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Had a great evening in Statesville,NC last night! ER and I left about 1.45 and headed up I85. We got to Statesville just a wee bit after 3. The Grace Park Rec Center was not too hard to find.

We mingled around a bit, got to talk with “Klondike” and Heavy B. The dinner at Prime Sirloin was very good and was quite a deal with the ticket that we bought! Harley and Tracy were a little late getting there, but everything worked out. They were extremely nice and gracious, signing autographs and taking pictures at the table. We went over and spoke to Harley before we left.

We were then abandoned in the parking lot! We headed back towards the Rec Center and thought we were going the right way, but did get turned around a bit.

There was probably about 100-130 or so people there. Good crowd. Harley got a good reception. Met up with Dick Bourne and Mike Cline at the show. Thanks guys for sitting with us, it was very enjoyable. That’s a great part of attending these shows, seeing familiar faces.

ER and I got our Harley autographs/pics while he was at his table. ER got a new Tracy Smothers pic. I have to say too, Tracy’s wrestling boots had to be 30 years old!

Spectacular show, the crowd was hot through the entire event. The promoter Shawn, did a great job, and thanks again for letting me shoot the show. I am looking forward to the next one.

The Guerreros that wrestle for CWA had their “EG” armbands on, and had a Eddie shirt. I liked that.

I got back home this morning before 1am, so not a bad trip at all. ER has gotten more chummy with the Mid Atlantic Mafia, but I still see him eyeballing Ralph Harkey!

Great night, and tonight we head to Bowman, GA for All-Star Wrestling. Tomorrow is the big Starrcade show, can’t wait!

Not a bad show last night in Greenville. I like the new early start time, however it means on the Tuesdays that I work I will either be arriving at 8pm or not at all. No matter though, I think the early time is good. The highlight of last nights show was the tag team match without a doubt. ER and I were joined by Bill Hazelwood for a good portion of the show, his commentary is always funny to listen to.
The WWC Commissioner is starting to make more controversial decisions, but I like that he is. Before this new attitude/outlook at the WWC shows, he sort of just sat there.

- I started this blog on Wednesday at 6pm, it is now 8.30 on Friday morning! No time whatsoever.

ER got a call from Thomas Simpson while we were watching the show, and immediately bolted out of the room. Thomas has been sort of touting the “New School” of wrestling, going against the grain of what Brodie, Rikki et al are saying. It should be interesting to see what happens out of this.

ER has already mentioned in his blog about our meeting afterwards with Brodie, Rikki, Mikki and Scottie. I also say thank you to yawl for asking for our assistance. I have said before that I am just a schmuck who got lucky with a good camera, so I appreciate the acknowledgement.

For those of you worried, I did make it to work on time this morning! Who needs a full nights sleep in wrestling? 3 1/2 is plenty!

APW last night. First off, wow….was this show long! I don’t mean 11.15 long either. The show was not over until midnight. Way too long. The crowd was tired and leaving after the eighth match – which was the tag match (Australian Rules!) between Ken/Doug and Romeo/Country. The next matches were fine too, it’s just that the crowd was hurting and tired, the tag match felt like the main event perhaps.

Mr. Terrific and Jimmy Kindrid did a fine job of keeping the crowd into the Evan/Morbid match, and Bill White and CB Kane delivered a technically sound contest. The main event was the defense of the US title by Cronic against Mickey Richards – also a good match, and one that makes sense with their history, Cronic once again tried to put Mickey out with his superb piledriver. It’s just that the people were already gone or leaving or too tired to keep up. Even the cleaning people were going around doing their thing before the last match was over! What does that signal to the fans in the seats?

I told ER that I had a premonition that something was going to happen last night, and I was right. It happened during the JYD Jr/Austin & Velvet/Psycho match. We saw it where I was standing.

Good to see Miss Arlene at ringside last night, getting her pictures…but please darling, you make too much noise, you must be quieter! Har!

Rowdy James grows on me more and more each time I see him….the Fury/McGrady match I really enjoyed, I like seeing “snug” wrestling….that “hit it like you mean it” thing…..the “Yes/No’s” were almost deafening last night!….I liked the solid “showing ass” from Boomer, is that the right term? The constant rolling in and out – the basics still work as well as anything new…..

Kaos debuted his new finisher last night, which he made the mistake of asking me to make sure and get a shot of it….so far when people ask to get a particular shot especially of a finisher, I screw it up! Just ask Neil Nitro, I frigged up at last years fair twice in a row on his….I think it’s time for Dragon to lose that mask, I have said before he could do something different without it…the only thing I can say to both Dragon and Kaos, buy a back brush for the shower and scrub! All in good humor of course!

The red goggles that Evan Force wears now are funny, he should be wearing them all the time….Seeing him last night between Terrific and Jimmy gave me a great idea. It would be possible if we taped “backstage” segments…put Evan at a table with plates of food in front of him…have Terrific and Jimmy on either side and they would be shoveling the food into his mouth, force feeding him…getting him into “fighting shape” and as big as them…..Just kidding of course, I am a hefty size myself so I can joke about it…..

Long show means even less of a voice for ER….My cankles were hurting, so I was sitting at the announce table a good bit at the end….that’s my signal right there!

Thanks again to the Buffetts for the royal fudge! It is being consumed as we speak…oh, and to James McHone, all I heard you say was “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!”

Away!

Forgot to mention, I finished reading “Tab Hunter: Confidential” a couple of days ago, very good book about “old” Hollywood. Currently reading “The Tiffany Touch” by Joseph Purtell.

Ok, so WWC was last night. I am very impressed (still) of how the WWC shows are going. They really seem to be on a defined “path”. They have some great talent packed into their short shows. Of course, I have been a Scottie Wrenn mark since the days of SCW in Greer. I concur with ER on Revolution. The little group that Shadow has started I like, it will take me a while to come around to Manchild being a bad guy though. There are possibilities with that…..Not much going on right now, I read that Christian signed with TNA, not a big surprise…Next week is going to be busy!…….Right now, I am planning on not attending any shows this Friday….I am working, and I thought about going down to AWC, so I may do that….but it stands at 80% not going and 20% going….so I don’t know……..

Last night was the open house for Shane Austin’s All-Star Wrestling Alliance at the Wrestle Plex in Bowman, GA. Shane and Sandy have put a lot of work into this, and the place looks pretty good. I especially like the “war room” that he has away from the ring, and the elevated ring with isolated entrance and stage. The turnout for the open house was somewhat low, the only wrestlers that werer there Ken, J. Buffett, Boomer and Golden Eagle. I had a good time, the weeneys were free and Shane had the old school arcade games out!

Bowman is a small town, I really hope the townspeople turn out for Shane. It seems like they would be starved for entertainment in this quaint hamlet.

The building next door to Shane’s looked to be abandoned but had a little Pillsbury Doughboy stuck in the window, it appeared that he was trying to escape!

I have not been able to see the progress on Viper’s House of Pain, but I’m sure it is coming along well. I’m glad to see both of these groups in buildings that will hold a goodly amount of people. It means busier weeks for yours truly.

Thanks again to the Hot Shot family for having us all over, and the food…the place looks good, and I’m sending you positive vibes!