XCW no longer

Wow…it’s been forever and a day and a more since I blogged on here. I come back blogging with not the most positive news. It seems after 10 years, XCW is closing its doors. We were told that last Saturday night before the Pilot Point show. To be plain, that sucks. My first thought I will say was of me and my training and like “where am I going to go?” Nite said he would not leave me or James hanging out there and still take care of us and I believe him on that as he’s always been a straight shooter.

I just wanted to debut as an XCW wrestler. I wanted to taste TNT title gold someday. There are a lot of guys, if not all of them on the roster I’d like to work with when the time comes for me to start. Granted a lot of the guys also work for various other promotions around the state so it’s likely I will see em again and often.

In my short experience with it, XCW was awesome. A fun place to be, a great show, cool guys, I loved being around that and working with the company and doing podcasts and such it was cool to say I was a part of it in some capacity. I don’t have the years and year’s worth of memories many other guys have, but hey at least I can hear them from the guys themselves. Nothing lasts forever, that much we know. Things as major as family passing away show us that. Things like favorite TV shows or comic books getting cancelled show us that. It happens, it’s life. It still doesn’t make it suck any less.

Dec. 19th is going to be a helluva show, I look forward to in one respect, but one I don’t look forward to in another..

I planned on doing a documentary on XCW already and now will definitely get to work on it very soon so I can capture and tell the story of the legacy of XCW. It will be my first foray into documentary film, so it will be interesting. But something I will definitely work on to the best of my ability.

On the wrestling side, just have to continue to train, learn all I can. We have the building till March, and then, we’ll just see what happens then.

Wow

It's been forever and a day since I blogged. Not really feeling like it at the moment, but I figured I needed to get back in some semblance of a groove of it. I am congested at the moment, fearing swine flu early on I think it's just a case of my sinuses decided to fuck with me for whatever reason. M3h, it happens right?

Wrestling still goes. Learning each and every time. Added a new wrinkle to things Tuesday. The standing moonsault. Now I used to take gymnastics when I was a kid, but I stopped taking the classes the day before we started getting into back flips and back handsprings and what not, so I had never done such a thing, which is more or less required for the moonsault. I tried it, with Eddie spotting me the first few times and then doing it on my own. I quite like it. I just have to get better at it. I have a habit of jumping backward instead of relying on my legs to get me up in the air and then just tucking and executing a backflip, which I really have no issue with I can land on my feet if I tried to I am sure. But it's repetitions. I have an idea for how I'd like to incorporate it into a spot during a match which I think would be cool, I just have to perfect it before busting out with it.

James is in the ring and training, learning bumps and such. Vegas is too. Didn't think Vegas would have in ring aspirations, but hey shows what I know. Hey more homegrown XCW talent that comes along the better I say.

Just have to keep going, keep learning and showing confidence with what I do know so I can show them that I am ready to work a match with what I know. Really have to focus on that.

But it will get here in time. Can't rush it.

Don't call it a come back

I been here for years. Just been busy.
Life catches up to you sometimes doesn't it.
But I have been here, living, working, struggling, surviving daily.
Some days I wish I had been born with a silver spoon, it'd make things a lot easier. But the struggle to get things may be hard, but it makes you appreciate the things and the people you achieve in your life in spite of those struggles. I hate cliches, but yeah if it doesn't kill you it will make you stronger.

One thing I need to make stronger is my memory. We did rope drills last night at training and then a game sort of like HORSE where you had to repeat the drill the person in front of you did, then add something to it. A chop for you from everyone if you messed up. The bright side is everyone got chopped. The not so bright side is everyone, including me, got chopped. Taking em from Bobby, yeah not so fun...lol...also going to retire my red shorts as they have a zipper on them that cut my leg during a match with Bobby last night. Not cool.

James is in the ring now, learning the drills and some basic stuff. I am interested in seeing how he progresses. I quite like the idea of XCW home grown guys, as it will help in the long run I think to have a good home base to call upon for shows. Too bad Pierre isn't returning, likely, ever it seems. But sucks when you have a wife and fam who are totally not behind what you want to do in life.

I am glad my kids and Mrs. Envi have my back. My dad thinks it's cool too. Of course he supports whatever I do because I'm his son. Good rule of thumb to have for parents. Unless the activity is illegal, support your kids doing it.

Not much in the TV world...I mean how many times can you say ROH is always good, Raw sucks and Smackdown is a good wrestling show. TNA is still sinking into the quicksand of stupidity though the knockouts, particularly Alissa Flash/Raesha Said/Cheerleader Melissa are still good, despite Lacey Von Erich's best efforts to muddle it up.

hmm

When I get behind on bloogin, shit just snow balls

Been busy or otherwise tired.

Tired from work and all the day to day running around, the long days we both have. And it is no exaggeration whatsoever between our respective jobs and the kids how long the days we have to endure are. Granted this is the life we have chosen, so really how much complaining can one do over the path they took, right?

Been busy with some other non-wrestling related projects as well. Stuff that pertains to my other interests in film and such. Those can be seen at twitter.com/taurianfilms, as I try to keep some separation of things, at least at the moment.

In wrestling news, man Decatur was interesting. XCW's show resulted in two holes in the building and a $600 damage quote. Wow. While Reuben was pretty peeved at first, it seemed like things were calmed down by the tail end of the night, which is good. Decatur seems promising. The crowd was into the show all night and there was a good number of them. If we could roll in Decatur and Denton, I think we could be doing pretty well. Of course in the end I know nothing really about building wrestling audiences and locations and such so who knows?

Now that PCW has started back running shows, monthly from what I am told at the moment, it will be interesting to see if that changes how we do things or who we can or can't get for our shows.

As far as my wrestling goes, still training, still trying to learn all I can so I can be ready to go when my time comes.

Wednesday.....tired day

Been a while since I have blogged it seems. Life, kids and things like work just catch up with you. Trained last night. Ran through our drill and then we talked. Me, Bobby and Nite. Talked about in ring stuff. What you can do, what you can’t do, what wrestling is about at its core. Time passed on that, a lot of time, I could have listened longer as as much as you learn, drills you go through, work outs you do, sitting down and talking about things is good too. It helps to check to see if things are sinking in, that you are really comprehending the physical and mental part of what we are trying to do. It’s very much like schools today where you want to get away from just the memorization and regurgitation of said memorized material. It doesn’t like you be natural. It doesn’t let you be creative and to take full advantage of things offered to you in the ring.

Very interesting.

The show this week finds XCW back in Decatur in Reuben’s ballroom. First Saturday show in a while. Moved from Friday’s so football wouldn’t be kicking our ass as far as attendance goes. God, Texans and high school football…really people, it’s sickening.

It also marks the revival of PCW out of Arlington. So a lot of our usual heavy hitters are landing over there. Never been to a PCW show, seems like they are packed from what I see on youtube videos of old matches from years ago, I dunno. Competition for talent could be interesting that’s for certain. But it also opens spots for up and comers like myself. Least I think it could.

Other than that, my little high yellow Envi has been sick. The air up here keeps here sick and with weather changing like it does, she stays sick. Not fun.

Older bro is going to Kuwait sometime in November, not sure when but I will ideally get up there to see him. Have to by hook or crook, I haven’t seen him in a couple years before he went to Korea for the military so I can’t miss a chance to see him before going off over there for god knows how long and worrying the shit out of me. But that’s his job, and we all have em to do.

Oh, and I am tired. But I do have leftover lasagna Mrs. Envi made last night and that’s a bright spot to look forward to for lunch.

Wednesday

My elbow hurts. Hit it some kinda way last night taking a clothes line from Mark Jacobs in a short match with him. Kicked me around most of the time and had to get the win with a cheap shot to my nuggets, but the experience was good at least. Last night was also a treat as we got a visit from Kong, who is up from Houston.

Kong was an XCW guy back in the day and is held in very high esteem by everyone I have heard talk about him. He seems very knowledgeable about what we do so it was good to get his feedback. I have been training for five months as of today. Doesn’t seem like that long, but maybe that’s a psychological thing based on realizing how much stuff I still have to learn and be trained at doing before I am ring ready. I wish I was farther along but it is what it is, when it is so you just have to keep on plugging away.

