Mike's Year in Review

I had composed an awesome year in review post and then a few key strokes from my son, on accident of course, deleted it.  Auto saved did it's job and it was gone.  I considered retyping it all but I became to frustrated with the idea of it so this is the abridged version.  

This was best year in attending wrestling events since 2012 as I managed to take in 23 wrestling events this year bringing my all time total to 248 wrestling events.  Not even close though to my buddy Mikey who has taken in over 50 wrestling events a year for the last half decade at least.

For those wondering:

First event: June 4, 1989 WWF at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine

50th event: February 22, 2002 Eastern Wrestling Alliance in Auburn, Maine

100th event: March 29, 2008 the WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony in Orlando, Florida

150th event: March 25, 2012 Big Time Wrestling Augusta, Maine at the Civic Center

200th event: March 19, 2016 Limitless Wrestling in Orono, Maine

At the time of this writing event 250 looks to be Limitless Wrestling in Yarmouth, Maine on January 24, 2020.

I saw 173 matches in person this year in venues ranging from the Fairfield Community Center to Madison Square Garden in three different states and two countries, yes it was Canada but it is another country.  I attended events that were promoted in the United States by companies based outside the U.S. Two New Japan Pro Wrestling events one in New York City and the second in Lowell, Mass, Revolution Pro based out of the UK in New York City, and the Lucha Libre AAA Press Conference held at Madison Square Garden.

The press conference did not feature and wrestling matches but I still count it as a wrestling event because it was an official AAA event where owner Dorian Roldan appeared as well as several AAA talents including Blue Demon Jr, Lucha Brothers, Konnan, and many more.  Footage of Jay, Mikey, & I was used in AAA promotional videos for a few months after that.

My daily consumption of wrestling is greater than it ever has been in the past, of course we have more opportunity to watch wrestling than ever before.  Not just locally but from around the world thanks to the Internet and streaming services.  I watched New Japan on NJPW World, AAA on Twitch, WWE & NXT on the Network, and at the end of the year NWA Powerrr on YouTube and AWE on the TNT app.  Not to mention all the promotions and matches I watched on YouTube and IWTV.

It was an awesome year for professional wrestling all around.

British Tag Team Champions: Suzuki-Gun: Minoru Suzuki & British Heavyweight Champion: Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Will Ospreay when Sabre pinned Ospreay at the RevPro UK show on April 5th during WrestleCon was one my favorite matches of the year.  It's the first one to jump to my mind when I think about the topic.  We sat front row, we played air guitar with Tanahashi during his entrance as he stood directly in front of us.  We got to witness close up, Minoru Suzuki physically wreck Will Ospreay not to mention watch ZSJ tie him up like a pretzel.  It was AMAZING!

Before the show we got the opportunity to meet Tomohiro Ishii, Minoru Suzuki, Shibata, and Tanahashi.  Jay, Mikey, & I all get out photos with them and autographs, I got cards signed.  Because of Wrestlecon I got the opportunity to meet and get my photo taken with so many wrestlers like Bob Backlund, Atsushi Onita, WIll Ospreay, Jushin Liger in full gear, and so many more people.

However the one I was most excited about was Faby Apache.  With New Japan touring the US more I thought I'd have more opportunities to meet New Japan wrestlers, but Faby Apache is not in the states often, especially not in my area so this was truly once in a lifetime for me.  I wrote her a nice letter that I had translated into Spanish because I do not speak it.  I also gave her a gift of Japanese wrestling cards of her.  She was very touched by my letter and gift and gave me a hug and kiss on the cheek.  It was awesome!

She was there both days so I found pharmacy with a photo center and had the picture of us printed and got her to sign that the next day. 

I witnessed a lot of other great moments in wrestling this year; attending a sold out Madison Square Garden to witness the first non-McMahon family promoted event since 1960.  It was headlined by Okada reclaiming the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.  

