Summertime Showdowns

I swear that I'm going to start doing these blogs more frequently. Somehow they always get pushed back until I'm amazed at how long it has actually been. This one has been sitting here for over 2 weeks waiting to be updated.

It's been a chaotic month or so. 

I left Florida on May 15th to head north for the summer. I had to rush to pack to get ready because I was in Orlando Friday & Saturday at a National (maybe global) TV Taping for a major company. Since we've filmed I've been on real TV twice. Have you seen me?

Also, on the 15th of May, I did a small shoot with 4 of us. My buddy had 2 new guys and we had to film a custom video before I left. The new guys were INTENSE! I loved it. Talk about hot, sweaty action-packed wrestling. Just how I like it. It's been awhile since I've seen something that has gotten me excited for a match from some pro wrestlers...and these guys did it. Many times.

On the drive up from Florida, I made a couple pit stops to see some old favorites and even partake in a pro wrestling event in New Jersey. The event in NJ was a tiny "student show" in front of 10 fans. I got to be managed by the always hilarious, Zach Reno. I think between the 2 of us we knew everyone in the stands. We had a blast!

Did a shoot in Vegas at the end of May, which brought some new faces to the mix. Davin Strong, Johnny from WrestleFrat and the former Ricky Mandel all came by. On top of all those new faces on W4H, we will be seeing a CLASSIC return - Chace LaChance is back in the ring. Check out the latest Behind The Scenes video when it comes out for some exclusives into what he's been doing and his plans for his return!

Speaking of blasts from the past, how did you like the From The Vault matches? I bet you were surprised to see Donnie Drake in action. How about 2 young hunks in myself and Jonny Firestorm? Man, where do the years go?

Somewhere in those travels (or maybe while I was in Florida) I caught a case of the COVID. I didn't even know I had it. Felt like allergies or a slight cold which I figured was normal given the pollen flying around in the Northeast and the lack of sleep I'd had for the last few weeks. I only found out when I took a precautionary at-home test to make sure I'd be alright for the next day's live wrestling event I was participating on. My second time (at least) with COVID. 

While I was down with COVID, I had a buddy drop off a pro wrestling ring for my backyard. I figure if I'm gonna be in Maine all summer, I'd do myself a favor (and prevent an hour long drive north and back) and do my wrestling workouts in my backyard. The ring is old! Definitely not one of these modern flex-beam rings. This is the old school spring-in-the-middle set ups. I've worked to freshen it up a little. Make it a little newer plus I added some more padding to it. So far no complaints from me. 

My buddy lives in my old hometown in Maine. He hit me up about a fundraiser for a child with cancer. Come to find out, the child is related to my old Phys Ed teacher. My friend mentioned it'd be cool to bring some entertainment to the fundraiser while the bike raffle and balloon animals were going on. I'm telling you I came from a small town. I think we have a blinking stop light and that's it. 

A handful of friends came by to help load the ring up the night before and thankfully they did. I had another pro wrestling gig that night so my time was limited. As well, the night before I was in Boston filming with Jonny, Forrest Taylor, Garrett Thomas, Justin Rage & Caleb Klein. So many people canceled on this shoot for one reason or another.

Back to the story - the morning of the event in my childhood hometown, I received a call from my Aunt at almost 6am. I let it ring hoping it was what I thought it was, but moments later my Grandmother followed up with a call. I answered it and the worries were confirmed. My Uncle had passed away that morning. 

He had been sick for the last year or so and I actually flew up in February or March or April (I'm awful with time) to hang with him for the day when I heard he was planning to stop his treatment. I tried to convince my Aunt & Uncle to come to Florida to visit me so he could enjoy some sunshine and maybe some stock car racing or Monster Trucks or some music or whatever, but they wanted to stick close to home. 

So that was a rough start to that day. I'd actually been up to visit him a couple times that week to assist with some things, but it seemed to be known that not a lot of time was left.

The event that day was fun. My Aunt and a couple cousins came by to take their minds of the days beginning tragedy so that was a welcomed sight. I recorded the local wrestling event and I'm thinking it'd be great to accept donations in exchange for sharing the footage. I'll try to finalize the edited show soon. Things have been.......busy. 

Oh yeah - my nephew is almost a grown man. He just graduated 8th grade. Next year, he's officially a high schooler. He's obviously way cooler than I am. 

If I told you the busyness of my life lately you'd be bored to tears. 

I think I'm at the end of a long list that hasn't seem to have eased since before the winter holidays. 

Finally getting to the end of over 1200 emails. Only 300 left. I handled most of them in the first 3 days but I've hit a wall mentally, so please give me a few days to find another burst of energy. If you haven't heard back from me yet, shoot me another email and I'll try to follow up...or maybe wait a week or so to see if I find yours.

It's on my list to do some interviews, but not a lot of you sent in questions to ask these guys, so I may need to just have a few adult beverages and freestyle the questions. Whatever comes to mind is what I'll ask. At least give me some insight on who you wanna hear from first. Seems to make the most since to start with Jonny Firestorm...but I'd also like to ask Austin Cooper, Ethan Andrews or Scrappy some questions. So throw it at me. Who should be first?

I have 3 or 4 pro shows coming up...and hopefully a national gig. One this weekend (or maybe 2 depending on my mood and how my body feels) then the 4th of July. Fireworks & Fighting. Should be fun. If you happen to be in Small Town USA let me know and I'll give you the location of our Patriotic Poundings. I'm "promoting" and "booking" it, but really I think we'll just pick the names out of a hat since that sounds sinister. Hope the WWE Hall of Fame Inductee doesn't mind my evil ways!

After that, I plan on doing some fishing. I've only gone once in the month plus that I've been up here and I can't stare at a computer screen much longer without going a bit insane.