This weeks show should be a good one from looking at the card. Drunk Adam will be back so that could bring in some more people. A new female wrestler is debuting and another XCW guy from back in the day is coming through. Should be interesting to see.

On the TV front, I still hate ROH being on Monday, god do I ever. But I was pleased with this weeks show and the match between the Briscoes/Steenerico. I would have liked to have seen a finish, but they have had tons of matches over the years I can see. The Wolves came out and attacked both teams for a DQ. What I am waiting to see is Briscoes/Wolves. Now that could potentially be awesome. I just love ROH’s tag team scene right now. And tam team wrestling is one of the few things TNA does right.

XCW needs more teams. We have the Dark Circle who have the tag belts, and that’s it as far as tag team mainstays, I’m a big supporter of tag teams and want to see it thrive…hopefully it will in the future.

I need a speedy sidekick or to be the sidekick of a speedy veteran I think and then we could have a MCMG-like team….or maybe just a big guy and we can have the make up of the old Hart Foundation with Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart, or LAX (if you want to get more modern) that could be cool as well.

Ah, wishful thinking.On a musical front...listening to Kittie's new album and I have to say it's a good one. Not all the songs are winners, I mean you rarely have any CD where you like 100% of every track, but I am digging what I hear so far. Can't wait to purchase it and for the girls to get their asses back to the DFW area so I can see em in concert.

Friday...

A day away from the greatest night of the week and some good ol fashion XCW wrestling.
Ah good times, hope we can retain the crowd we had last week.

Trained more last night. James was there again. Glad to see the new guy is sticking around unlike the last new guy. I asked Eddie about incorporating some of what I do as far as collegiate wrestling into the wrestling we do in the ring. I feel very confident in my skills there and thought it could be, while a practical thing as far as moves go, it could serve to be a mental thing and help me have a more confident air about me in the ring. It was cool as he talked me through some ways to do that. Have to enjoy and appreciate the knowledge and ideas he has.

Tore a shirt up wrestling with him so that was funny. Squared off with the Cos a bit here and there which was interesting. As I said I love working with any and everyone to get me used to working with people of different body shapes, sizes, good experience.

Haven't had a chance to catch up on wrestling on TV, of course missing Impact is not a big deal at this time. I still need to watch ECW and then after coming home from work I will have to catch up Smackdown. Still not sold on ROH moving to Mondays as I liked having it to look forward to at the tail end of the week. But oh well.

As for anything else...hmm feeling kinda blah...

grr

Hate missing training days. I have on consecutive Tuesdays now. I can't completely complain as they have been work related and doing what you have to do to make sure the paycheck keeps coming, kinda trumps everything else you could have going on, so one can't exactly do anything about it.

So I will be returning to Pilot Point Thursday for another bout of training, which of course I eagerly await. Interested in the show this weekend and if we have another good week or if there will be any sort of drop off in people or show quality. Consistency will win the day.

Ah...Friday

Friday finally which means we are one day from being back in Pilot Point for more XCW action. Had training last night. Trainers weren't there but me, Bobby, Howie and Vegas were along with a new guy. I got show him the finer points of Hello Dollys and six-point push ups. That was cool. Hell on him, but cool to see people coming in and going through the same things you did. Hope the guy is good as we go along and sticks with it and with XCW, can't do anything but help I imagine for us to get more home grown talent.

Wrestled Bobby last night a pretty one-sided affair with him using his power which completely gave me no room to even think of how best to use speed to outsmart him. Was not a pretty site, but a learning experience. Also did some amateur wrestling on the mat as well which of course is always fun. Plus it's different when they can't punch and kick you, lol. I have no doubt I can out-wrestle most people on the mat.

Need to watch more wrestling. I got on a good kick of it, then scaled back when my computer fucked up, need to get back on that. Watching, seeing what people do, how they put matches together...yeah, need more of it....I did finally burn my Mr. Perfect DVDs, so that is a plus. In the midsts of watching the documentary now, I will get to the matches later.

In TV news ROH has suffered another talent blow as Nigel McGuiness will be making his way to the WWE. I have not seen a huge amount of Nigel but he has been around the indies and ROH for a while and being champ for a year plus, there isn't much left for him, so I don't mind the move. I am not trying to be a doomsayer like most people it seems. This shit happens, people move on from the indies all the time. My only issue is them pushing Tyler Black as I don't see the big deal about the guy, but hey what do I know?

I don't think ROH is dead, it's just getting a facelift, which any organization needs to do once in a while. It happens.

Back on the train

Man is it ever easy to get off the blogging train...well I am back on...was sick all day yesterday, not sure if it was a stomach bug or a mild concussion. I took an elbow to the head from Bobby Thurs. in Decatur, freestyling a bit. I love it though I could do it all day. Got to wrestle Ashton and destroyed him, but of course he is younger and doesn't know as much as I do, took on his dad who took several minutes to wear me down and that was straight after Ashton so I could have taken him. I like it though when people find out that I am a lot stronger than I look despite my size. Plus I just love to wrestle. Have to see how I can incorporate that into my wrestling in the ring. Angle and a few others were accomplished amateur wrestlers before enterting the squared circle so I will have to see how they did it. I watched their matches before of course, but now that I am doing it it's paying all different sorts of attention now.

Decatur show was good. Masada took one hellacious superkick from Gemini...I mean just damn....attendance was down, but this is Texas and Friday was the start of high school football which has the potential to kill us on these various Friday shows. We shall see how things go.

The Dark Circle have the tag belts. I say me and Ashton form a MCMG-like tag team of speed, agility and youth and take it to them. But that's just me.

Training is still going. Slower the last few weeks but stuff's been happening and I have had to miss a day here n there, have to on Tuesday as well I think as I have work that calls for an evening shift. I will have to see how long it lasts though, might just get there late.

In other wrestling news, Jeff Hardy is gone from the WWE for the moment and I for one, could not be any happier. I couldn't stand him in the role he was in. Granted you couldn't deny the cheers he garnered from the kiddies, girls and spotmonkey fans, but I thought Jeff's work was just garbage personally. Of course I have yet to display my own so I realize I don't have much of a leg to stand on that sort of argument but even from just a fan standpoint I was just never a big one. If he was putting himself through a table from 20 feet up in the air, he wasn't doing anything worthwhile. Punk reigns supreme but faces the Undertaker next and no one escapes feuds with him un-buried, so we shall see how that one goes.

Tuesday...oh and the American Dragon signed with the 'E.

Tuesday…training day…always a good thing.

It’s been a minute since I blogged so I wanted to catch up on what I thought was a big deal in the wrestling world, the signing of American Dragon Bryan Danielson to the ‘E. Danielson is one of the best wrestlers in the world. Period. Anyone who can say anything negative about his in-ring skill is smoking something fierce. That being said he doesn’t fit the look of the typical guys Vince goes after so I wonder about the logic in it. Danielson is not the most charismatic guys when it comes to the mic, so a place on Raw is not in his future nor should it be. He needs to be on the shows that’s till care about wrestling in Vince land, Smackdown and WWECW. I hope they don’t have him languish in Florida forever. He should get called up right now and go right into a feud with Regal. Their matches could be epic.

There are a lot of dream match ups now that he has signed….Regal..Christian…JoMo…Punk…Finlay…Kidd…all of those could tear the house down. Will he make it though? How will he be used? As the best in the world or jobbed out all to hell? There’s a lot of talk on the Internets about this, some saying he should do it, some saying he won’t. But hey if they guy is given a shot, why not take it? Punk made it from ROH, Bourne is making it (though he has been hit/miss lately with booking) Cabana was never even given a shot…so who knows…but this is Dragon. The guy is good, Benoit good, and that could make him.

XCW was in Pilot Point last Saturday and Decatur this Friday. Decatur shows are getting bigger it seems and more lively. Pilot Point shows are hit or miss. Sometimes you have a good crowd and other times you don’t. Last weekends show was a bit of both, the people were hott for a few matches and quiet in others. I swear if Mrs. Envi didn’t get some chants going, they wouldn’t get done. I dug the Eddie/Johnson match as I am of course an Eddie fan and Johnson is my size, (well I think he is a bit meatier than me) so I pay attention to how he carries himself in his matches.