I got to watch Limitless Wrestling grow with near 900 fans attending their anniversary show at the Expo where Anthony Greene defeated MJF to capture the Limitless Wrestling World Championship.  In November at Twilight Zone Limitless streamed live on IWTV and killed it with an awesome card headlined by Ashley Vox & Kris Statlander in a Last Creature Standing Match.  It appears that in 2020 Limitless will be running monthly and I'm excited to be apart of it. 

My favorite show of the year was New Japan Pro Wrestling Fighting Spirit tour in Lowell, Mass.  To me this was a traditional New Japan show, it opened with a young lions match, some great tag team matches, a phenomenal IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match and finished with a star studded main event.  The crowd was tremendous!  When the Rock n' Roll Express came out it was like we were back in the mid 1980's! 

This three show tour sold out New York and the ECW Arena almost instantly buy Lowell was only a near sell out.  I was concerned that this would prevent New Japan from coming back the next time around however I recently discovered this factoid.  Attendance in Philly 1,030, New York 1,776, and Lowell 2,130!  With the biggest crowd which was loud as hell, tells me New Japan will be back!

I can't even begin to talk about all the great shows and matches that I saw televised this year.  Watching televised live is the best way but I love the availability to watch on demand, it allows me to watch even more wrestling.  

In 2020 my plan is to continue to watch as much wrestling as I can, discover new wrestlers to follow, and stay away from the social media negativity.  

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network.

Until next time!

IndyMania: Part 4 the Wrap Up

I took this photo at the Beyond show on night 1 and
it was so good I didn't bother trying to get a better one.

Here is the fourth and final post about my wrestling trip to New York City and IndyMania.  This is just the summary of the trip, you can read about the trip here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

The plans for this trip started way back in July 2018 and came to fruition almost 10 months later and it definitely lived up to our expectations.  The numbers:

Dates of the trip April 3 - 8, 2019

Travel, we drove 655 miles and spent 7 hours round trip on the Amtrak train going from Providence to Penn Station and back

We attended 8 wrestling related events including a two day convention, the AAA Press Conference at Madison Square Garden and six wrestling shows in 4 days in two different States.

Still from AAA promotional video of the press conference

We witnessed 54 wrestling matches with 185 different wrestlers, 101 of them was the first time I had ever seen them live, 9 wrestlers competed three times and 43 wrestled twice over the four days.  Our first show was at a hookah bar with a hundred people and the last show was at a sold out Madison Square Garden!

Best matches of the week for me were:

Friday April 5th Revolution Pro Wrestling
British Tag Team Champions: Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. vs Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay

Sheer brutality on Ospreay who got his nose broke and was just beaten and stretched by Sabre and Suzuki.  We had front row for this and to see these guys live and this close was just unbelievable.

Saturday April 6th G1 Supercard
Kota Ibushi vs. IWGP Intercontinental Champion: Tetsuya Naito

These two have always had great matches, to be there for a true classic encounter is truly a special moment.  Like being there for Flair vs. Steamboat.

Friday April 6th Pancakes & Piledrivers III
Tessa Blanchard vs Rickey Shane Page

I cannot praise this enough!  Just go watch the match.

Thursday April 4th Wrestlecon Supershow
Dragon Lee vs. El Barbaro Cavernario

I had never seen Cavernario and not for nothing I wasn't expecting much but I was blown away!  These two guys absolutely killed it and gave everything they had and somehow more.

Saturday April 6th G1 Supercard
Kazuchika Okada vs. IWGP Heavyweight Champion: JayWhite

This gets the nod for the 5th spot simply because it's Okada regaining his championship in his style match.  

Thursday April 4th Wrestlecon Supershow
Will Ospreay vs. Bandido

This gets an honorable mention because this was a dream match and they tore the house down.  This was Bandido's last indy match he had on the books after signing with Ring of Honor.

