ringsidephotos.net Blog

I finished reading “Hardcore History” by Scott E. Williams yesterday.  I enjoyed it, learned some info that I did not know before.

I’m in the process of going through the pictures from HVW’s Saturday show.  I am not especially elated with my work from the night.  I did get some good shots, but the “War Games” layout to the building hindered my movement just a bit.  That and the “fan friendly” feeling to the shows where everybody and their kids is hanging off the ringside and walking through events as they are taking place.

Lots of blood though!  Speaking of, to Crisifix – hope you are ok after that nasty laceration you took.  Looked nasty, but it made a great match.  Glad to see that you finished out the remaining minutes of the match. 

War Games was War Games….two rings and two dozen people.  There was a lot going on in the ring, almost too much to keep up with.  Also, it went a little long for my taste.

Law – loved the Annie Lennox look…now you need that spikey orange hair.

Princess Bubbles – Loved the t-shirt.

This week I will be heading to Marion for the UWA show on Saturday with ER.  Then going down to Chester, SC for the APW show.

This is a work weekend for yours truly, which means much less sleep than normal.  After the Power Pro show last night, I joined some folks at the Denny’s.  I suppose I should mention the gumption of Rocky Starr and Mario Gracie at the dinner table, but why put them over?  Just kidding…moving on.  I left there probably about 12.15.  At 4am my mobile rings (which I use as an alarm in the mornings) and who could it be?  None other than “Rock to the Crotch” Mack.  They were in hour 5 (?) of their 12 hour trip to Bay City, MI.  

Here is a transcript: 

Blake: “….zzzz….mmm….mwherp!…..Hello?” 

Kirby: “What!  I was going to leave you a message, your phone is on?” 

B: “I use it as an alarm…..nnnnnn” 

K: “So what are you doing?” 

B: “ugh…sleeping….zzzz” 

K: *assorted rambling punctuated by laughter* I actually don’t recall what was said, as I was losing consciousness. 

B: “What?….I need sleepy” 

K: “I’m Kirby Mack!!!!!” 

B: “Ok, gotta go….buh bye…” 

K: “Are the pictures up yet?  Get the addiction!!!” 

click…..zzzzzzz 

On a serious note – the PPW tapings went very well.  Seven matches.  The Josh and Crisifix went for only a few minutes but they were a good opening for the show.  Dominous made his debut in AWA PPW and Viper’s House of Pain.  Viper and Chris Guerrero – great job.  Hancock and Frehley also good match.  The East Coast Avengers teamed with TJ Mack against Jake Manning, Otto Schwanz and Derek Rave.  Super match, Neil just had the stuffing knocked out of him – I believed it! 

Ken and Stoney – excellent job fellers.  Ken did great interacting with the crowd.  The main event was a treat – Jimbo Fox versus Manslaughter.  Terrific job Jimbo, you did better than some folks that have had years of training.  

I will be heading back up to HVW tonight for the big War Games event.  

And if a certain person reads this, and you know who you are…give us a call sometime, I have something of yours…call collect if you must – remember I’m rich! 

It’s what happens when you horse around!  I took a one in a million shot to the schnutz from Kirby with a rock that literally sent me to my knees in a writhing heap.  No hard feelings though.

I love to read blogs from people I know, and all kinds of other “stuff” on the internet.  Their thoughts sometimes really give me a chuckle, regardless of how profanity laden, inept, thoughtless or venom filled they may be.  Please for the love of God though, learn how to use a spell checker.  It really chaps my tush when I see common words misspelled.  It’s not hard to find one online or on your Word Perfect program.  If you don’t have that, open up your email program and paste the words in there – they all provide a spell checker. 

Went to Marion, NC for the ACW show.  Great time, rode to the show with Boomer, ER, Jeff Lewis, and Ostgard.  Boomer teamed with Ostgard against Jay Eagle and Rev. Slim.  Jeff teamed with the rest of the Lewis clan – Cruizer and Norton in a six man tag.  Hot as Hades in the building.  The locker was literally a steam room.

Saturday Ostgard, Thomas and myself headed up to Hendersonville to see some the HVW Brawl at the Mall show.  Very good crowd turnout.  I hope it translates into higher numbers for the regular show.  To Neil, Brice, Law and Yoshi – I said it right after the match, but I want to say it again – I loved the match, spectacular. 

Left there and headed down to the Fairfield to pick up Ken, the Macks and ER.  It was as hot if not hotter in the NWA Arena in Cornelia.  I was drenched in sweat by the end of the night.  Had to keep on my toes though, as there was another photographer there.   Steve, and I can’t remember his last name.  Nice guy, he came all the way from Houston, TX and did a couple of shows on his swing through. 

The crowd went crazy when Nemesis suplexed Tank the turnbuckle last night, man was it loud.

Ok, time for bed…more later…..