I am looking forward especially to the Denton show that is coming up. Nite said they drew a huge crowd last time they did an outdoor free show like this and I think the crowd could be as big and will provide a lively sort of atmosphere. I am wondering though what matches will be booked. I assume the familiar faces in Denton will get on there and…hmmm I really don’t know who else…we will all see together….

Thursday comes calling.....

Ah….Thursday, back to training today, had to miss out on Tuesday to get some stuff done for work. Hey when work calls you have to answer right? I added in an extra mile to my daily running work out since I didn’t train. The course I run, I may have said is a mile and a half or close to it for one lap around and I do two, though Tuesday I added one extra. So running 2-3 miles a day I think is good. I noticed myself sucking a bit less wind after the warm up drill and after some of the other work we were doing last week so I am looking for that to continue.

Got a new computer, well a replacement for the previous one that screwed up so I have to download some of the wrestling matches I had before that I didn’t manage to save to disk. I have most of my KENTA bouts have to get back some of the Amazing Red ones though.

In the TV wrestling world….TAZ is replacing Don West on TNA Impact, which is completely the first smart move TNA has made in forever. DW sucked on commentary and sucked for years now and it’s about time they got rid of him. As for the rest of TNA improving, with Kurt Angle batshit crazy as ever and Jarrett being pushed out, who knows where it can go. ROH moved to Mondays which I am indifferent about. I liked having wrestling every day of the week, but of course XCW runs Saturday, so I get my weekend fix started with that.

Not much else going on. Tired, but when is that anything new right?

Would be blogging but the net gods seems to hate me right now. Haven't got a clear signal all day. Just that kind of day.

Tired...

Tired and nauseous are the words of the day. Not sure about why the latter, but the former is really just the way things go on a daily basis, never enough hours in a given day to get everything done that needs to be done and manage to get some sleep.

*sigh*

On a positive note, we have Showtime for the next month and I am gearing up to see the Carano/Cyborg fight Saturday night and hoping Cyborg gets the job done and kicks Gina's ass. I am not looking for a 30-second knockout, I do want a good fight with some good punishment dished out on Gina. We shall see how it goes down.

Short...but alas, words are making my eyes hurt.

testing

testing

Tuesday

You know, you're going to meet some good people in the business and you are going to meet some stupid people who are evidently not too big on the whole respect thing the business is built on. I have met a couple people in that category already and as most recently as last week's XCW show. Now I won't get into specifics and name drop and all that stuff, as I am trying not to get caught up in it. I am just trying to do my job for XCW both the behind the scenes work I do and the training in the ring. You'd like to be friends and chummy with everyone, but yeah, in reality it's much like any other work place in which you will have people you like and people you don't like but have to function with for the greater good.

It happens.

In other news, hmm nothing really.

Training is today, my shoulder is still sore, so we'll see how that goes. I'm tired. Nothing new there.I have been running every day along a path I have made in the neighborhood I live in. Exactly how long it is I have yet to determine. I need to drive the car around it and figure it out and will probably do that today so I know what exactly it is I am running, though I do imagine it to be at least a mile or close to two when all is said and done. Felt better than before when I was running it yesterday, which is good. I want to build up to being able to run it at a good pace the whole time.

Looking at some fitness equipment to have at the house. I thought about gym membership, but I am out of the house a lot during the week so I want to have something at home where I can just work out and be at home. Just easier that way I think, but we shall see how it goes. I need to get a Bowflex, see if there is anything to those or not I have always wondered.

Ouch...

So my shoulder hurts. Just when it started to feel a lot better from when the elbow shot I threw in training tweaked it. I was taking a big boot from Bobby and landed awkwardly on my shoulder on the mat. The boot looked good, didn't feel good though. It's just one of those things that happens...not good. I really could have prevented it in hindsight though. I will from now on though. Another thing my lil ass will be doing from now on is running. We were working on some chain wrestling earlier on in the session last night and Eddie said it was OK other than the fact we were both kinda sucking wind. Not to mention we kept going back to the same well. I will say some of that is on me, as I got into some positions and some holds in on Bobby and I'd be sitting there like, OK where the hell can I go from here.

It's a matter of watching more tapes, dvds, etc. to see what people are doing in their matches when it comes to chain wrestling. I picked up one thing I did from a recent ROH match I watched with Kenny Omega and a different way to put a rolling wrist lock on someone. Also youtubing today showed me something for a possible wrist lock counter when someone has you in one. Eddie said he can teach me to wrestle and how to put a match together but for the more high flying type of stuff I need to get in the ear of the people who do it like James Johnson, Gemini, JT Lamotta. So I will endeavor to do that more as well.

Worked on headscissors take downs a lot. A lot. That was another kick in the pants that says I need to run more. Not only saying I need to run, but getting off my ass and doing it because I was tired doing the head scissors and it was evident the more we ran through the moves and that was not cool at all. I don't want to be in a match 12, 13 minutes in whatever and I could lock it up with a dazzling headscissor move and be too tired to do it, or anything else. Gotta be in better shape and better shape than anyone I am in the ring with.

My Dad is coming in tomorrow which is definitely cool having him here spending time with the boys as he has not seen them in a long ass time. He and my high yellow Envi got along well when we went out there so it will be cool for him to see her as well and vice versa. Looking at doing some golfing/go-carting. Dad is cool as he is supportive and it is definitely a pleasant change to have at least one of your parents behind you.

Still waiting on getting my ticket to Summerfest. If you don't know Jeremy Piven guest hosted Raw this past Monday turning it into one of the crappiest broadcasts ever, not that I fault him 100% it's Vince's same tired bullshit. Well Piven was cutting a promo on Miz and called Summerslam, Summerfest. It was funny and sad at the same time. Just one of the many things like the same tired ass matches on Raw that make it a pain to watch.

Usually ECW lifts my spirits and washes the taste of Raw out of my mouth, but this week...they open with an overly long skit with Abraham Washington, Shelton Benjamin and Zack Ryder. I love Shelton and Zack but having them in that segment was painful. Washington's skits are boring and pointless. Apparently the crowd chanting their disapproval was edited out. You can't pull dumb shit in NY, you just can't. TNA featured a long ass brawl in the middle of its show I have not seen yet, but by all accounts I have read it was contrived and stupid. It's TNA so no surprise there. But there is a women's tag match I am looking forward to. And Smackdown is tonight and usually great and of course ROH is tomorrow along with live XCW wrestling.

Bobby is back in action again which I am looking forward to seeing, and of course all the other guys.

Catching up

It has been a while since I blogged...life sort of gets you rolling along at it's own pace at times, as it did with me lately. But I am back on track now. I wanted to blog before the Decatur show about how I was looking forward to seeing Diamond Dave as he is a guy who is my size. Well he has an inch or so on me, but relatively my size. So I wanted to see his match and how he worked against his opponent who was a new guy to XCW, Austin Riley. Riley, a smug sort of guy is not too much bigger as well, so it was cool to see two smaller guys who got booked and who put on a good match. Neither of them are slouches and got the crowd into a worthwhile match. Plus Riley's finisher is nice.

The crowd was bigger than it was the last time I was in Decatur which was a month ago, well two months really. It's nice to see the bigger crowd and they seemed to be into the show, especially the destruction of Scott McKenzie by the Dark Circle and the betrayal of McKenzie's fellow BTP member, Jerome Daniels. I will be interested in the fallout from this.

Training is tonight. As usual I can't wait to see what's in store for me.

Busy day today so brief I will be.

Support

Support is good. And not the support that comes from bras or jockstraps, although that is good and much needed in some cases, but the support I speak of is people standing behind you. Friends, family etc. It’s nice to have people in your corner to know that people have your back in what you are trying to do. I get that from Mrs. Envi who I love and appreciate for it, I get it from my best friend my whole life, my brother, my dad, not my mom though. I get snide remarks about what I want to do in wrestling. Well hell in all things really.