I got my photo taken with twenty two wrestlers: Faby Apache, Minoru Suzuki, Katsuyori Shibata, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii, Bob Backlund, Kai, Atsushi Onia, Pentagon Jr, Session Moth Martina, Blue Demon Jr, Konan, Scott D'Amore, Dave Meltzer, Will Osprey, Jushin Liger, Orange Cassidy, Taya Valkyrie, Johnny Mundo, Twisted Sisters, and Priscilla Kelly.

I also snagged a photo with New Japan English commentator Chris Charlton who was sitting behind us at the Wrestlecon Supershow.

My favorite photos of my are with Jushin Thunder Liger and Faby Apache because they are in full gear, but I loved getting pictures with the everyone that I did.

However my favorite photo op of the weekend was Jay with Minoru Suzuki!

I added 71 signed trading cards to my collection and you can view them here:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, & Part 7

My it's hard to pick favorite cards that I got because I got so many that I never thought that I would get signed like Faby Apache and all the Japanese wrestlers.  Also I love getting the NWA Wonderama card signed plus I got that sweet SCU All In card signed by all three members.

I'd have to say finally getting this card signed by the Iron Sheik was exciting.  I had gotten it signed by Nikolai Volkoff years ago and have tried many, many times to get Iron Sheik to sign it with no luck.  Sheiks health isn't the best and at 77 he doesn't make many appearances anymore. 

The AAA press conference was the unexpected surprise of the week as we went just to watch and were invited in.  The still I posted above was used in a promotion video of the press conference but I also saw it used last Friday in the opening video package for AAA's Conquista Total Circa 2019 show in Mexicali, Baja California.

Here is a video I made on my phone of us jamming out with Tanahashi during his entrance for Revolution Pro Wrestling.  The ringside photographer grabbed a photo of this and I'm still trying to find him.

This wrestling trip was amazing!  If I were to rate it on my past wrestling getaways as a whole I would put it at number 2 behind NWA Legends Fanfest in 2009.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. 

Until next time!

Wrestled Three Matches

Zack Sabre Jr

Will Ospreay

LAX: Ortiz & Santana

Aussie Open: Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis

Rey Fenix

Pentagon Jr

David Starr

Wrestled Two Matches

Minoru Suzuki

Jushin Thunder Liger

Hiroshi Tanahashi

Colt Cabana

Tomohiro Ishii

Jonathan Gresham

Roppongi 3K: Sho & Yoh

Ryusuke Tagushi

Rocky Romero

Bandido
Christopher Daniels
Frankie Kazarian
Scorpio Sky
Orange Cassidy
Session Moth Martina
Masato Tanaka

Puma King

Arez

Sammy Guevara

Flamita

Caleb Konley

Jake Manning

Dragon Lee

Shane Strickland

Chuck Taylor

Trent?

