ringsidephotos.net Blog

I picked up my copy of this year’s PWI 500 tonight and found not just 2 (as I was previously told) but four of my pictures included in it!  It makes me happy to see that my past work is still being put to good use.  Just a couple of inaccuracies though…two of the pictures are incorrectly credited to other photographers.  No major biggie, as I know our friends at PWI are swamped with wrestling photos every month and it’s easy to lose track of who took what. 

First the two photos that are correctly credited:

#485 Malachi on page 135, and #364 Ritchie Steamboat on page 118.

  Now on the incorrectly credited photos:

#377 Kirby Mack on page 121.  Click on the first thumbnail to see the entry and click on the second to see the original photo, which I took on 21 June 2007 in Waynesboro, VA at the Shenandoah Valley Fair for Hermie Sadler’s UWF promotion.  Kirby was dropkicking Christian York.

  #435 Slim J on page128.  First the scanned photo from the 500.  Then the original taken on 16 June 2007 at NWA Anarchy in Cornelia, GA.  Slim J vs. Patrick Bentley. 

Anyway, congrats to all the friends of ringsidephotos.net that made it in this year!

I have added a new gallery to the site:  “Behind the Barrier”.  These are some shots that I have taken (and will take) at shows that I just attended as a fan.  It’s a lot harder to get good shots sitting behind the barrier, but I’ll share a few with you.  I wanted to feature a friend of ours, Alex Avgerinos in the gallery as he has really started branching out in the time that I’ve been retired.  Great talent there, watch for him folks! 

Thank yous to the minor out-pouring of emails, etc I’ve received since stating the possibility of returning in the fall.   I appreciate you all who have passed along encouragement.  We’ll see what happens!

It has been almost six months now since my retirement announcement, and people are still asking “don’t you miss it…will you come and shoot my show…will you sell me your camera…you retired?”  The answers are: yes…for the right kind of money…NO…uhh, yeah. 

Another big question: “Are you coming to the Fanfestthis year?”  Sadly, the answer is again no.  It will feel a little odd that weekend not being there among the super Fanfest Fans, the Legends, the talent and a whole load of friends.  To quash any prattle before it starts – I have no “heat” with the Fanfest or its promoter Greg Price.  I wish him and the Fanfest the best of luck.  Greg was always a gentleman to me and always made sure I was taken care of for the entire weekend, plus he gave me admission to spend time with wrestling stars.  

I have not completely crossed wrestling off my activity lists though.  Since I’ve retiredI’ve been able to just go to shows, buy a ticket and be a fan.  It’s been fun, I’ve been to SWA in Forest City, APW in Spartanburg, HVW in Hendersonville, RCW in Cherokee, FMW in Fairview and shot the Anderson Bros Tag tourney in Monroe back in June.

A couple of days ago, I posted an status update on my Facebook page that said: “What’s that I see in the autumn of 2010? A possible return of ringsidephotos.net?  Hmm, could be….”  It could happen…I haven’t decided yet.  I do realize now though that wrestling has gotten into my blood.  It’s easier to sympathize with these guys who I see return, because I think it may be me.  I’m going to do some housekeeping on the site – and I may add a new gallery of some snaps I’ve taken while retired.  Thanks again to everyone for the emails etc!  Stay tuned!

I hope you’re all having a good spring, it’s starting to get warmer here and while not my most favorite time of year – I am ready to get away from the winter “events” we went through.
Just a quick note to everyone, I have been booked to shoot a couple of matches at Action Packed Wrestling in Chester, SC. They include Steve Corino and Colt Cabana. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. This is not a full-time return to ringside, just a chance to shoot a couple of great wrestlers and see some old friends down in Chester. Stay tuned for updates!

Like the title says…I’m taking a break.  My last show was NWA Anarchy on 19 September.  I think I got some pretty good shots that night, but I could tell I was off my game- my timing wasn’t as good and I just felt really really tired during the entire show.  I took more photos than I usually do at a show that night, and the majority of them were deleted. 

To be honest, I am in a total burnout as far as wrestling is concerned.  It’s no one’s fault, and actually I believe it is natural for most folks.  I went pretty strong for a couple of years (strong for me anyway!) and I’m now catching up on other stuff in my life.  

Someone asked, “so are you done completely with wrestling photos?”  The answer is no…not yet.  Right now I have one show planned for November, and one in December.  Thanks to everybody who has stuck with ringsidephotos.net, and I encourage you to keep checking the site for any updates.  I am working on an idea for next year that I think some folks may like.