Now I am a parent. I have four kids and will likely have another one before all is said and done. That’s a lot of different little developing minds. I of course have ideas in my head of what I want them to do in life and they may do somethings and they may not. They may totally go on a different entirely. And as a parent I will surely complain at first but at the end of the day if it makes them happy I will have their back. (but if any one of my sons end up playing football for the Redskins….that…..I dunno…he’d better get a huge signing bonus and buy me a Lamborghini all I am saying…..)

My mom not so much. She is the type that she has it in her head what you should do and if you deviate from that path in any way shape or form you are wrong as wrong can get. Never asking me at any point in time does it make me happy. Actually she has never asked me in her numerous questions and judgments about any of my decisions has she asked me if said decision makes me happy. Which I would think is the important thing. I dunno…I suppose I can add her to the list of detractors and naysayers to prove wrong. Can’t let em get to you. Hell I am starting this seven years later than I wanted to because my kids mom was a huge detractor and non-supporter. Knowing someone has your back really goes a long way. So I am glad I have my kids and my lady behind me all the way. Hell even Caleb is saying he wants to wrestle…why…”because my daddy does it.” I love it.

What I don’t love….Cena/Orton for the title at Summerslam…I mean Christ on a saltine cracker…let friggan Orton feud with other people….like MVP who would be a nice fresh addition to the main event scene but noooo Vince allows the same tired, stale shit….god it makes watching WWE so painful.

Friday...being spread thin....

Training last night, was not so much.

We set up a second ring that they finally got fixed and welded and all that good business. It’s a foot wider than the main ring and will be used for traveling events in Decatur and Denton I imagine should we get to return there. The ring feels different from the other and not just in terms of size. The ropes are different which the other guys lauded. I really have no basis of ring comparisons to know which I like better, at this point a ring is a ring. I need to jump more on the ropes so I can get used to that, get my balance on them, but I will do that from now on, all the more reason to get their early enough to get my warm up out of the way and to be able to do my stuff on the ropes.

So we set that up and did a couple bumping drills. My bumps still suck, once in a blue moon one of them is good the rest are “not bad” to “suck.” We were supposed to start clotheslines Thursday but didn’t get to that. Can’t complain on one hand as much as I was looking forward to that as it just gives another few days for my shoulder to get to feeling 100% better or at least a closer percentage than I was at last night. Babysteps. Still want to do more and be exposed to more. But, I am lucky enough to be training as it is, so I just have to take things as they come for the most part.

My cardio still sucks. I have my plans for jumproping and running I have been wanting to implement, it’s just finding the time in the schedule it all between work, personal projects in other areas, the kids, the girlfriend, at the end of the day some stuff you just don't get to, you wish there were more hours in the day or just more of you to go around. Find the balance in that is hard.

Ouch

So my shoulder hurts.
We were working on back elbows last night and there is a way to do it where you will ideally hit the other person and not have it backfire. I mean think about it, in a fight with someone there you want to hit them and hurt them and not have what you yourself do hurt you right? So you do it right, well I didn't. And I put my arm in a position to where it moved more than it should have. Now I know what I did and I know how to fix it now mind you, but it hurt at the time as soon as I hit it.

Trial and error is a necessary evil, that doesn't exactly make it suck less. All of us were kind of off last night and tempers were a bit more heated than usual, not in the outburst lashing out at each other kinda way, but just frustrated at ourselves for mess ups or for nagging paings or whatever. Ideally it will be better Thursday.

Didn't get to my headscissory stuff, which was kind of disappointing but in time. I was telling Eddie about some of the moves I like and thought about having in my arsenal. He said to make sure they were things I could do. Some of them he said he couldn't teach me and I'd just have to get there and do some trial and error and figure it out. Gonna make a CD of a couple matches that have a couple of the moves I want to do as some of them I don't know the technical names for the moves so when I am explaining it I may not be getting my point across but this should help. I already told Bobby I was going to use him as a guinea pig Thursday for one move which I think I will be able to do pretty easily.

Clotheslines are coming Thursday so I am looking forward to that. My shoulder feels a wee bit better today, hoping it will even more tomorrow.

Thursday & Saturday in one post...I am talented...

Thursday was more training of course. The opening drill we have to do I think we are getting better at doing and once we do, we can get more out of it, cardio wise as it is designed to blow you up a bit. Eddie started having me jump up on the top rope, which was new and different and something I will have to get used to. I need to get some wrestling shoes as that is what I intend to wrestle in, but getting used to and comfortable on the ropes I need to be doing that in the footwear I will wear in a match. We did some more moves, I learned what it took to give a backbreaker and what it felt like to receive one, so I will definitely be on the look out in matches to avoid them being put on me.

Also were talking moves and our arsenal. Eddie was telling Bobby and I both that we needed a handful of things we wanted to have for our arsenal to pull out in matches. For resumes you spotlight the best attributes and in the world of wrestling moves should be the same. Well sort of. Of course I have a short list of things I would like to do...implant ddt, basaiku knee, sole food, cross arm lungblower and the friggan submission move I can't think of what it's called. I don't know what my finisher will be..I want it to be something practical and something I can do, but I am not sure what. We spent a load of time thinking through and working on finishers for Bobby to use...as the one we had in mind, another guy who wrestles for XCW, he uses it. It's not really known to the common fan that it's his thing, so I dunno...I feel we could use it....but what do I know right?

I thought Bobby was still a few weeks away from getting back in the ring, but he opened the show tonight against the veteran Kit Carson. I was geeked to see him on the card and see him in the ring. He and his fam had just been at the house Friday night. Mrs. Envi cooked and I had my sons with me, good times. But it was cool to see him wrestling. The match was OK, there were some things to be worked on, but that's the way it goes...I am sure mine will have a laundry list of things I will have to improve on....but it's just what you have to do on your way to being one of the best.

Potpourri

I was introduced to the suplex last night. Awesome to be able to do that. Two of my favorite wrestlers of all time used the hell out of suplexes, that being Taz and Chris Benoit. Although as small as I am, I doubt I will be doing them a lot as a lot of the guys I will face will tower over me likely. We shall see. Did some armdrags, didn't mess up any fingers this time though my face did collide with Bobby's head.

Not so fun.

Back body drops will be interesting to take htose are well, being a little guy and knowing guys are going to be flinging me like 60 feet in the air and what not.

And I have been tasked with looking at Steamboat for those arm drags of his. I have commented on his arm drags before and how awesome they are to see him perform. They are quick, they are deep and just...awesome. I have a few DVDs with Steamboat matches on them which I shall be going through and slow mo-ing and all that good business.

I have likely said it before but I need to stretch before and after training. I keep telling myself I will do it, then I don't and then I have extra soreness the next day that comes from having not stretched. My shoulders are sore today but I think that has more to do with the not stretching thing. Need to do that. It's really stupid not to and having participated in athletic activity the majority of my life, I should know better.

Not much else is up today...just downloading and watching more wrestling. Always always wrestling....though I could stand to clean up here, so maybe I will do that and then settle into some more wrestling.

Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday

So it's Tuesday, obviously...just another day. I have a crap load of wrestling to watch. I downloaded a ton from a messageboard I recently found that has a lot of WWF/E, WCW, ROH and Japan. So of course I have downloaded a bunch of KENTA and Amazing Red. The KENTA/Richards match from Houston was incredible as I figured it would be. So I figure I can make my own compilations to study. I will get to more Bret Hart, Mr. Perfect and of course more Benoit.

Going to make Bobby an intro DVD of sorts for Ring of Honor. Since he was away from wrestling for a while, he does not have the pleasure of knowing how awesome ROH is so I shall have to make it known to him. Went over his house Sunday and chilled with his wife and almost 3-year-old daughter who gets along with mine which is great. Another great thing was going to his house, getting on his PS3 on Legends of Wrestlemania and took his created character's belt. All kinds of awesome.

But really it's good to have someone you get along with, someone in the same boat as you family wise, it helps you add to your numbers of good responsible people to be around and that is definitely what I need to surround myself with. Thinking of family, the boys will be with me from Friday on, haven't seen them in forever so I can't wait to have them here and them getting to see what I do in the ring, rather what I am training to do.

Anxious to see what is in store for tonight.

