ringsidephotos.net Blog

Just returned from a New Year’s luncheon at my parents. 

Haven’t really started going through the pictures from this weekend.  Friday, ER and I picked up Law and Leviathan off I26 and headed to Clayton, GA for NFWA’s last show at Kip’s.  Had a great time.  Good luck to Jay and NFWA – I hope you find a new home soon.  Neil Nitro was brutalized in the hardcore main event. 

Last night, Rocky Starr, Mike McCloud, Derek Ryze and BJ Hancock came to the house – all dressed very nice and we headed to Helen, GA for NWA Anarchy’s Season’s Beatings show.  Very good.  Jimmy Rave and AJ Styles were headlined on it.  Vocal crowd. I got to meet Mary-Kate – the official photographer for ROH, very nice lady.  You can find her work here.

I debuted my new “pro pro-wrestling photographer” look this weekend.  It is solid black with the exception of a white tee shirt.  How will this impact 2007 for me? 

You may (or may not) notice that I have placed a link to the blog back on my front page.  Why?  Because Thomas said to – period.  Asked and answered.

There is something that is on my mind and I’ll be blunt.  I know that indy wrestlers don’t get money for the majority of the shows that they do.  I know that it is usually something that you just grin and bear.  It’s part of paying the dues.  You go to shows and if you get to wrestle then perhaps it leads to bigger and better things which hopefully will lead to a big payday.  There are a few promoters that I know personally that pay their talent.  Of course it usually isn’t a lot, but I know that it is appreciated.  There are other promoters who promise money when they build the show up.  That’s understandable – what I don’t understand is when new talent is brought in and are paid from the beginning and the guys who have helped a group all along get nothing. 

It’s nothing against the guys that come in for the show – they are just trying to get their money like anyone else, God bless ‘em.  I just don’t like this practice of crapping on guys who have been with you for months/years.  I have seen it myself.  I don’t understand not compensating the guys who got you into a position to pay new talent.  I think it is an insult and thoughtless.  You pay someone who drives 3 or 4 hours to come in while not paying the talent that lives 30 minutes down the road.  When the money dries up, do you think the guys are going to drive 4 hours for nothing?  Nope, by that time I would hope the guy down the road has gone somewhere else.

Anyway, the pictures from the weekend will probably be up Wednesday or Thursday? 

Currently reading: Palestine Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter.  Up next is Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris.  I understand they are already working on a movie.

John Edwards is running for President!  Celebrate!

Meeting ER this afternoon for our trip to NFWA’s last show in Clayton, GA.  “The Last Stand” looks to be like a good card:  The Seven Levels of Hell match with Murder One, Bob E Hill, Chris Marllin and Jacey North taking on Simon Sermon, Bounty Hunter and the East Coast Avengers (Neil & Brice).

Tower vs. Kameron Kade in which the loser must leave NFWA.  Stoney Hooker will be teaming up with the White Oriental Swap (actually I think they are still using the name Caucasian Asian Exchange – which will probably expire next year for something else – just kidding) and they take on Manchild, Dirty and Leviathan.

The Blue Demon has returned with a vengance on the Regal Board.

We reached a grim milestone on Christmas Day.

I will be debuting the all black look tonight.  Oh yes, it’s exciting.

Be sure to read this interview with Kirby Mack – CarolinaIndependentWrestling.com’s Wrestler of the Year.

Just a few more days of the holiday season and then it’s back to business as usual – rude people, etc etc.

I wanted to share this with all of you.  I don’t remember the original site that I got it from, but it was one of Mike Nelson’s early writings.  I had made a hard copy of it, and just the other night came across it.

I know that several of you are wondering…how can I support RingSidePhotos.net?  What can I do to help Blake out?  What does Blake need to make his life easier?  Well, ask no more – because here it is…my Amazon.com wish list.

How will this help me out?  It saves me from having to buy this stuff.  Your generosity is appreciated!

Onto other things – day two of my three day work weekend.  No shows tonight.  Christmas Eve is tomorrow - after work I will be attending a dinner party at friends.

Everybody be safe driving!  Lots of wrecks around where I live.  One man hit a moped head on this morning here in town.

Mike Evans is dead!  I know you are asking yourself, who is that?

I’m at work this weekend.  No wrestling shows.

aka the Sunday morning blog.

Went to the UWF/TNA show on Friday night in Knightdale – many many thanks again to Mike and Tyshion.

Last night was NWA Anarchy with the Mack Bros.  Jeremy V won a rumble for the chance to face AJ Styles at Anarchy’s Dec. 30 “Seasons Beatings” show in Helen, GA.

I received a copy of Anarchy’s “Fright Night ‘06″ DVD – which is covered in my photos, and I understand there is maybe a montage of some of my pics on one of the disks?

