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.