Friday...finally

My wrist is sore. Not outright, but if I tried to screw in a lightbulb, I'd be in a little bit of pain. Dunno what I did to it, but I felt it later. Things like that happen. I won't bitch, moan or complain about them as a part of this biz is taking a little bit of punishment. I wonder what my limit in that regard will be.

Ah well....

training continues...more learning, more work on some drills that are to help conditioning and being conditioned for athletic stuff varies with the activity. I imagine football players are in shape, but a different kind of shape then basketball players or hockey players or baseball players. Hell are baseball players even in any kind of shape? A good chunk of their gamers are spent just standing in the outfield or sitting on their ass in the dugout. They just don't really strike me as the most athletically inclined individuals. I am sure they would disagree with me, but ah well.

More work with the giant.
Wow.
Now I know I will be coming out of the gate as the smallest guy on the XCW roster and likely the majority of cards I wrestle on over the years, but I try to not let that enter my mind. David felled Goliath, so in those cases I just have to think of what would be the best sort of strategy...well besides, don't let myself be caught and broke in half. It goes back to my desire to be in better shape, better conditioned than the people in am in the ring against regardless of size. They can tire and pant and all that and they can make a mistake and I can win. That's my goal.

I'll have my sons with me next weekend so they will be able to see me training that next Tuesday, which will cool as they are one of the reasons I am doing this as I know they will get a kick out of seeing me in there. Their first reactions will be interesting to see.

Saturday brings good tidings of XCW wrestling and ROH wrestling. I can't wait to see ROH live. And it will be on soon as we have already discussed and I have gotten the OK from Mrs. Envi to begin looking at Wrestlemania 26 from Phoenix next year. I shit on Vince and the WWE a lot, but there are things they do actually do right and Wrestlemania for the most part, is one of them. It's the Super Bowl of wrestling. Always said before I kick, I'd like to go to Wrestlemania...go and have a good seat, not just go and be in the cheapseats.

And seeing ROH live will be nice. They have a supercard they have been running in recent years the weekend of WM in the locations WM has been. Houston's card featured a KENTA/Davey Richards match which was awesome to see. Hoping for KENTA appearence at the show next year.

It will make for a fun, expensive, but fun, vacation sort of trip for the family. And the Mrs. and I would take our trip later on in the year. Works for me.

Training away

Turning off the brain’s survival instinct is more work than you think it would be. Telling yourself that it’s OK when you see a 6 ft 5, close to 300lbs guy charging at you and that you don’t have to jump out of the way, takes some doing. Ah just one of the many things I am doing when it comes to training.

And so it continues…as cliché a line as that has become in my blog, hell, that’s what it is. It continues and continues. Last night added the new wrinkle of the sunset flip to my ever increasing arsenal, attempting that move for the first time in my natural born life being one of the most comical things ever witnessed. I got it down for the most part after subsequent attempts though. Elbows only took a couple nicks this time around after being made to bump a different way. I am not allowed to do it the first way any more, which is cool, I need to get it down. If ya can’t bump, ya can’t do anything else.

There are some cut-throat people in the business of wrestling. Now you hear and read online on the dirtsheets about politics and such backstage in Vince land and even TNA and ROH, but it is very much on the indy level, which I learned a little bit of last night in listening to some of the conversation from XCW’s owner about dealing with some past personalities and people that were around the area. Interesting.

It was funny in a way as he mentioned how people sought to ride Bobby’s coat tails to Vince in the past. Nite said he didn’t want to hurt my feelings in talking about my chances in the business versus Bobby. Which I understand of course my lack of stature would hinder that, but it’s something I am cool with. I don’t seek Vince land. I have said it before and will again, if I had a lofty ambitious ass goal like that it would be Ring of Honor. Otherwise I just want consistent work in XCW and Texas. I’d like to wrestle on both coasts once or twice to be able to say I did. A couple of wrestlers on my Facebook friends list I have bantered about wrestling with in the last several weeks, I’d like to have a go against them as well. We shall see. I know I want to have fun and I want my kids to see me in there as I know they will get a kick out of it. My 3 8-year-olds and on down to my almost 3-year-old all get into it and that is a joy for me to see, and it being something we as a family can go to is just great.

Not to sound corny but those are the types of things that can keep families together and positive and strong. Makes the thought of a family outing to Wrestlemania 26 in Phoenix next year, awesome. Gonna cost a bit, but experiencing that and giving Mrs. Envi and the kids a chance to experience it will be awesome. I am going to take a million pics, I can see it now. I will definitely have my zoom lens by then.

And I know I am thinking ahead a bit but I have contemplated entrance music. To me entrance music needs to be cool and fit the person. Now and again I will add and take off songs from my mental entrance music possibility list.

Current:
1) “Addicted” Blank Theory
2) “It's time for war” LL Cool J
3) “Remember the name” Fort Minor
4) “It’s a fight” Three Six Mafia

It's a Monday....yeah...again...

July 4th came and went with little pomp and circumstance. I am of the mind that once you have seen fireworks a few times they really aren’t that spectacular. Had we had more of the kids at the house I might have been inclined to go as I think they would have got a kick out of it.

Today’s a Monday and while it is a Raw night, I already know the outcome and the set up for the Night of Champions PPV main event for Raw….HHH/Cena/Orton…really…again…..while they could have taken a grand opportunity to push Miz or Mvp or give them a little nudge, nope, they stick with the same stale b/s they have had going. But at least there is Smackdown, though they took a hit with the recent fluke injury to Edge at a houseshow over the weekend. Didn’t even do anything major, five minutes into the match he just landed wrong off a jump. Shows you how quick shit can happen.

Training continues. Of course. Bobby seems like he will be a fixture now which is cool. Although it was painful being introduced to received forearms from the 6 ft. 5 giant of a man. We have a drill we will be doing to start every training class that works on bumps, some moves and cardio and it is cool to do, it just takes a bit out of you. Although I think the hardest thing will be memorizing it, but I gather after we have done it consistently for a couple weeks it won’t be a problem.

I am just learning more, and I haven’t hit my 3 month mark yet, I dunno why I thought I had been training longer than that. But hey, I have a long way to go and still much more of a fun ride in store.

Bruises

I have some fresh ones courtesy of learning what it is like to have someone whip you to the corner. Ouch. With every move, there is a certain way you need to hit things, that while they will hurt and wear you down, they won't do worse damage, my neck will love me once I get the corner turnbuckle thing down a lot better I am sure.

I was sucking wind early last night too, that was not good. I can't be in better shape then people I go up against doing that. I got off my shit on my vacation and really should not have done that. But live and learn right? Every extra bit of hurt is teaching me something, how to land and how not to land or execute certain moves.

Had another blast from XCW's past there last night. Bobby. Didn't catch his last name. Big guy. Six foot something. I took bodyslams from him and that was a long way to fall let me tell you. I can't imagine backdrops from the guy, well I can and .... ow....he was cool though, down to earth guy who got out of wrestling for a long while and is getting back into it. He had a few pieces of advice to help me with the corner turnbuckle thing that I believe helped me a bit.

Talked some wrestling and the mental stuff behind me being a small guy going after Bobby, david v. goliath sort of thing. Nite also pointed out it would likely be ten times harder for me to get work than it would be for Bobby as he is a huge guy and seems to actually be able to wrestle. I don't worry about that. I know I will get work after getting better and better and showing what I can do in XCW. I have seen plenty of promotions out there that have smaller guys. The top guy at a PA promotion is my size. Makes me want to see if I can get booked with them some day as there are two guys on their roster I want to wrestle and see if they can go.

It's just a matter of being able to work and I will work hard to learn and be able to work alongside the best of them.

Also just need to go at it a bit harder. Train hard, play hard sort of thing and as I have most of the motions down for the moves I need to put more force into it, no one will be tiptoeing in matches with me, so I shouldn't do it in training, so I will fix that.

July 16 will mark my third month of training, I thought I had done it longer, but I am actually glad it's only three as I have plenty of time left to hit my goal of wrestling before the year is out.
Will be picking up some elbow pads this week...knee pads too maybe if I can find them. I didn't burn my elbows bad last night and only burned one for that matter so that's a plus although my bumps were kinda crappy and drop downs needed work simply because I was sucking wind, but as I said earlier I will get better with those and keep myself in good shape from now on.

