ringsidephotos.net Blog

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…

Raced to WWC last night after work. I got there about 7.50pm. I then took a rather angry phone call from someone who will remain nameless. It was good to be back in Greenville. I have always enjoyed going to Brodie’s, he and Lace are always accommodating to me when I show up. Thanks guys.

Good show last night. I saw the “Porn Star” Robbie Boyette actually in the the ring for the first time. The drop toe hold was spectacular. Ostgard & Ken had a good match against Jeff Lewis and the Shamrock. Regardless of what Ostgard says it was a good match. They worked as babyfaces, which is different for both but they did great keeping the crowd into it.

I have never seen a rabid human being but came very close last night with Mikki Free – green foam coming out da mouth! Great stuff – I’m hoping the pictures I got do it justice. Good main event Mikal Adryan against Austin Creed. Creed is a good looking kid and I don’t know how long he has been in the ring but he seems like a natural. Ostgard and I both had to work today, so we decided to hit the IHOP in Greenville for something quick along with ER and Mr & Mrs Magnum. Ostgard, ever the gentleman gave away one of his wrist bracelety thingys to a waitress.

I didn’t go to the bathroom as I feared some additive added to my drink. Speaking of the IHOP, I drove past the damn thing like twice. I was disoriented and plus listening to Howard Stern.

Why do people always think I am speaking in innuendo? They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and perhaps that would work for some people. People are cramming themselves down certain folks throats. Honey, lighten up!

I hope the HVW show went well. Thomas, you should have come out to the show. Kirby, ER is lost at the dinner table without you. I got some interesting news this morning, from a very reliable source of mine on the street. Everyone get ready, because one of our own will soon be mingling with the powerful up north, you know what I’m talking about. I am going to start on the pictures tonight after work.

Ostgard pointed out that he and I are probably the only two wrestling related persons that actually have to work this morning. Could be true.

Why does the IHOP in Spartanburg serve Pepsi products (which I prefer) and the one in Greenville serve Coke (don’t worry Boomer, I got the pink lemonade)? Wonder what the IHOP on Cox in Gastonia serves?

Watching “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”, waiting on my lunch. I have bombarded a couple of folks on MySpace this morning with Benny Hill clips. Today is my last day at work for an entire week. I already have an invitation to cene en un restaurante mexicano nuevo en la Union tomorrow. Wednesday is the big GOUGE trip to Raleigh.

So Friday was the extreme hardcore HVW show in Hendersonville. This had the potential to be a giant cluster, but the show did have a progression of its hardcoreness. The main event was the main event where the combatants went all out with the tables, barb wire, pans, traffic cones, and briefly a dildo! Yes…even a rubber phallus, brought from the pocket of Law and nearly inserted into the mouth of James Drake…Har! Then it was hurtled into the crowd by Ostgard.

I posted the pictures from Friday up on Saturday, the pictures from Saturday night are being worked on as I type this.

There was surprisingly little blood at the hardcore show. The most I saw was on Roxi’s injury which was brought about by being slammed through a row of fluorescent tubes. It gashed this elbow and arm pretty good.

ER came out and got the crowd riled up with his anti-hardcore speech. He was not announcing this night, instead he stood in the corner of Ostgard. His opponent – Princess Bubbles. It was the straightest homosexual gimmick I have ever seen.

ER did a great job, I’ve never heard such language from him before – well actually I have, but just never in the center of the ring. The “anti-hardcore” match generated as much if not more crowd reaction than the other stuff.

I’ve already mentioned Roxi’s injury, the other one for the night was Law who suffered a laceration on the top of his head from a chair shot. It took ten stitches to sew him up.

The pictures from Saturday night were taken from the balcony. Yes, I know pure laziness. The crowd was rather small, so I decided to hang out up top with the Balcony Boys et al. The pictures do not have the same “in your face” feel, but fear not it is just a one night exception.

The show ended early so we were able to have supper at a new place – Applebees. We put our favorite wrestler, Ostgard up at the Arledge Mountain chalet for Saturday night, and then gave him the grand tour of Polk County.

Only one show this week, WWC on Saturday night. Then next week will be NWA Anarchy on the 20th.

Finished watching “Elizabeth I” that I had TiVo’d from last week – very good movie. I am a fan of Helen Mirren anyway from BBC’s “Prime Suspect”, and she did great as good Queen Bess.

Today is primary day – have you voted yet? I did last week at the early one stop voting.

Busy weekend coming up. Friday is going to be HVW’s extreme adults only bonzer hardcore death strap flashbang hot wax strap on pin cushion show! I hope it will fun. I love seeing hardcore matches every once in a while. I love taking bloody headshot pictures and trying to catch the moment of impact with whatever foreign object is being used. My only concern is that in hardcore matches, because they have been used as attractions to cards in the past – that Friday the first hardcore match will be a balls to the wall blood fest which blows the wad for the crowd and there is nothing to build up to as a “main event”.

I get bored seeing hardcore if it is the same thing over and over again. There will be the inevitable shouts of “boring” when someone doesn’t live up to the violence that has been left dripping and coagulating in the ring before them.

Saturday is a toss up right now, it will either be HVW’s first Saturday show or heading down to Anarchy with ER. Undecided right now.

So the original “Lost Weekend” was some kind of Van Halen sort of thing? I don’t know, I didn’t keep up with the hair bands of the 80’s.

I have gotten a couple of emails asking about the “Lost Weekend”…don’t panic folks, it was just a couple of road trips.

Friday, Thomas, ER, Ostgard and myself heading toward to Statesville – and then Saturday was CWF in Burlington where Ostgard and Ken teamed (matching trunks even) with Cham Pain against Kirby, TJ and Xsiris.

“Team Simpson” was accompanied to ringside by ER and Ashley Walker. Quite a formidable looking group and one that worked superbly! We did not stay for the entire show, but this six man tag was a high point of the night-great work from everybody.

To everybody involved in the weekend, I had a really great time – I was tired, I spent a lot of money, but I would not trade any of it.

I’m ready to cut up my Exxon card and mail it back to them, they don’t need my money.

My pussy cat is back on Prozac.

I’m off work the next two days…I will probably not go anywhere.

My favorite co-worker Yeti Hunter is going to have surgery on his knee next month and will be out for six weeks.

I’m going to end this with some quotes:

Because you are in control of your life. Don’t ever forget that. You are what you are because of the conscious and subconscious choices you have made. – Barbara Hall

No matter how nice the company one might be with, however, it is never pleasant to have a rifle pointed at ones back. – Meg Cabot

Genius, geniuses everywhere I turn! If only there was some talent! – Henri Bernstein, French playwright

The problem with people who have no vices is that they’re pretty sure to have some annoying virtues – Elizabeth Taylor

There is no downside to winning. It feels forever fabulous – Pat Conroy

Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught Hell for – Earl Warren

A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent – Martin Luther King Jr.

It isn’t what they say about you, it’s what they whisper – Errol Flynn