DJ Z

Bill Carr

Dan Barry

Brian Cage

AR Fox

Shigehiro Irie

Eddie Kingston

Wrestled One Match

The Great Muta

Kazuchika Okada

Kota Ibushi

Tetsuya Naito

Taiji Ishimori

Evil

Sanada

Toru Yano

Hirooki Goto

King Haku

Shingo Takagi

Bushi

Tama Tonga

Tanga Loa

Chase Owens

Jay White

Bad Luck Fale

Robbie Eagles

Yoshi Hashi

Juice Robinson

Jeff Cobb

Rush

Dalton Castle

Tracy Williams

PJ Black

TK O'Ryan

Vinny Marseglia

Delirious

Kenny King

Cheeseburger

Beer City Bruiser

Shaheem Ali

Rhett Titus

LSG

Brian Milonas

Will Ferrara

Flip Gordon

Mark Haskins

Bully Ray

Shane Taylor

Silas Young

PCO

Brody King

Mark Briscoe

Jay Briscoe

Matt Taven

Jay Lethal

Marty Scurll

Chris Dickinson

MJF

Alex Reynolds

John Silver

Mick Moretti

Gabriel Skye

Taijiri

Hurricane Helms

X-Pac

Zane Riley

El Barbaro Cavernario

Chris Brookes

Clark Connors

Karl Fredericks

Carlos Romo

A-Kid

Kid Lykos

Michael Oku

Ultimo Dragon

Black Taurus

Mr. Iguana

Shark Boy

Shigehiro Irie

Bestia 666

Tracy Smothers

Timothy Thatcher

David Arquette

Yoshihiko

Danshoku Dino

Antonio Honda

Maki Ito

Makoto Oishi

Mao

Sanshiro Takagi

Tommy Dreamer

Mike Babchik

Matt Striker

Johnny Impact

Joey Ryan

Sexy Eddie

Val Venis

Moose

Davey Vega

Mat Fitchett

Dezmond Xavier

Zachary Wentz

Ace Austin

JT Dunn

Clayton Gainz

Daga

Ian Maxwell

Arik Cannon

John Skylar

Kyle the Beast

Lance Anoa'i

Mance Warner

Trey Miguel

Matt Cross

Adam Brooks

Rich Swann

Chuck Mambo

Jacob Fatu

Larry D

Ace Romero

Dan Maff

Fallah Bah

Madman Fulton

Joe Gacy

Sami Callihan

Dave Crist

Jake Crist

Rickey Shane Page

Tessa Blanchard

Jessicka Havok

Taya Valkyrie

Priscilla Kelly

Scarlett Bordeaux

Kimber Lee

Kelly Klein

Mayu Iwatani

Kagetsu

Hazuki

Jenny Rose

Hana Kimura

Sumie Sakai
Stella Gray
Kris Statlander
Jordynne Grace
Samantha Heights
Diamante
Su Yung
Thunder Rosa
Holidead
Allie
Rosemary

Appeared but didn't Wrestle
Gedo

Jado

Taka Michinoku

The Boys

Velvet Sky

Angelina Love

Mandy Leon

Ayla Fox

Sonny Onoo

Signed Trading Cards: Tanaka, Onita, Shibata, Tanahashi, Ishii, Suzuki, & Liger

This post is highlighting the cards that I acquired during my IndyMania Wrestling Vacation in New York City April 3rd - 6th, 2019.

The theme on this post should be obvious, Japanese wrestlers!  All four of the New Japan wrestlers commented on the fact that I had Japanese cards of them.

Masato Tanaka

I got this card signed on Wednesday April 3rd at Beyond Wrestling Uncharted Territory episode 1 from the Electric Haze in Worcester, Massachusetts.  This card was released in 1999 by BBM and is part of the FMW section of the set.  I still enjoy the amazing battles that Tanaka had with Mike Awesome both in FMW, ECW, and their one WWE match at One Night Stand.  I was great to see him wrestle live at two of the shows.

Atsushi Onita

I got this card signed on Friday April 5th at the Wrestlecon convention.  This card was released in 1999 by BBM and is part of the FMW section of the set.  I was so excited to meet Onita as I was a huge fan of FMW back in the 1990's, still am.  To meet the father of the promotion was exciting.

Katsuyori Shibata

I got this card signed on Friday April 5th before the RevPro show at the Wrestlecon convention.  This card was released in 2013 by Bushiroad in the King of Pro-Wrestling set.  I was just getting into Shibata and his amazing strong style matches when he was injured and his career ended.  I didn't expect to see him at the show but was so happy that he was.

Hiroshi Tanahashi

I got this card signed on Friday April 5th before the RevPro show at the Wrestlecon convention.  This card was released by BBM in 2009 as part of their Pro-Wrestling Card Set 08/09.  Tanahashi is one of all time greats from New Japan Pro Wrestling who debuted in 1999 and is an eight time IWGP Heavyweight Champion.  It was honor to see him wrestle live twice during this week including in my favorite match of the week at RevPro.

Tomohiro Ishii

I got this card signed on Friday April 5th before the RevPro show at the Wrestlecon convention.  This card was released in 2014 by Bushiroad in the King of Pro-Wrestling set.  Ishii has had some amazing matches the last couple years with basically everyone but my favorites are his strong style wars with Minoru Suzuki.  We got to see them square off at MSG in the Honor Rumble, it was fantastic!