Vacations

...they are nice aren't they? The only bad part about them is having to bring them to an end. Mine ended with some wrestling Saturday night as we made it back in time for the second half of XCW's doubleshot weekend and the tourney to finally crown a heavyweight champion after the belt was stripped of Kieth Lee months ago. I was tired as hell at the show and imagine Mrs. Envi and the little High Yellow Envi were hot and tired as well. We had spent 20+ hours in the car total to drive from Phoenix, to San Antonio to retrieve my dog and then up to Denton. Not fun being in the car that long, still working out the kinks of that jaunt let me tell you. It was good to visit my dad and my best friend who I had not seen in 3 years, way waaaaay too long. I told him we didn't need to let that kind of time lapse again, I know life kinda takes you along at it's own pace, but we have been friends since we were 6 years old and you just don't get that kind of friendship again you had with the ones you grew up with.

Came back to have a lot of wrestling TV to catch up on. Two eps of ROH, two Smackdown's, two Gala Lucha eps and an Impact. Made it through the ROH and Smackdown. Loved seeing KENTA/Strong, a stiff hard-hitting match, I wish it could have gone longer, but it was good. Impact, well the first hour I watched, was nauseating as usual and why oh why do they just throw in all these gimmick matches on the broadcast like they are nothing? It lessens the impact, no pun intended, when you actually try to have them be meaningful in fueds. Just dumb. But of course, it's TNA we are talking about right? Right.

Ordered the Bash PPV last night. That was a good one with Rey/Jericho stealing the show as everyone knew they would. It was a good PPV overall even if I thought the Punk/Hardy match was lacking something, can't put my finger on what, but it was lacking something. That and I just hate Jeff with a passion. But it was good to see the PPV actually worth the money as opposed to Wrestlemania...60 bucks, four hours and only one match on the card really worth seeing. Yeah, I need to find a sports bar that shows WWE ppvs like Scoreboard in Victoria does.

Can't complain though. Got away from Texas for a bit with Mrs. Envi and the kids, well half of the set, the other will come in a couple weeks and I can't wait for that. But out of Texas, different states, road tripping, seeing friends and family and then back in time for some wrestling.

Good stuff.

On our way to San Antonio tonight and then Cali tomorrow. Bunches of driving.

Giving armdrags the finger...

Steamboat armdrags. Those deep deep ass ones the Dragon throws on people, yeah we were doing those last night, or at least learning them. I was not giving them, but I was receiving them. I have learn, in some cases painfully, that there are certain moves that other people do that you must go with them and just take it and roll with the impact and if you don't they can yank your ass anyway and it's going to hurt. What we were doing was sort of one of those things and I caught my finger on the mat and came down on it and it was not fun at all. It's a bit swollen now, and sore, but ah well, it's still in place and it's moving, so I am looking at the bright side of things. It's just one of those things you have to get. I did add a couple armdrags to my list of stuff that I have learned. Just have to do more repetition to get it down.

Still need more chaining work to get that down so I don't get in certain holds or situation and then my brain locks up wondering where to go next and breaking the flow of things. Luckily Mrs. Envi has been paying attention when she has attended my training sessions and has picked up on things and can be a practice partner for me. Granted I will not be giving her snapmares and such, the headlocks, waist/wrist-locks and all that I can go through, to get the practice in and further burn them into memory of things I can do.

Going to Cali this weekend. The long awaited long ass friggan drive. Won't see Smackdown tonight or ROH Saturday, but I have already mentioned the wait to see the KENTA/Strong match. I know it will be worth the wait. It will be good to go on a vacation and actually travel some place vastly different. Definitely a fan of anytime I can get out of Texas. And the week break from work will be good. And the week of rest from wrestling training will be good too, to shore up any nagging aches and just to get my mind freee of the worries of training and just be relaxed and refreshed in a couple weeks when it is time to go back and get back into it and work towards that deadline I have for myself.

The camera holds like 700 pics and I firmly intend to use em all on the journey and when we get there and with her fam, my brother from another mother and his wife and my dad and such. It should be a fun trip and I am looking forward to it.

How do you not do what you know you are doing?

So my philosophical issues with myself remain. I will further be awesome once I figure this shit out let me tell you. But I got my haircut today and the barber was one of the teachers from the Tourniquet School of Fighting, which runs in the evenings M-F in that same barbershop. I had been wanting to do martial arts for a long time and happens to be getting a haircut months ago and saw one of the other teachers working with a couple of students. I later did something for work involved with the school and ended up taking it for about a month as April was a free month for all in the class. The class is Shaolin style gung-fu, mixed with some boxing and some grappling. It was awesome and kicked your ass at the same time. Their big thing was the core and strengthening the core. And the workout before you even got into learning the techniques was a killer every time.

Well I was talking about training with the guy, Jamain and first off he said it was great to know I was training and he copped to not actually thinking I was 100% serious about going through with the training, so I got my props for that. But I was telling him about the issue I was having with wanting to be great like yesterday. And how I was over thinking things and he said he noticed the same thing in the gung-fu classes that I would mess up something and then contemplate it a bunch before trying it again, thus further screwing it up.

Damn.

So that's the dilemma, how do you stop doing something you know you're doing that you should not be doing? And am I further screwing things up for myself by continuing to think about over thinking? I swear it's a head scratcher to say the least.

Read a couple magazines in the shop while I waited. Fitness mags, one with an article on abs and how to get them, maintain them and all that. I have abs, nice ones, I might add, but I want to find a workout I can do to maintain them as I don't want to take them for granted. And I just want stuff to do outside of wrestling training I can do on MWF when I am not in training. Weights, cardio type of stuff that will only lend itself to the squared circle. Will be working on that in the upcoming week. I'd like to come back from Cali with something ready and fresh to implement.

Training tonight...hoping to freestyle tonight. Still have a score to settle and wanna go at it with Joey and see how I fair against a guy who'se bigger than me, but not much taller than me. Whereas Sed was bigger and taller. And Pierre needs to show himself so we can get it going.

Moving mountains.

Stretching and thinking

...well one of those you need to do, the other you don't. I get to training early enough and I need to stretch out before I begin training. You would think this would be obvious given the fact I am using muscles in ways I have not before in any sort of sport I trained for before. But sometimes the most obvious thing is not clear to us when it should be. So from here out trust I will be stretching, I don't need to pull something and sideline myself for weeks with nagging hurts when all I had to do was some simple stretching and work myself out. Lesson learned.

Thinking I don't need to do. I know this is all a work in progress and I am learning and building up to things. I am learning something I knew absolutely nothing about before, so I will make my mistakes. I will be good eventually and my goal is to work on being the best. But of course this won't happen overnight. I think that's my issue as I continued to crap on myself when I messed up on something instead of just getting up and hitting the shit again. Stupid of me. I feel last night was my worst night of thinking and over thinking as I kept breaking my stride on bumps, running the ropes and hiptosses. When I just cleared my head and let it flow, they were good, when I started thinking of say the 3rd one being good and trying to quickly analyze that so I could make the 4th and 5th one good I started screwing up again. Not good. I am all impulse in so many other ways in my life and yet here I abandon that and wanna think and shit. I need to flipflop those two philosophies, lol.

My goal is to be wrestling before the end of the year....it's still June. I have six months before the end of the calendar year...I'd like to be wrestling in 4. Benoit did not just walk through the door of his first training session and walk out the best technical wrestler ever. It took work and lot's of it. I will be great one day, that is the goal. I just need to not trip about the work and the pitfalls of said work.

Need to work away from training to keep myself in shape. To work my wind up. We were doing drop down drills last night and boy do they wind you. One of the wrestlers from the XCW roster who wrestles regularly on shows was there last night and doing drills and was sucking wind and admitted to letting himself get out of shape. I think, I don't know 100% I will admit as I am not wrestling yet, but I think there is the temptation to let yourself slip and take your wind, cardio and overall fitness for granted because you are wrestling actively each week. I got that from him anyway. That's one thing I won't do. I will be in better shape than the people I go up against and they will be sucking wind, not me.