I suppose bad luck is just bound to happen to some people.  DJ Ray’s speakers were emitting funky burning smells last night at the ACW show in Marion.  The topper though is ER’s buggy getting broken into AGAIN!  Where you may ask?  If you know the story then I can tell you it was the exact same location as last time.  Taken was the radar detector and unfortunately – Jeff Lewis’ gear bag, which had his wrestling life in it.  Sadly, once these shitheads realize what they have, they will probably just dump the bag along the rode somewhere. 

Going to Anarchy tonight. 

Yes, once again I will be at work on the 4th of July.  I have become used to working on just about every major holiday.  I will be missing the HVW show at Jackson Park again.  So here is the weekend wrap up.  Friday I had the pleasure of tagging along with Law, Sabrina, Yoshi and ER over to Clayton, GA for the New Frontier Wrestling Association show.  We got caught in a little traffic on the way up – holiday traffic/accident on I26 and people getting off work on Hwy 25.  We got to the show just about at 8pm.  Kip’s (the home of NFWA) is a great set up.  There were about 100 or so fans in the building, and they stayed through the entire show.  Austin Creed got a great reaction from the crowd with his whole “Living in America” schtick.  

Got to see some new faces at the show – Leslie T. Nerd (I swear I have seen that gimmick somewhere before…), Jacey North (who is part of the Suicide Kings – cool tag team name) and Simon Sermon, who is an openly gay wrestler who earlier this year had a documentary released about him. The show was over about 11pm.  We headed out to Franklin, NC to eat at the Pizza Hut.  ER and I had heard the tales about this Pizza Hut and we were eager to see how meth addicts work.  It was closed though.  Across the street was a Shoney’s though!  I had not eaten at a Shoney’s in years.  They had closed all the local ones.  We walked in at 11.30 and I surprised to find a fully stocked breakfast bar.  So I had a salad.  Oh, and of course my childhood favorite; a hot fudge cake which probably contributed to the shape I’m in now so many years ago. 

The trip back was quicker.  Yoshi, I hope your little noggin is better after your disastrous first entry attempt into the vehicle. To Law, Sabrina and Yoshi I really enjoyed the ride – looking forward to the next one!  To ER, well you know…. 

Law’s Prince impression is not to be missed – dead on.  Also I never knew the other lyrics to Amazing Grace.

It is really starting to warm up now during the days and this begins the time of the year when I lose all energy and drive to do anything.  Not everything mind you, but the summers and the heat make me more irritable and tired.  I read ER’s blog and he mentioned at the end about being tired.  I know the feeling; this is probably what motivated me to do something a little different on Saturday evening. First I want to apologize to Tom Williams for not making his show in Marion on Saturday night.  I had lain around the house, reading etc.  That afternoon I woke up from a nap and just felt kind of shitty.  My legs were hurting, my head hurt a little.  So I decided to take the night off.  I called a friend of mine, (because of his job and my basically ignoring everything except for wrestling, we had not been able to go out much where in the past we did) and we decided to go see the new Superman movie.  

Don’t believe what some people (cough, cough, Ostgard) will tell you.  The movie was great.  Brandon Routh makes a great man of steel.  There is a little twist in it that I thought was pretty good.  It follows the first two movies five years after.  Again – no previews for “Snakes on A Plane” and I did not get to see the Spiderman 3 trailer. So, we saw the movie, went to Best Buy and then Schlotzky’s Deli.  We got home about 9.30.  I decided that I was going up to Hendersonville to see HVW.  I got there right before the Neil Nitro/Stoney Hooker match, which was great.  Nitro I already hold in high esteem, and Stoney has a lot of potential – he’s a good kid too, which is rare especially around pro wrestling.  Krazy K vs. Davey Richards was great too. 30 minutes of action.  And I have seen, Kirby has nice assets. 

Went to Denny’s after the show.  Poor BJ Hancock – he had TJ (who should really learn to drive) germs all over his water and food.  Was Rocky stoned?  What do you not get when you are fat?  Will I piss or get off the pot? (trust me, I’m trying to get up the nerve).  Most of you all are not going to understand what I have typed, but needless to say it was another fun trip to our ahem, favorite eating place. Sunday was a family cook out at the Arledge Acres chalet.  Afterwards Adam and I called Nitro and he was in the middle of getting a new tattoo at Two Kings Tattooing in Hendersonville.  So we decided to ride up.  Neil got an expanding bat flock climbing up his arm – very cool looking design.  If any of you is thinking about getting a tattoo – go see Mario or Mike at Two Kings, clean establishment and great guys.

I’m working this weekend, so I’m not going anywhere on Friday.  I will probably be dropping my camera off for a check up on Wednesday or Thursday so I will be attending HVW on Saturday without her.  I am looking forward to sitting in the balcony heckling the crowd with ER.

Ok, I think that’s it….