Minoru Suzuki

I got this card signed on Friday April 5th before the RevPro show at the Wrestlecon convention.  This card was released in 2013 by Bushiroad in the King of Pro-Wrestling set.  A truly scary man, Suzuki is one of the all time greats!  I got see him wrestle twice this week including my favorite match of the week at RevPro.  I was excited to meet him and see him wrestle live.

Jushin "Thunder" Liger

I got this card signed on Thursday April 4th before the Wrestlecon Supershow.  This card was released in 1992 as part of set released by WCW Magazine.  Previously I had gotten a Bushiroad card signed last year at a joint New Japan / ROH show.  Liger wrestled twice this week at the Supershow and MSG.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. 

Later Readers!

IndyMania: My Wrestling Vacation Part 2

 
Friday morning we were up early to clean up and head out to catch the train at the 34th street station to 7th ave for the first day of the Wrestlecon Convention.  The line started at the doors and went back into the Grand Ballroom.  Alicia Atout came out at 8:30 am with Colt Cabana to talk to the fans and help pass the time until doors opened at 9 am.  MJF also came out and insulted a bunch of fans but left after everyone started singing "You Are My Sunshine" to him.

Once the doors opened everyone got in pretty quick because you've already gone through the are showing your wristband so you aren't being held up with having your ticket's checked.  We all had our lists of who we wanted to see, we had a few pre-sales as well so we went our separate ways at times but constantly ran into each other.  Mikey had the biggest list and he succeeded in completing most of it.

Jay talking with Dan "The Beast" Severn

There was a scheduled show at 11 am that we didn't buy tickets for, we got free general admission with our weekend pass.  However with all our meet and greets and limited times some of them were there the only one that made it to the show was Mikey who watched two matches.

The first meet and greet pre-sale that I bought was for Faby Apache.  Based out of AAA in Mexico I have been a fan of hers for 20 years and I never thought I'd get the chance to meet her in person.  Sadly she wasn't book to wrestle on any shows until April 13th.  I brought three cards for her to sign, two Japanese and AAA panini sticker, and I brought some cards for her as a gift.

In the past when I've meet foreign wrestlers that don't speak English you play this game of simple works and sign language so I wrote her a letter that I had translated to Spanish as she speaks no English.  The vendor that brought her in though also had a translator so you could communicate.

with Faby Apache

She was very touched by the letter, thank me for the cards and even gave me a big hug and a kiss!  What was wicked cool was that she wore her wrestling gear and full headdress for the photo ops.  It's one of the all time best meet and greet interactions that I've had.

I got a lot of trading cards signed during this trip, but I didn't get a lot of photos with wrestlers.  In future posts I'll share all my new signed cards.  The convention was taking place in four rooms, the Grand Ballroom where the matches were, Rhinelander, and American's Hall's 1 & 2, on three different floors of the hotel.

We found the Revolution Pro Wrestling table and they told us the meet and greet with the New Japan talent would be at their table, then we were told two floors down in the Rhinelander room, and then a different spot in the room.  The wrestlers would only be signing for an hour and we didn't want to miss out so we staked out a place in line about 90 minutes before the signing and we were in the first five.  Another reason we missed the 11 am wrestling show.  The signing was slated from 1:30 - 2:30 pm.

It was worth it though as we all got autographs and photos with Minoru Suzuki, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii, and Katsuyori Shibata!  I had a Japanese card for all four of them to sign and they were all impressed that I had the cards.

Jay had purchased pro photo ops in advance Suzuki and Tanahashi and he was even able to get those done before the RevPro show started at 3pm.  His photo op with Suzuki was the best, he went up and told him that he was just going to be in fear, once Jay posed Suzuki laughed and played along, threatening him!

We had front row for the Rev Pro show and it was well worth the money for we got to see Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr vs. Hiroshi Tanashi & Will Ospreay, my god was that match amazing!  It was the best match of the weekend for me!  It was a thrill for all of us to see the four guys doing what they do better than most in the world so up close.  Suzuki especially isn't given enough credit for how great his facial expressions are.