Study and training

Jim Ross posted in his blog about the passing of legendary Japanese wrestler, Mitsuharu Misawa, and mentioned the need to study him,

"It's a damn shame that the vast majority of American wrestling fans won't give a second thought about the untimely death of "a Japanese wrestler." I encourage all fans to find DVD's of Misawa and watch him in his prime, in the 90's especially. If one is really serious about about being a highly skilled, pro wrestler, then study the late Mitsuharu Misawa."

I will admit to not being familiar with all the Japanese wrestling greats, Misawa included. The ones I know of are Ultimo Dragon, Liger, Kenta Kobashi, Tajiri and the Great Sasuke….not much by any stretch of the imagination.

And of course there’s KENTA, Dragon Kid and Cima who am getting into recently and will study them.

Study. What does it mean to study? Oh I know what it means to study for a test or things like that, but in the world of wrestling what does it mean to study someone. You often here about people studying tapes or studying this person or that. What exactly should you be looking for I wonder. Sure I have watched wrestling all my life, and sure I have my favorites and I like to think I know the difference between a good and bad match but upon studying, what should I look for? What notes should I take? I know when I see particular guys, the favorites of mine, Benoit, Hart, KENTA, Red, Henning, Guerrero, I see things they do I like and think, hey I might want to do that. But what should I be studying. They way they execute moves? When they use particular moves in their arsenal? Things like that? It seems on the one hand to be a no-brainer, but I don’t want to assume and assume the wrong thing and create a habit I have to later break. I’ll just add it to my questions for Eddie in training tonight and make sure I get it answered.

Another question would be working out outside the ring. He said the best cardio you can do is the freestyling we do in the ring in training. But of course outside of that, you need to be doing something. Now I have been in sport all my life. Baseball and soccer as a kid. Wrestling and track in high school, track in college.

I know from those sports what I did to get in shape, with the running and such, but of course wrestling is a whole other sort of animal. So I will get his perspective on what I should do outside of the ring to build up my wind.

Can’t win titles sucking wind and being tired out against the competition. Can’t be the best if you can’t make it past five minutes. That won’t be me. I’ll be in the best shape of anyone, anywhere. That’s my goal: to be that much faster, stronger, more in shape, than anyone else who is in the ring against me. It will be a long road to that, but it's a goal I will work to achieve.

Monday

It’s a Monday. For me, Monday’s are more make it through the day to watch some wrestling at night and watch then up early for work Tuesday and then training. In between I work and I hover on Facebook debating wrestling stuff with people. It’s good when you have people post who actually have something decent to say and raise good points. A lot of the guys I agree with, I disagree with as well so it balances out. I just hate the people who come in and say “OMG WWE rulllzz11!!!! TNA is gay111!!!!!!11!!” That’s just fucking dumb. And yet people do it. And people who have not heard of ROH should just be shot. That’s my opinion.

It’s going to be a long-ass week for me well long couple weeks for one reason. KENTA/Strong is set to be this weeks main event on ROH on HDnet. I will be loading up the family with Mrs. Envi and heading to Cali to visit her family and see my best friend. Will put me out a week of training but it will be OK. It’s something she has been looking forward to and I haven’t see my best friend in what…damn…3 years now…

I read the taping results from Philly a few weeks ago so at one point in time I knew the outcome, but I have since forgotten it and I am glad I did and now I am just pretty much salivating over the match. I love KENTA. I will namedrop him a million times in this blog I imagine as I love his hard-hitting style and his move set. Basaiku Knee! FTW!

I need to see more of him. I have watched several matches and am scanning Youtube to add matches to the wrestling playlist I have on my profile there to watch. I need to find which DVD has KENTA/Danielson and get it. Well hell I need to get a lot ROH DVDs. I’d like to have a vast library of promotions from all across the country and internationally. I want to see all the styles and different types of wrestlers and I just want to learn.

Definitely glad the day came along when I discovered there was more to wrestling than Vince and Ted Turner. I discovered that in high school sometime with my first taste of ECW. Then as I spent more time online I learned about indy wrestling and Japan and wrestling there. It was a good day. A day where a sort of lightbulb went off in my mind.

Glad it did or I would drive myself batty bitching about WWE and Raw and the stale main event seen there, how they should give younger guys a shot, how I hate Batista’s lack of being able to not hurt himself or things like that. Smackdown is awesome. So is ECW. And if I didn’t have indy I would bitch until I was blue in the face about TNA and how much of a croc it is that Christopher Daniels has had no title reigns.

But c’est la vie. It is what it is. But I have DVDs and of course the awesome that is XCW locally.

Wrestling...TV and live......

Sunday is catch up time for wrestling on my DVR. Ring of Honor and the crapstorm that is TNA Impact. ROH was good with matches from Steenerico and a good main event of Chris Hero against Jerry Lynn. Jimmy Rave squashing Grizzly Redwood did nothing for me.

Impact started off with more stuff I hate like Jeff Jarrett featured in the spotlight. I didn't care for him in WWF, WCW and don't much care for him now. I want TNA's guys to be featured, but alas. They're having a first blood match on TV...sorry a nation of violence first blood match which completely makes it super awesome. God TNA and their need to make these crazy ass gimmick matches is nauseating.

Last night was another good night of wrestling Pilot Point, TX with XCW...granted it was a hot, hot ass night. I for one will be glad once we get the a/c working or figure out someway to get some more cool air flowing in there. The ring area was cooler than the locker room though.

The action in the ring was great topped off with a main event match of Tim Storm and Masada. I was looking forward to that match in particular as I figured it to be a hard-hitting brawl. There was a lot more technicality to it. I talked to Misada after the match and he mentioned the stigma hardcore wrestlers have, that they can't wrestle. But he disproved that.

Other matches had his running buddy Showtime Scot Summers against Apoc, another good match.

A lot of Robert Evans on this show which was great. I love his promos, his antics and his matches. The guy is entertaining as can be.

Guys like that I can't wait to get in the ring with, Evans, Kevin Douglas, Joey, Scott even Hugh. I moved Sed in training I can try my hand with Hugh.

Big or small I will take them all.

Wrestling TV thoughts

So given the fact that I am in training obviously I watch a lot of wrestling.

A lot.

I know some folks around me may get tired of that amount of wrestling they intake on a weekly basis (not naming any names like Mrs. Envi or anything), but it's what I do.

My week consists of :

Sun-AAA on Galavision
Mon-Raw
Tues-ECW
Wed-(open until XCW gets back on MavTV)
Thurs-Impact
Fri-Smackdown
Sat-Ring of Honor on HDnet

And that's not counting the DVD watching I do during the week, though it has slowed as of late. AAA I am just getting into recently though I do need Mrs. Envi around for translation so I can follow the show beyond the action in the ring.

Raw is a show I used to like and look foward to watching but now is crappy show in my eyes. Far too much backstage shananigans, the promos are too long and the matches are too short. The consensus of all the reports I have read is that Vince sees the show as needing to be more entertainment driven. And he sees it as the "A" show and devotes his time and attentiong to that and his roster of HHH, Randy, Cena and Show in the main event scene. That is fine with me.
Why's that? Because it leaves shows like ECW and Smackdown to be driven by wrestling.

I like many old school ECW marks was excited at the thought of ECW coming back to TV after the second one night stand. And then I like many was disgusted when seeing the initial offerings of this WWECW. I was pissed and pissed for a while. But I just came to the realization the old school ECW is dead and this WWECW is being used to groom new talent and then move them on to the other shows. It's worked for Miz, Morrison, Punk, etc. So I like in that regard. ECW of old gave us hardcore shit yeah but it also gave us great technical wrestling and was the debut of many of the stars we came to enjoy in WCW and WWE.

Impact used to be good back in the day. I remember when it was an hour, man you knew you were getting at least a good match out of the X-Division every single show. Then it moved to two hours, started bringing in former WCW/WWE talent and things changed. I am not saying they have been useless or they are washed up or can't contribute, it's just how they are used and how they are pushing down homegrown talent. That's my issue. AJ is a friggan two-time triple crown winner and he is pushing a fake belt when he should be in the thick of it for the heavyweight belt. Daniels too. I understand that Jarrett founded the company and did a lot for it, but damn I am sick of seeing him in the main event seen. I want new, fresh on my TV. Impact was supposed to be the alternative to Vince's shit. The few redeeming spots for me on impact are tag team wrestling with an actual tag team division, the Amazing Red and the Knockouts, women that actually wrestle and have ample talent and not just ample fake assets.