Ok, I have given pussy cat her Prozac, finished washing some dishes and I think I am finally ready to do this thing…

Let’s start with Friday. ER, Ostgard and myself knew that our bud, “Honest” Doug Hawkins was running his hometown of Chester, SC on Friday night. Boomer was going to be working the show, so we decided to tag along. Met at Boomer’s about 4.30 and took off. We wanted to leave in enough time to get to the town and eat at The Cyclone – Steaks & Seafood. Riding down to Chester was one of the more bleak trips I have taken. I by no means am insulting anyone or any town, I’m just saying that it seems like a depressed area. Not a lot going on.

The Cyclone was really good. I got a cheeseburger plate with some fries and slaw. Wonderful slaw, sweeeet tea. Boomer and ER had previously visited the Cyclone (be sure to check out Boomer’s photo on the wall of fame if you happen by), so it was like visiting royalty for the town. I was actually sitting at the table when a kid came over and asked for an autograph from Boomer.

Left there and headed over to the Chester Little Theater. Stopped at a gas station along the way, and I was presented with a 3 inch John Boy & Billy “Pocket Rocket” sausage – thanks O and BP. Doug was holding the show inside an old movie theater. I liked the set-up at the building, the previous projector room is now the dressing room and crows nest.

I actually felt a little awkward going into the “locker room”, but after speaking to everyone it was nice to be around the APW guys again. Thanks Doug for the hospitality. Good to see Mark, Rowdy, Zack, Kaos, Evon, Shea Shea, Buddy, McHone (and his odd toenail), Shane, Eagle, Sandy, Rhonda etc etc.

The Chester crowd was pretty hot into the show, and it was over about 10.30? We headed over to Pizza Hut and I had some bread sticks.

Saturday, Ostgard and I headed up to HVW’s training hour in Hendersonville. O worked with some of the guys in the ring while I just sort of BS’d with Bulldykes and Viper. Copies of “Bold Life” were distributed which has an article about HVW in it.

We then went to see X-Men 3 at the EPIC theater. Wow, what a disappointment. I don’t want to give anything away but I didn’t feel right about the deaths in the movie or the “neutering” of characters. Which I found out later, I missed a big scene at the end of the movie because I was concentrating too much on someone’s hand! I didn’t even get to see previews for “Snakes on a Plane!”

Left the theater and headed back to HVW. Fairly good show. Jason Jett and Country Kid will now be called “Gump Gibson & Country Morton”. Manchild shocked and awed the crowd with his “Cow Pussy Clothesline” and itty-bitty Kiddy Kwiky delivered his Kwik Bomb (which is where Viper got it from I have heard).

Went to Denny’s afterwards, not my first choice but I did get something different this time.

I really can’t remember much else, it feels like it was ages ago….this weekend is CWF/AWA Mid Atlantic in Burlington, NC.

- Is 2008 here yet?
- I write my 7’s fancy…I put a line through them.
- The pictures from HVW should be up tomorrow.
-

I have been procrastinating on doing the blog, I’ve just been lazy. Saturday was HVW’s Night of the Champions! I got there about 7.30, and there was already a standing room only crowd. I was glad to see such a turn out. I want any promoter to do well, and it was good to see Viper getting such a good crowd.

For the first time, the HVW crowd got to see Brad Thomas, the Midnight Express and the Barbarian.

Ken, Ostgard, Team Macktion and the Kardiac Kids had a great tag team triple threat match. Even our favorite announcer, ER got involved and boy, was he swinging potatoes!

Again, the temperatures were high in the building.

I was originally planning on attending the CWA show in Statesville this coming Saturday, but something has come up that is going to keep me close to home, so I will probably be heading back up to Hendersonville to see how HVW follows up from last week.

Got to see Mario Hogg on Sunday in Tryon. His church, Solid Rock Christian had rented Harmon Field in the town all day long. After work, myself and Mr & Mrs Adam Jaxon went down for a visit. Buckshot Carter was also there.

I’m hoping to see X3 this weekend, everyone says it’s good. I finished Anderson Cooper’s book on Sunday.

Wow, what a meaningless blog I have written…

-Everytime I run the spell check on this, and the word “Ostgard” is in it – it recommends replacing it with “histogram”….

I just finished Answered Prayers by Truman Capote. Most of you know that I am a big fan of Truman Capote and this was the one book that I had waited on reading. If you want to read Capote, don’t start with this one. Start with his first book “Other Voices, Other Rooms” and then move onto “In Cold Blood”, then do the short stories and the rest. I am still reading “Elizabeth & Mary”, but it is now the bed book. Today at work, I am starting Anderson Cooper’s “Dispatches from the Edge”.

HVW’s Night o’ Champions is tonight. Looking forward to getting back to HVW. I’ve had a break for two weeks which was just about right. Two friends recently were talking to me about the WWE. They asked “well, isn’t ____ doing ___ at the next PPV?” My response is I honestly do not know. I am so removed from WWE happenings. Now ask me what caused the row at APW last Saturday and I can tell you exactly what it was. I find the local stuff so much more interesting.