There were other good matches on the show like Tomohiro Ishii vs. David Starr and getting to see the US Dojo Young Lions Karl Fredericks and Clark Connors in action.  Here is the whole card:

April 5, 2019 Revolution Pro Wrestling  Hilton Grand Ballroom, Manhattan, NY

CCK: Chris Brookes & Jonathan Gresham defeated Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks
Carlos Romo defeated A-Kid, Flamita, & Kid Lykos
Brian Cage pinned Michael Oku
British Tag Team Champions: Suzuki-Gun: Minoru Suzuki & British Heavyweight Champion: Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Will Ospreay when Sabre pinned Ospreay
Ryusuke Taguchi pinned Rocky Romero
Tomohiro Ishii pinned David Starr
Aussie Open: Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis defeated Roppongi 3K: Sho & Yoh
post match Suzuki-Gun attacked Aussie Open building towards their match for the tag titles on Friday May 10th in York Hall

I got some really great photos of this show and I want to share them all so they are below at the end of the post.  I also want to take a moment to give a thank you to the founder of RevPro Andy Quildan and his staff for bringing their brand of wrestling here and for just being good guys.  We chatted with them quite a bit while standing in line waiting.

After the show the convention was closed for the day, but we had tickets that night to Joey Ryan's Penis Party.  So we stepped out for some dinner walking a few blocks down to Nathan's Famous Franks.  You can't go to New York City and not get a Nathans!

We headed right back to the Hilton for the show and to meet wrestlers that were not doing appearances at the convention itself and were just at the show.  We had front row again for this show and boy was it a different type of show!  Honestly you really need to see it to believe it!

We got a death match with tag partners that used skewers, staple gun, a door with mousetraps, and more.  We got Ultimo Dragon, huge surprise, we got Timothy Thatcher vs. David Arquette, Penis Druids, bloody tampon druids, a DDT Pro Battle Royal that was the best of DDT in 20 minutes including storytime, cheek to cheek, and an appearance from Yoshihiko winning the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship.  The show concluded with a crazy six person tag main event where Joey Ryan teamed with Val Venis & Sexxy Eddie against Priscilla Kelly, Scarlett Bordeaux, and Session Moth that featured a human centipede spot.  Yup, you really just need to go to Highspots and watch the show!

April 5, 2019 Joey Ryan's Penis Party  Hilton Grand Ballroom, Manhattan, NY

Ultimo Dragon with Sonny Onoo defeated Black Taurus, Green Ant, Mr. Iguana, Puma King, & Shark Boy pinning Shark Boy
Shigehiro Irie & DJ Z defeated Arez & Bestia 666
Tracy Smothers pinned Su Yung
Demon Bunny: Rosemary & Allie defeated Twisted Sisters: Holidead & Thunder Rosa
Timothy Thatcher submitted David Arquette
Death Match: Bill Carr pinned Dan Barry
Late to the Show Battle Royal: DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship: Yoshihiko defeated Danshoku Dino, Antonia Honda, Maki Ito, Makoto Oishi, Mao, & Sanshiro Takagi
Colt Cabana, Tommy Dreamer, & Mike Babchik defeated Matt Striker and Best Friends: Trent & Chuck Taylor
Impact Champion: Johnny Impact & Impact Knockouts Champion: Taya Valkyrie defeated Lucha Brothers: Pentagon Jr & Rey Fenix
Priscilla Kelly, Scarlett Bordeaux, & Session Moth Martina defeated Joey Ryan, Sexxxy Eddie, & Val Venis

After the show we headed back to the hotel, it was after midnight.  Mikey and I got some slices at Bravo's and because we hadn't seen enough wrestling yet we put Takeover on and watched the first few matches.  I don't recall what time I shut everything down, but I do know it was late and we had another early morning.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. 

Later Readers!