains) one of my favorite ones. The roster was full of top notch, WWE-level talent. I'll have to see if Fandango will send it to me the next time it pops up on his frame. 

SUMMER SCENERY

I've been in Maine since mid-May except for a weekend trip to Upstate New York for a small Comic Con wrestling thing we did to promote the FREE MOVIE I made with my friends. We actually set up some mats and a post-apocalyptic wrestling set where we did 2 live shows each day for a small, but loyal group of fans. 

It was tough for some of the guys to figure out how to wrestle without ring ropes. It was a bit surprising to be frank. I'm working on getting the matches edited down to a nice fun highlight reel, so I'll try to remember to share them with you once it's finished.

Besides what I've already mentioned, I bought a $500 fishing boat from my neighbor and have been putting around the local lakes on that. It's been fairly quiet on the water, so it's relaxing to be out there, even more so around sunset.

I plan to do a bit more of fishing in the next 4 to 6 weeks then I'd like to head over to England for a month. I've done some looking on Airbnb in the countryside near Birmingham. I should probably finalize some flight details soon. 

I've been to England numerous times, but I'm still a novice to it. Any places you'd recommend? I've never been to the Blackpool or Liverpool area. I've done the Southeast portion. I'm think I may even need to do more wandering in Scotland.

Anyone available to chaperone? Any tips on long-term car rental options?  Wanna Wrestle? Know some wrestlers who wanna be on the site? 

After that, I think I'll enjoy autumn in New England before heading to California. I gotta meet up with Ron Sexton and maybe wander up to Yosemite and/or over to Bryce Canyon & Zion National Park. I always try to add a little extra to a trip to the West Coast as it's a 6 hour flight and my body needs a tad more to adjust to the time zone changes.

IDEA FOR FUTURE BLOGS

I'll be doing some small custom video shoots in the upcoming week(s), so I'll be a bit busy again. I need some topics for some fun blog posts. 

I think it'd spruce things up a little bit on here. What would you like to see me give my opinion on? Let's make something exciting and fresh. What kind of stuff gets your mind excited?