I’ve really got to get a black shirt to start wearing at ringside.  I am taking donations starting now.  Money would be preferable since I’m sort of hard to fit.

Here are a couple of quotes I want to share:

“If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, you must accept the terms it offers you.”  T.S. Eliot

“It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don’t have to.”  Walter Linn

“Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.”  Will Rogers

“Just Do It”  Nike shoes

The sun is coming down on 2006.  2007 will be another year full of great wrestling shows, road trips, new friends and plenty of photos.  I want to say specifically to a group of young guys who probably have a lot going through their minds right now.  I know it’s tough to jump out of the nest, but the only way you can soar is by spreading your wings and flying.  It is what all birds do.  Does the mother bird block them from leaving by restraint or petty and bizarre actions?  No, the mother bird wants them to fly (you would think) and to go on to better trees and places.  When the new birds are able to fly out, all of the forest benefits.  It is a shame that some are so shortsighted they cannot see that.

I have been able to see many different things especially this past year.  As I said, I’m looking forward to the new year and I have decided that I am not going to be involved any further with situations that have not changed.  I would like to think that I have moved past the people that act with rancor and spite.  It shows insecurity, it shows childishness and it shows an inability to shepherd “the lambs”.  I have broken free from this quagmire and look forward to seeing the other survivors get out also.

Cousin Roone (R.I.P.) was mentioned last night on TV Land’s “100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases”.  At #27 was “The Thrill of Victory, the agony of defeat” from ABC’s Wide World of Sports.  Jim McKay said that Roone Arledge told them “If you want to make the show, Wide World – be very good or very bad but not mediocre”.

Leaving for UWF/TNA in Knightdale, NC this afternoon.  NWA Anarchy tomorrow night.

I finished reading “Point to Point Navigation” by Gore Vidal yesterday.  There is a passage that Vidal used that I wanted to put here.  It is from a book of essays by Michel de Montaigne (Screech translation for those of you playing at home) and is on Lying.

“Lying is an accursed vice. It is only our words which bind us together and make us human. If we realized the horror and weight of lying we would see that it is more worthy of the stake than other crimes. I find that people normally waste time quite inappropriately punishing children for innocent misdemeanours, tormenting them for thoughtless actions which lead nowhere and leave no trace. It seems to me that the only faults which we should vigorously attack as soon as they arise and start to develop are lying and, a little below that, stubbornness. Those faults grow up with the children. Once let the tongue acquire the habit of lying and it is astonishing how impossible it is to make it give it up…If a lie, like truth, had only one face we could be on better terms, for certainty would be the reverse of what the liar said. But the reverse side of truth has a hundred thousand shapes and no defined limits. The Pythagoreans make good to be definite and finite; evil they make indefinite and infinite.”

I visited Lyle and Sabrina the other night and got a whole mess of loot!  Thank you again bud for all the stuff – the glassware especially!

My friend (at least on MySpace) Michael J. Nelson just posted an interesting blog entitled Pauly Shore is Dead (Almost).  If anyone has this link, email it to me…I’m too lazy right now to look it up.

I got the new AWA DVD in the mail today.  I was hoping to spend the afternoon vegging out on the couch watching TV.  I’m still cleaning out my TiVo from this past weekend. 

I’m ready to get back to wrestling - the batteries are recharged. 

I have heard all about Roxi Nagasaki’s injury on Saturday – I’m glad you’re Ok.

Watch the little video to the left on this page: www.reopen911.org

A man who went missing in April 2004 was found Sunday two miles from his home, near White Oak Mountain here in Polk County.

Witness the Smiling Tater!

“The War Dance Never Dies 2 (Wahoo McDaniel tribute show)” and “The Anderson Bros. Tag Team Tournament 3″ are coming up in 2007.  Click here for more info.

I will not be able to make the Wahoo show on January 27th as I’ll be heading down to York, SC for the Carolina Wrestling Association show.

Here’s a nice gift for the holidays.  Plus you can get it at Wal-Mart.  Blech….

Steer clear of Soy!!!!

And Ostgard, I know you will be back from this “retirement”.  

The “That Girl” marathon continues on TV Land!

Is this a great idea that makes government more accessible to it’s people or more evidence of the dumbing down of America?

I heard that the CWA and SWA shows were good last night, I haven’t heard anything about HVW yet.  I read that Johnny Buffett was planning on being there.  Hate that I missed you, Johnny.  We can’t seem to get our schedules on the same track.

The best news I’ve heard so far today!

So here it is 8pm, and am I missing it?  A little.  There is nothing really on TV that I want to watch.  I will probably finish up the nip/tuck from Tuesday.  Supper is Macaroni & Cheese from the Dollar General.

Almost ten years this took.  It sounds like the NC state crime lab.  Also the plot thickens….

“Combat Hospital” is on CNN right now.  You should all check this out.