I should mention a new site: Carolina Independent Wrestling A great site that our friend, Tim Dixon is doing. He has great coverage of wrestling in the Carolina’s. Plus his buddy Chuck took a great picture of me in my Sith robe….oh yes, I am dark apprentice…be afraid….

I am off work today and tomorrow, and I realized that I have not posted an update about my weekend. Ostgard called me after we had all returned home frou GOUGE last week and talked about possibly getting together on the weekend. ER was going to Anarchy, Thomas was back on holiday, and neither of us felt like “working”. So the light bulb came on over the heads…APW!

We decided that we would just go and have some fun, and see some folks we haven’t seen in a while. Also in fan tradition, we made some signs. Before I jumped the barrier I used to bring signs to the shows. If any of the APW guys read this, I want to say that I really had a great time. Ostgard brought his girlfriend along, the poor gal – she had to sit and listen to two guys scream their heads off. The fans were happy to see Ostgard, there were several that came up and asked if he was wrestling that night.

I know there has been some talk about our trip to the show, but let me say their was no malice intended, we just wanted to have some fun.

Afterwards I finally got to see the Boomer Payne footage of the Chief Jay Eagle promo, and the totally uncensored footage from the Chester road trip!

Sunday, we met with ER and took a trip to Shogun Japanese Steakhouse, which is my favorite Japanese steakhouse on Hwy 29. Thanks to Ostgard and ER for trying to…ahem, force a set up with our neighbor at the other table.

Went and saw “The DaVinci Code”. The previews were not that great, but the movie was very good. I really wish that I had read the book first, but no big deal. I had read “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” last year so the history cited in the film I was familiar with.

Thanks guys for a great weekend, it was exactly what I needed! The batteries feel a little recharged, my site is up and running again. Ready for HVW’s Night of the Champions on Saturday, should be a really great show – Midnight Express, Valiant Bros, Team Macktion, Ostgard, Thomas, Ken, Law, Barbarian, et al.

Ohhhhhhhhh…..where to begin?

Tuesday, I went to WWC in Greenville. Again, fun show. Ostgard came out, Thomas was there etc etc. Fun little show. Found out an interesting fact on Jordan Richards, and then I wowed him with my knowledge of the British Royal Family in the 1500’s.

Went to the IHOP afterwards. Their pink lemonade was so bad, I dumped it onto ER.

Met up with Thomas, Ostgard, and ER on Wednesday afternoon and we took off to Raleigh for GOUGE. We were able to travel in comfort courtesy of the newest addition to the Arledge Motor Pool.

Got to Kings Barcade about 5pm. Neat little place, had a great garage/basement/dusty hole in the wall fell to it. www.kingsbarcade.com

Got to meet Count Grog – nice guy, he was doing a Captain Lou Albano gimmick. Gimmicks is what GOUGE is all about. To give you an idea, he is a blurb from their premiere show flyer:

“GOUGE stands for Gimmicks Only Underground Grappling Entertainment. There are many promotions in North Carolina and throughout the United States that claim to be old school wrestling, they claim to be wrestling like it used to be. They claim to be the real deal. GOUGE says screw that. GOUGE is a fun approach to wrestling with outrageous characters and over the top gimmicks….in the vein of of HUSTLE in Japan, GOUGE is a fresh look at the fun side of pro wrestling.”

And over the top it was – in places. Funny stuff. The commissioner is blind, Stevie Charles. Thankfully his hearing is well enough to reverse decisions if he must. Hilarious stuff, he would put his hand out to get a high five when the guys are the other side of the ring.

What else can I say about the show? Not sure, it was in a bar so there was a lot of booze and some wild stuff. What happens at GOUGE stays at GOUGE, until you see some of the pictures I suppose.

ER and Ostgard quickly left me stranded in a parking lot to go to some bar. Thomas and I went to an upscale steakhouse and chatted with the Hardy’s – who came out for GOUGE, Jimbo Fox and Shannon Moore. Actually I didn’t do too much chatting, I was sipping another pink lemonade.

Thanks again to Matt for letting us crash at his house for the night. While we were waiting for Thomas to get ready to go, I mistakenly brought a CD changer crashing down on my head. Did my friends E & O spring to my assistance? No. My souvenir from the Hardy House – a Warner Bros. cartoon size knot on my head.

Long trip back home. Very tired yesterday afternoon, I think we all took naps once we got in.

Lets see…some random tidbits….

Harold James now has two fans at WWC! – “Hello Gorgeous”

Ostgard literally brought the GOUGE ring crashing down!

ER’s ring intro for Thomas is great, go to his page and read it.

GOUGE has some smart fans.

The restaurant, On the Border serves fish tacos….yeech…