Smackdown has been the best source of WWE wrestling. It's straight forward good wrestling and I like that.

ROH on HDnet I had been waiting for. I love ROH from what I have seen. I won't say I am a rabid hardcore fan like some. I know I have a lot of catch up work to do on my DVD collections, but I am glad they have a show for more people to see it. I have been on the boards and seen the talk of how the show has changed since Gabe left and blah blah. But I like the show. It was a bit rough at first, but I think they have hit their stride and are consistently providing some great matches. It will be interesting to see how they balance TV continuity with suspending PPVs and the other live shows they run. The only thing ROH did bad recently to me was the whole deal with Flair and his ambassador role which I think was some of the dumbest shit. The guy looked bored, looked like he didn't want to be there and could barely remember the name of talent. On interview segments he basically put himself over the whole time. It just wasn't cool. If you believe the sheets it was supposed to be a way in for Reid Flair to wrestle in ROH but then he got busted for heroin and all. So that fucked that up and thus left Flair with no reason to stay there and to go back to the 'E.

So those are my wrestling TV thoughts (man that is a weak concluding sentence) I'll be posting those in addition to my tales of training and my lumps and bruises as I make my way to the XCW ring.

Training 6/11/09

Ah, another day of training has came and went.

Last night was cool as I went over a couple ways to take a wrist lock. I had gone over them before but was having some brain fartage last night. I will say I think part of it was from extra people there. Also there last night were Big Sed (current XCW wrestler), Sid Murder and Mad Dog. Sid I know has wrestled for XCW before, not entirely sure about Mad Dog. But they have wrestled for the company I want to wrestle for at the end of this, so there was an early intimidation on my part because they had done it already, you know? But even then, they were learning as well, there were fundamental things they needed to tweak as well as the fundamental things I have been learning. So that made it better for me. I just need to block things out, not give a fuck about what others think when they see me and I will be better off. I am going to have to learn to block shit out anyways to an extent I would imagine when I get in the ring for matches. So I need to start it now. I already know I am an uncaring prick when it comes to what people think of me out and about in my daily life, I just need to translate that to my work in the ring.

Let it just be me and my trainer.

We did more freestyling last night. More work on cardio, which I am loving still. We started in referee's position on the mat, one person on offense, one of defense and you go for two minutes. Good stuff. Mad Dog and Sid need some cardio work, that's for sure. And me, I was matched up with Sed. Sed kinda scoffed or chuckled at that as he was stepping in the ring. Me I just saw someone to take down. I have said before I like working with people of different sizes to teach myself how to adjust to the height, weight, power and agility of the person I am going against. Eddie later said he wanted to put me against Sed as I will be going against a lot of guys who are bigger than me and he doesn't want me to be intimidated, "not that I think you are intimidated" he said.

Good save Eddie. Lol.

When I was on the defensive, Sed pinned me one time. The other time, while it looked like he did from his sheer mass, Nite could see that I was bridging with my neck and I was off my back. When I was on the offensive, I nearly took Sed over a few times. One of those times, only the fact that we were in the ropes saved him. Sed had to resort to holding on to my shorts and then my shirt as time was winding down on our round.

I was winded, but felt good taking it to him like that. It's all about leverage really. Also knowing where to jam your head and when to push helps to. I'm a little guy but people need to and will learn that I'm a powerful one in my own right.

Lesson learned. If not, we can go next week and I hope we do, and they will see.

Besides, Eddie and I have a score to settle.

Stormy times

North Texas is under a thunderstorm watch. Ah good times. I especially loved the torrential downpour of last night where coming home from Wally World I missed the turn I need to take for my street because I couldn't flipping see it. Nice. And then totally getting soaked going from car to house, yeah that was awesome too.

But of course why am I complaining when I live in a region of the country that gives me awesome triple digit summers.

Love it.

Bright side. Wrestling training tonight. Have to finish the podcast for this week, I really want to get into a habit of doing it earlier I'd like to release it on Wednesday, but I just dragged ass on it this week.

Another bright side. Started sending Lords of Pain the show news for XCW for them to post and the first one is posted so that will be more potential eyes seeing what is going on with XCW. I am all about promotion of the product. I like to think I am a part of the XCW fam, maybe like the outter circle, working my way in, but working none the less. I want to see anything I am a part of succeed so I will do what I can, when I can to make it happen. And I will definately pound the pavement to get more people to know about us.

Hopefully the weather in Pilot Point won't be bad, we had a stormy ass night, once up there, with lightening striking the ground not far from the building XCW is in.

Hoping for clear skies up that way.

I suppose this can function much like Twitter and you can post updates straight to your blog. Man I am way behind.

Testing the ability to post blogs from my cell.

Training last night...

Training continues and got some extra sprinkles of awesome last night as my trainer switched to former WWE developmental wrestler, Eddie Craven.

Awesome.

Warm ups will be a little different as Eddie's thing is keeping legs strong and doing a lot of squats.
A lot.

Did a lot more bumping last night. A whole lot more. So i am a little bit sore this morning. My rope running was awesome on like one side of the ring and then it would fuck up on the other side of the ring.

Odd.

I was getting frustrated with myself as I wanted to do better but Eddie explained, as did Nite and Steph on the way home that I of course am not going to be perfect at this starting out of the gate. I am going to suck at doing some stuff as I learn it.

Eddie said at one point, "where have you been...nowhere. What do you know....nothing."And that is true. I need to not think about shit so much and just let things flow and just do them, listen to their pointers, get up, try do it better the next time.

Wrestled freestyle with Eddie for six minutes at two-minute rounds. Awesome. Granted he got the better of me a bit as he is a lot taller and bigger than me and I was a bit winded, and hadn't done that in years, but damn it was fun. Reminded me why I loved wrestling in high school. Although maybe I should have thought better of trying to gator roll Eddie. I did it, but it took some doing to accomplish it, lol.

Eddie asked me if I had any questions which I told him, given where he has been I have a bunch of fanboy geeky ass questions from a guy who's wrestled Rey, Punk and the like and rubbed shoulders with all those guys. But I am not going to hit him with all those at once. Have some other questions pertaining to moves and stuff but I can get to those in time.All in all it was just cool. To be trained by him, in the ring with him, just cool. Looking forward to more and to getting better from here.

OK then....a real first post...

So blogspot is new to me though I know it's pretty old for some. I guess I shall do the typical about me, introduce yourself sort of thing first off....

Currently I am a journalist covering county government and producing video for the Denton Record-Chronicle, http://www.dentonrc.com/ in Denton Texas. I am the father of twin sons, Jacob and Caleb Lewis. I am in a relationship with Stephney and live with her and her two daughter, Angie and Naiya in a nice town house where we pay too much for cable TV.

The short story...born and raised in Washington, DC. Educated there, continuing to North Carolina in high school at the Asheville School. I was kicked out after the first semester of my senior year, (nice right?) finished my senior year at Ruston High School in Ruston, Louisiana.

Attended college at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston where I majored in English at first before changing my major to journalism. I met my kids mother when was there. Married her (god, don't do it people), things got more difficult then. School suffered until I split from her (she tried to kill me a few times) and scraped to get aid back, get my GPA up and graduate in August of 2006.

Moved to Victoria, TX to work for the Advocate, covering education, then moved (not by choice by any means) to faith/family. Had to get out of there so I found a job in Denton and moved there with Steph.

So presently working and trying to get several personal projects off the ground related to filmmaking -http://www.taurian-films.com/ (under heavy construction) -, comic books, podcasts and pro wrestling.

I currently produce a weekly audio podcast for XCW located in Pilot Point, TX. That can be heard at http://www.xcwprowrestling.com/

I am also training with them, head trainer is Eddie Craven, a man with 11 years experience and a former WWE developmental wrestler.

And of course I can be found on the requisite social media sites

Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/sebastionenvi

Twitter

About me

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